Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

The Majority of Today’s App Businesses Are Not Sustainable

techcrunch.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

1–10 of 90 posts

Re: The Majority of Today’s App Businesses Are Not Sustainable

#4

Post by ronyeh » 

  Half (50%) of iOS developers and 
  even more (64%) Android developers
  are operating below the “app poverty line”
  of $500 per app per month.
Maybe it's because there are so many clones and one-off experiments on these stores. For example, how many versions of Piano Tiles / Don't Tap the White Tile are there??? I can't even tell which one is the original at this point.

Also, some people will just write an app as a hobby, or to pad their resume. At least for the App Store, if you make $9 per month, you've already paid off your yearly subscription fee of $99, and can safely leave your apps up forever, even if they are below the "app poverty line."

I would be interested to see what percentage of developers who are actually trying to make a living from their apps are succeeding or failing.

Re: The Majority of Today’s App Businesses Are Not Sustainable

#5

Post by forgotpasswd3x »

ronyeh wrote: post #4

Half (50%) of iOS developers and even more (64%) Android developers are operating below the “app poverty line” of $500 per app per month. Maybe it's because there are so many clones and one-off experiments on these stores. For example, how many versions of Piano Tiles / Don't Tap the White Tile are there??? I can't even tell which one is the original at this point. Also, some people will just write an app as a hobby,…

> Accounting for 47% of app developers, the “have nothings” include the 24% of app developers – who are interested in making money, it should be noted - who make nothing at all.

This kinda implies they're filtering out people releasing apps just for fun, but I'm not sure how "interested" you have to be to qualify as an "interested in making money" developer.

Re: The Majority of Today’s App Businesses Are Not Sustainable

#6

Post by ronyeh »

forgotpasswd3x wrote: post #5
ronyeh wrote: post #4

Half (50%) of iOS developers and even more (64%) Android developers are operating below the “app poverty line” of $500 per app per month. Maybe it's because there are so many clones and one-off experiments on these stores. For example, how many versions of Piano Tiles / Don't Tap the White Tile are there??? I can't even tell which one is the original at this point. Also, some people will just write an app as a hobby,…

> Accounting for 47% of app developers, the “have nothings” include the 24% of app developers – who are interested in making money, it should be noted - who make nothing at all. This kinda implies they're filtering out people releasing apps just for fun, but I'm not sure how "interested" you have to be to qualify as an "interested in making money" developer.

Yeah, I sorta feel like "everyone" is interested in making money. Why not? :-)

I'm curious about those who really want to quit their day jobs, or who have already quit their day jobs to start a company, who are still struggling to turn a profit.

Re: The Majority of Today’s App Businesses Are Not Sustainable

#7

Post by zxcvvcxz »

Is it worth it to be an App developer? How about versus working at Google or Apple?

From their perspective, the purpose of your work is to enrich their platform. The difference is in the distribution of payout and work conditions. Rather than having a stable 100k salary at said company, you have the chance to earn absolutely nothing, or be an outlier and beat the 100k. Is it worth it, by expected value? Well, according to the article numbers,

Expected Monthy Payout = 24%0 + 23%50 (using half of max of ranges) + 22%500 + 19%5000 + 9%50K + 3%200K (using double the greatest lower limit)

Which gives an expected monthly payout of $11,600. Not bad! I think 30% of this goes to the respective platforms, so an expected yearly salary for an app developer might be something like $97,500. And I believe this matches up fairly well with what companies are willing to pay app developers (on average it seems higher, aside from maybe in the Valley).

What's interesting is the distribution of payoffs into the "haves" and "have nots". There are few app developers pulling that $100K or so salary. Instead, two thirds of everyone is below poverty, and a select group are killing it. This seems to be the new modus operandus of the tech economy. The implication is obvious: extreme economic inequality (especially as non-tech jobs become less relevant), which by necessity will increase social inequality.

Re: The Majority of Today’s App Businesses Are Not Sustainable

#10

Post by Avalaxy »

On Windows Phone / Windows 8 this problem is even bigger. No matter how much effort you put in to build the best app in its genre, earning even $100 per month is extremely hard. I know a lot of Windows developers who are serious about building apps for those platforms, and none of them makes $100 per month or more from those apps.
Post reply on HN