The Majority of Today’s App Businesses Are Not Sustainable

Looks like income inequality is FAR worse in the app store compared to the rest of our economy. Will the Apple loving leftists speak up about this?

Shame they didn't put more thought into their info graphic to better communicate their point. Different graphs using the same color scheme to represent slightly different sized bins of what may or may not be the same measure. Lower to higher is left to right. But on a different graph it's right to left. No explanation of time period for Revenue Distribution graph. Choice of graph type seems somewhat arbitrary. Donut charts and stacked bar charts become harder to interpret as the number of bins go up and the trend line gets buried. The colors seem to be the dominant feature of the graphic.

Plain old bar charts might be boring, but they would have more clearly communicated the message without all the extra distractions. They would also allow the graphic to use fewer code and require fewer text (legends could be omitted). At least they did specific actual graph values in the graphs. The area graph shows how one color can be effective when the graph contains only one type of data element.

Lesson here is to think carefully and make conscious choices about how you communicate your message. It's true in pitching an investor, pitching a customer, or presenting to an audience. Make sure your message gets through. Otherwise you just have a bunch of graphs dropped on a page and the reader has to search for what you're trying to say.

Also, hire a designer. You'll be happier.

"However, states the report, only the top 1.6% of developers make more than $500,000 per app per month, but of those who do, some are earning tens of millions per month. The next 2% – those who make between $100,000 and $500,000 per month."

I think these percentages are not low at all. In fact, they're almost pretty good. This is how success is distributed in almost any profession.

Doesn't this title conflate "app businesses" with "developers"?

I'd also expect that the majority of app companies aren't sustainable. But from the people I've talked to, it seems like a lot of apps are being done as something between a hobby an a side business.

A lot of the people you see selling art and jewelry at fairs work like that. They don't expect it to be their full-time job; it's a fun way to make a little extra cash. So what looks like a non-living wage can be perfectly sustainable as long as you're doing it to supplement other income.

This seems to go a long way to basically say "90% of new businesses/apps/[insert here]" fail.

Why yes, we've known this forever. It is why it is risky. :/