A friend turned me on to this very interesting article about making money with apps: http://appcubby.com/blog/the-sparrow-problem/ Mark

Thank you

Fantastic link. I especially like the "Hoa Dinh Viet, had been working on an open source email engine in his spare time for the better part of a decade." I think most people (especially folks that have never tried to create something used by more than a few hundreds or even a few thousands folks) underestimate just how much effort, money, patience, and RAMEN it takes. I'm so sick of top-ramen! LOL. As many of you know, I've spent more nearly 4 years working on buzztouch. Can you imagine telling a potential client, "sure, I can do that, it will take me about 4 years!" What a riot. Writing code is only part of the challenge. Maintaining a backend with hundreds of millions of database records is only part of the challenge (it's incredibly difficult to keep this thing humming). Answering piles of daily emails is only part of the challenge. And, finally, spending countless thousands of dollars supporting the whole this is only part of the challenge. However, all of the things I listed are technicalities. The non-technicality that's oftentimes underestimated is the pace at which the industry changes. The pace of change these days is so incredibly fast that not only are mobile app developers (that are trying to earn money in an app store) forced to create something amazing at an amazing pace (so it's not outdated and useless by the time they are done) but they also have to capitalize on it at an amazing pace. Consider this: If you spent a year making something, then only have a realistic chance of selling it at volume for a few months, you darned well better be in the top 100 the entire first few months. After reading this article, it could be said that you may need to be in the top 10 for the first few months! If you are, you stand to see a tremendous return on your investment. If you're not, you may break even, maybe. Lots of this depends on what your time is worth, how much you could have earned at a real "second job" and how much capital you spent getting your app completed. Chances are, for most of us, you won't be in the top 100 ever, let alone for a three months straight. Sorry, it's a numbers game. Discouraging? Not at all. The article mentions that the software market's today are "the best in history" (I'm paraphrasing, can't remember the quote) and "like never seen before." This is true, but this will change. Guaranteed. We've already seen it change dramatically in a few short years. I think the App Store is nearly a million apps? Wow. In my opinion, there are two key reasons it's not discouraging to be a mobile developer in today's market, and to work towards creating a living doing it... Reason #1: It's MUCH EASIER to create sellable software for a mobile device that an actual PC. In the past, all we developers could do is think about creating "big software" for "big computers." This was, and still is, very hard to do. Imagine how long it would take to make iTunes, iPhoto, Office, Photoshop, etc. Compare that to making the next Instagram, AngryBirds, or FlipBoard. Huge difference. Reason #1 is related to how much more accessible creating software for a living is. Many many more folks can think about being creative for a living now that could never have considered it before. This is simply awesome. I won't even get into the marketing help we get from app stores, markets, and other FREE distribution channels. Again, never happened before (I'm not talking about free shareware sites). Reason #2: Demand for your products. When we talk about numbers in the industry you'll here folks compare the number of PC's to the number of Smart Phones. For sure phones will outnumbers PC's soon (they may already?) but that's only part of it. The important part is the number of software apps and dollars each user spends. I don't know what the numbers are but I can assure you that the vast majority of PC owners NEVER spend money on additional software. My wife, and millions of others like her use her computer the way it came from the store. It will NEVER get anything installed on it. It's fine that way, works great, and there is not reason to change anything (for her). But, this same person, a non-techie person, spends countless dollars on apps. I tell her she's finally buying software, she laughs. The number of folks willing to spend $ on software for their pocket computers is far greater than the PC spenders. No need to get into the reasons behind this, it's just a fact. So, it's easier and the markets bigger, what else could a developer ask for? I spend 30 hours a day (not a typo) keeping this thing going and trying to continually find ways to help folks understand the app making process and to make it easier for them to get off to a good start if they aspire to be a professional developer. The soon-to-be-released Plugin Creator Tool and Plugin Market at buzztouch.com is our latest attempt to help both sides - you and us. Stick with mobile, don't get discouraged, you will find the niche', the confidence, the clients, and the revenue.

Great post and article. What I've personally realized is that if your going to be spending your efforts and passion in the mobile world, and seek to get the revenue, clients, popularity - be prepared to sacrifice a lot of your personal life. I feel like I'm making appointments to be around my girlfriend these days, work is hard and time consuming (thankfully she understands). David didn't mention it, but I bet with all of the things he has to do with buzztouch, he also has to balance his personal life and family into that equation. It's a rewarding experience when you do something in the mobile world, and I would do it all over again and encourage others to succeed too! There's so much potential, be sure to balance everything through, if you get that down, you'll have no trouble with a little work. It's exciting! Cheers, David buzztouchmods.com

Well said, David and MrDavid.