Road To Riches Doesn't Run Through the App Store

Etienne Steward writes "Turns out that while a few fortunes can be made with Apple, Steve Demeter made most of his money by buying Palm (of all companies) at $1.76 and selling at $12. Apparently, there aren't as many iPhone App millionaires as we would like to be believe. From the article: 'In almost a dozen interviews conducted by NEWSWEEK, Apple consultants and programmers jettison the idea that the App Store is a world of easy opportunity, or a fast track to quitting the rat race. Instead they describe an anxiety-wracked marketplace full of bewildering rules, long odds, and little sense of control over one's success or failure. "It's kind of a crapshoot," says Demeter, who spent the last two weekends partying in Las Vegas and New York. "I think we've reached a point where people are thinking I shouldn't quit my day job for this."'"

Comments

Perhaps

[Rei]

Perhaps if he wants to be successful, he shouldn't spend his weekends "partying in Las Vegas and New York" and instead spend it on development and marketing. I've heard a wacky rumor that can help.

Re:Perhaps

[Draek]

Perhaps he's already successful and prefers to *spend* the money he's already got rather than making even more for e-peen purposes. That'd explain why he's being cited in Slashdot and Apple's website, too.

Hell, as much as I dislike the concept of "partying", I believe the world would be a much better place if successful enterpreneurs were as him, rather than succumbing to their greed and small dicks.

Re:Perhaps

[Red Flayer]

No he is not an investor... HE GOT LUCKY!

I am somebody who invests and trades the market. These days I work at a hedge fund. Want to know my return? I have made on average 25% per anum for the past 5 years.

Easy claim to make. I am somebody who invests and trades the market. These days I sit in a lounge chair on the beach. I have averaged over 5000% return per anum for the past 5 years.

Seriously, though... break it down by years for us. There has not been a single fund that has returned 200% over the last five years (which is what you are claiming -- 1.25^5 == 3.05). If that's really the return you've made over the last five years, then I know some people who will want to talk with you about opportunities. Especially considering hedge funds averaged losses in the teens last year, with young funds having a stdev of about 6.5% (from an category-leading loss of only 11%).

Your numbers are too good to be true, quite honestly, unless you are taking the same kind of single-asset high-risk positions that you are complaining about.

blockquote>How am I doing this year? As of 22:00 CET today, I am up 29% from Jan 2008! So in other words with the S&P at 1367 on Jan 2008, you would be at 1763, or out performing the S&P market by 60%! Don't even ask how much I am making this year.

This is a banner year for hedge funds, best in over a decade. And your "how am I doing this year" starts in Jan 08? Huh? Should start in Jan 09.

At any rate, I really doubt your numbers. No one has had consistent returns like that over the past five years. Are you weighting by amount invested, by chance? Because then your losses appear smaller, due to the hemmorhaging of cash from hedge funds last year.

Re:Perhaps

[ciaohound]

as much as I dislike the concept of "partying"

As much as I occasionally feel like slashdot sucks or isn't what it used to be, when I see a post like this one, I fondly remember why I spend so many hours reading here.

And common sense prevailed!

[Anonymous Coward]

"I think we've reached a point where people are thinking I shouldn't quit my day job for this." - DUH!?

Anonymous Coward

[Anonymous Coward]

It's definitely not easy to even earn a little money on the App Store with just a good game, much less get rich. I am the developer of a game on the App Store and have not been paid a single cent from Apple yet. The game is highly polished and has great written reviews and even good reviews from professional sites. It's only $0.99 to $1.99 (depending on sales). We've had a few hundred sales since the beginning of the year. Apple only pays if you break $250 for each region, not for all regions combined, so they keep what little we've earned indefinitely unless we make more sales. I'm not going to whore the product out by mentioning it here; I just want to get the message out that this is what's up with the App Store to other potential developers. I logged over 500 hours developing that game and haven't received anything for it. So not only is it entirely possible you won't achieve success, but you might waste a lot of time and resources in the process. The process of getting any information from Apple was miserable, and they treat developers like shit. I used to have a lot of faith in Apple's good will and have been a long-time Mac head, but after this experience, I'll still buy Macs, but I will NEVER do any other kinds of business with them again.

Re:Anonymous Coward

[vertinox]

I logged over 500 hours developing that game and haven't received anything for it.

Well... What's it called?

I mean obviously if you don't name drop exactly what the game everywhere no one will buy it ;)

Re:Anonymous Coward

[mdwh2]

Apple only pays if you break $250 for each region

WTF? I mean, never mind the each region bit, even if it was for all regions combined - WTF? That's your money that they're keeping.

So to recap:

* They decide who can write software for the phones you've bought.
* They take a whopping 30% cut (I've never heard of such a high cut for this kind of service - most download sites are free).
* They don't pay you at all if it doesn't hit $250, and that's done on a per "region" basis.

I've never been an Apple fan, but I had no idea of this.

If we're going to have Apple stories all day long, why don't we hear some actual important news about them, instead of stories like "OMG Apple are so great, you can now access this website On YoUr IpHoNe, no phone could do that before!"

iPhone devs learn a lesson from musicians

[Anonymous Coward]

And the lesson is, "just because you have a distribution network with the potential to reach millions of users, you'll still probably sell fuckall."

Welcome to the real world, iPhone devs.

Re:Another shocker

[nine-times]

True. Most get-rich-quick schemes won't get you rich.

Just think about the economics of the thing. When there's some get-rich-quick bandwagon that everyone is jumping on, it's going to quickly turn into a highly competitive situation due to everyone jumping on the bandwagon, and opportunities will become limited. Or if it doesn't becomes competitive and opportunities don't become limited, that means your in the middle of an economic bubble. Sell what you can while the bubble is big, and you might not lose your shirt when it bursts.

Re:The road to richess passes through Marketing

[jjohnson]

Couldn't have the independent devs getting the top spots, now could they? That'd be embarrassing.

You make it sound like it's their fault that your excellent indie game isn't in the top 50. Why would anyone think that strong marketing isn't needed in a crowded marketplace?

Re:Another shocker

[bnenning]

These weren't great or particularly cutthroat men, but instead lucky men. Thousands of people could have been in their places and done the same thing

I agree with that: out of millions of people, thousands could have done what they did. In other words, you need to be both lucky and good.

Re:Another shocker

[Anonymous Coward]

I wonder how Thomas Jefferson's slaves would feel about that.

Re:Another shocker

[shmlco]

"...but instead lucky men. Thousands of people could have been in their places and done the same thing..."

And thousands WERE in their place, and did not. How many people were in the homebrew computer scene at the time? How many dinked around and wrote their own versions of BASIC? How many started their own companies? How many succeeded? How many had the same exact background and opportunities... and did nothing?

Attributing such to "luck" translates into refusing to take responsibility for your own actions and your own choices. "It's not me, it's luck." "Joe got the promotion and not me, the lucky bastard." And so on, and so on.

Many people have been at the helm of Apple, and only one has driven it to success. Twice. Is that luck? Would just anyone have made the same choices? Would just anyone have had the same insights? Would just anyone have the same vision and commitment and drive?

"...if we just think harder, network more, or spend a few more hours in the lab, we'll be successful too. That's bullshit."

Really? Perhaps someone should have mentioned that to Edison? Who definitely made a success out of spending just a "few more hours in the lab".

"The best we can do is to pursue opportunities to the utmost when they do appear and make the most of the luck we get in life."

No, the best you can do is to create your own opportunities, and leave luck, chance, and the vagarities of fate out of the equation altogether.

But you're not capable of believing that, are you? So go home after work, why don't you? Go home and sit on the couch, or go down to the corner bar. Have a beer, and bitch and moan and complain about how "unlucky" you are. And definitely don't try to "do" anything about it. That's too hard, and with your luck, why bother?

Actually, you're half right. For you, it is luck, because in this case the prophecy is definitely self-fullfilling.

iPhone devs have right to be AC

[Ilgaz]

It is because Developers are afraid of Apple and as the only channel is "app store" for non hacked iPhones, Apple can make one's life real miserable if they want to.

Expect many AC developers talking real stuff but they have to stay anonymous. Hell, I even warned one friend to "stay low profile at least until app approved" myself.

Of course, if Application/Game can be released for Nokia touch phones at least which sells millions with some torture of Symbian C++, they would have some kind of power to show to Apple and they would be treated accordingly. That is the game&app developers fault. So, Nokia dev tools aren't classy/trendy as Apple... So what really? Ship it, if Handango/Ovi gets more share, put $5 price tag... Let user decide. At least Nokia won't say "You duplicated (coded better) my functionality". Look at the success stories like Opera Mini, IM clients, media players etc.