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Is the Apple App Store a Casino?
An anonymous reader writes "Fast Company takes a look at the Apple App Store and concludes that it's a casino where most developers are making tragic losses and a tiny few are striking it filthy rich. The article discusses a new book exposing the App Store millionaires, called 'Appillionaires,' which compares the psychological effects of a hit app on a programmer to a gambler's high. One millionaire programmer explains the intense feeling of being in the top-ten: 'The App Store had established some kind of intravenous connection to my body and was pumping me full of Apple-branded heroin.' But, the piece warns, the majority of developers fail to make any return on their app."
If you develop yet another puzzle game, you're up to compete with the Zingas of the world, and chances are you'll hit the wall. On the other hand, if you focus on solving real problems and using the advantages of the platform to improve your customer's life, you might be onto something. Case in point, Appfluence (disclaimer: I co-founded it). We make Priority Matrix, a productivity app for a niche market that highly values time savings and clarity of mind. We're nowhere near top 10 (although we've been close at times), but it's consistent income with a lot of potential.
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Yes, it is ridiculous for Apple to charge anything. They are taking care of the distribution system, payment collection system, and maintaining the "store" (that little "walled garden" many on /. bemoan but users seem to be just fine with), and all the little headaches that come from maintaining all these things. That should be something they provide you for free since you are gracing them with your app to sell. Do you think you could provide all these things for yourself for $99?
If you want visibility, market your product. It isn't Apple's job to give every new app top billing in the store.
Of course, for the unsuccessful developers the story is clear. They had a technically superior product that the market would have rushed to if somehow Apple hadn't screwed them.
The idea here isn't to be an Apple fan. The goal is to ask for a bit of honesty. Quit focusing on all that Apple doesn't give you. Your $99 is not without return.
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In the gold rush, the merchants got rich, because they had things people actually needed and used, as opposed to some metal ore which has limited use.
People taking Bit coins for transactions of REAL products and services are going to be the ones that end up rich That is, if bitcoins ever take off.
Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
I hear variations on this claim quite frequently.
Here are several links that dispute your recollection.
http://smallbiztrends.com/2008/04/startup-failure-rates.html
http://www.businessweek.com/smallbiz/news/coladvice/ask/sa990930.htm
http://blog.globalbx.com/2008/10/06/small-business-statistics-and-failure-rates/
A collection of results that span from your estimation to the inverse, http://www.moyak.com/papers/small-business-statistics.html
There also seems to be many discussions on the myth of high failure rates. for example, http://www.bnet.com/blog/business-myths/why-the-small-business-failure-rate-is-90-percent-smoke-and-mirrors/117
This certainly isn't rigorous, but my 3 minute Internet estimation is that you are broadly incorrect. Apparently, the notion of failure is complicated. Failures appear to be inversely proportional to seed capital. It varies substantially with race and industry. And the definition of failure may include businesses that close for reasons other than financial inviability.
These were the same dorks who pushed the "internet boom" in the 90's, claiming that every new startup, no matter how fucked their business plan was, was a "gold mine". We even had a parody called "F*cked Company" which daily documented all the businesses failing in Silicon Alley (NYC) during the bust period of 2000 to 2002.
They have a lot of nerve to call the App Store a "casino", when they are the lapdogs of the stock market.
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