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The Reality of the iPhone App Store
By Marc Tracy
Our frequent iEntrepreneurship triumphalism--our belief that certain big-company platforms such as the iPhone, the BlackBerry, and the like (also Facebook and Firefox) are great things for ambitious entrepreneurs to leap off of with their own innovative products--makes us duty-bound to print rebuttals. TechCrunch ran a good one recently, pointing to one study that showed that, of the nearly 36,000 (!) authorized iPhone applications, almost all routinely spend days without being downloaded once to any of the millions and millions of active iPhones.
Perhaps even more surprising, though, is the fact that even those apps that are being downloaded aren't being downloaded that much. One app that is among the top 40 downloaded social-networking apps averages about 25 downloads per day. At around 99 cents, that's daily pocket change (and if you raise the price, you surely lower the number of downloads).
So why is it that, as the post puts it, "The App Store probably will not make you rich"?
Ironically enough, the answer has to do with one of the reasons we think the App Store represents such a great opportunity: the extremely low barrier to entry. Remember, all you need is a bit of savvy and expertise, maybe a tiny bit of cash (or maybe not), and some free time, and you can create an app; getting on the App Store's official listing requires barely more effort or funds. Which makes it very easy for you to do it. But it also makes it very easy for everyone else to do it, flooding the App Store with, literally, thousands and thousands of apps, and taking attention away from yours. The end result is that only the very rare blockbuster rises above the din and starts making some real money for its creators.
But, as the author notes, this doesn't make the iPhone application business a uniquely challenging one. Rather, it makes it roughly as challenging as any number of other pursuits. If you're the type of person who wants to be an entrepreneur in the first place, you probably won't find that reality quite so daunting, and will plow ahead nevertheless. In which case, we wish you the best of luck!
To encourage you, check out this video, courtesy of Galley Cat, that explains how to build your very own iPhone literary app, for fun--and, just maybe, profit!
Comments (0)June 3, 2009 5:16 PM
