Making money off mobile apps

Anyone have much experience making money off mobile apps they've written?

I'm contemplating the idea, but from the general bit I've heard about it over the years, it seems like a mostly-unprofitable endeavor. At least on Android's side of things, I read some stat that the vast majority of apps don't make a profit. Obviously, this should be taken with a grain of salt, given the wide gamut of different apps (and quality).

It seems like it'd be a giant investment of time, especially with having to keep the app updated, respond to user complaints, and complexities from device fragmentation.

I'm and Android user myself, and so would prefer to (potentially) program in that market, but it seems like a bit of a daunting endeavor. Perhaps my information/knowledge is outdated, back when Android was more of a fledgling n00b to the market.

Anyway, any experiences/advice on the matter? Platform-independent, too. I'm not looking for just Android-programmers' experiences; I'd also like to hear about the iOS side of things, too (even better if some have experience in both markets).

I don't have experience with iOS, but I hear it's tough as nails to get through their Q&A. Don't expect to easily drop something in there. Just getting their approval after you make the app is an investment in itself. But it does sound like they sometimes offer helpful feedback on your app and whatever shortcomings you have. Just except a lot of back and forth for a while. It helps to know someone who has gone through the approval process.

Thanks.

How about the feasibility of a profitable return? Anyone have experience with making a profit off a mobile app (or know someone who has)? It doesn't have to necessarily be a smashing-profit or wildly-selling app.

The approval process for Apple’s App Store is no big deal. As long as your application doesn’t use private APIs, doesn’t crash during evaluation and isn’t a half-baked implementation of something the device already does then you’re largely okay. Yes there are lot of other rules, but most of them are common sense. Read and stick to the rules and it’s a straightforward process.

If you do get rejected, you’ll get notified as to why; unless you’re doing something that is outright prohibited, it’s not generally much of an issue to resolve it.

Dealing with fragmentation from a coding perspective is not really a big issue as long as you make the appropriate design provisions up front. Testing is another matter of course, since the only 100% reliable way to do that is on an actual device.

Native code needs more thorough vetting than managed. Slapping something together and only testing with the emulator is, unless your application is very simple, a good way to frustrate your users. Pay attention to refund policies here; you may get docked the full price while the store keeps their 30% - and that makes testing rather more critical!

As to making money …

Obviously this depends a lot on the appeal and quality of the application as well as having people actually know about it. That last part bears serious consideration.

It’s unlikely you’re going to sell much if you just code something up and drop it on the store, no matter how good it might be, without any promotion. This applies regardless of your target OS/device. You could get lucky and get a lot of word of mouth/social promotion … but that’s a very long shot anymore.

I wouldn’t quit my day job for what I’ve made on iOS, but it’d park a Tesla S in the driveway. My Android sales would cover a couple of sets of tires and insurance. Proceeds from Windows Phone would be enough to … fill the gas tank maybe half a dozen times*.

That performance is measured against a couple of applications that weren’t straight ports. Each was functionally identical with the same quality visuals but optimized, and using the native integrations and controls/views, for each platform. Consequently I don’t bother with Android or Windows Phone anymore.

It’s entirely possible that an ad-supported model would skew the results differently, but I’m not putting ads in my software – it’s either free or paid, but no ads … ever. That’s just my approach though.

Of course, profitability depends on both your costs to produce the application, promote it and support it and not just sales. If you’re going to write the application anyway then any sales are a bonus. If you’re building something specifically to turn a profit then approach it like you would any other money-making endeavor. You might also consider the value of having mobile development skills (and a published application or two) on your resume if you work as a developer.

And yes, if you factor all development costs into the equation, most applications don’t break even. But then most apps, and this is true for all three platforms, suck pretty hard.

*Yes, I know the Tesla has no gas tank – that was the point …

I've made more money designing websites on the side then mobile apps, my day job is a lead developer working on desktop applications for companies.

Can't imagine making money off 1$ apps unless you hit Lotto like angry birds

To make money:

1. Have a grand idea (or steal someone elses and make it better)
2. Have a grand execution (you'd better be a rockstar developer)
3. Have a lot of luck


I work in mobile space, but I work for a very large corporation making money that way.

I think RandemTox made many great points. If you look at the app stores, they're completely jam packed. An app developer has to do something really special to separate himself from the crowd both to get noticed and to get revenue. Indeed, it's really not unlike any other business venture -- you've got to be adding value if you want any compensation.

Something I'm curious about. Is there any merit to building the app on top of an html5 UI environment so that the work you do can carry over across multiple platforms? (especially coming from a web background). If so, what gets carried over? maybe 50% of the work or is that too optimistic?

Parmenides said:

Something I'm curious about. Is there any merit to building the app on top of an html5 UI environment so that the work you do can carry over across multiple platforms? (especially coming from a web background). If so, what gets carried over? maybe 50% of the work or is that too optimistic?

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Sure you could, and people do, though the extent to which it is beneficial is dependent on the nature of your application.

If an HTML 5/JavaScript implementation was suitable for a given application (either the whole thing or even just the presentation tier), I’d probably just build the thing as a web application in the first place. You skip the middleman, there are no approval hassles and you’d have no issues with piracy etc.

Genuinely complex/rich/high-performance UX is cheaper to build natively than it is to deliver comparable quality and performance across multiple HTML renderers/JavaScript engines.

If your app is clunky or slow or has weird navigation/poor integration don’t expect it to remain on a user’s device for more than a minute or two, especially if you offer a trial/lite/free version.

A little business advice:

If your goal is to make money then reducing costs only goes so far; you cannot, after all, reduce cost below zero.

As a result, you’re better off focusing on doing the “best” (which really means properly tailoring effort against potential reward) job you can, differentiating on quality/capability/uniqueness and investing in making your efforts known than you are in trying to squeeze every possible efficiency into your development process.

Find success on one platform before worrying about others. Once you’re there, improving your development process/efficiency is the easy part.

If you want to make money, find someone who wants an app - and have them pay you to make it.

You should have a unique or better modified idea and skills of marketing

I agree with everyone saying that most app platforms are saturated. The only gap I see right now (which is bit of a punt) is tablet apps for android.

Coldblackice said:

Anyone have much experience making money off mobile apps they've written?

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and answered:

robvas said:

If you want to make money, find someone who wants an app - and have them pay you to make it.

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I'm not sure if you have something in the works, and are wondering how to make it profitable, or you just want to make money?

If you just want to make money, then working as a developer for someone else is definitely the best way.

You're very late to the app game, and just like with every other business, there's no sure recipe for success. If you have a genuine desire to learn and develop for mobile (which is good cause that's the future), then you should just do it and forget about the money. If you're good and consistently put out a quality product, maybe someone will notice and try to invest in you.....maybe...

I develop apps for Android and iOS that support existing software packages we sell. These apps are free since you need to be a customer of ours already in order to use them, so they're not really making us money on their own, they're just value-added services for clients. I also have a couple of apps and games in the iOS app store and a couple games in the Google Play market. It's tough to make app development your day job unless you are a PR wizard or already have a bunch of people lined up to buy what you are making. Most of the major niches for productivity software are already saturated, but there's plenty of opportunity to strike it lucky with an interesting or innovative game. Develop for iOS first if you hope to make any money.

Why do iOS games or software make more money? Don't Android devices already out number them? Are Apple users more likely to pay for software?

aL Mac said:

Why do iOS games or software make more money? Don't Android devices already out number them? Are Apple users more likely to pay for software?

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My iOS app sales are twice what I sell on Android of the same app. One of my games has in-app purchases on both Android and iOS and I have 8x the number of in-app purchases on iOS as I do on Android. My next game will be free to download and have in-app purchases and will be only for iOS. In-app purchases are the best way to drive revenue and they're very effective on iOS, especially for games.

Why? Who knows. Aversion to spending money, piracy, over-saturated marketplace or some combination of all three. I'm not a market researcher, I just go where my users tell me to go, and they vote with their wallets.

The thing you have to remember is its not just can you make money its about future trends too. Any new market is always flooded with people who can make money. The smart phone explosions was just such a market. Darling stories about iOS developers who make a game and become millionaires in a year. But that was because most iOS users were technotards, half the time they were paying $5 for nothing more than a free flash game on the internet. Those days already are over, and it just keeps progressing. More and more you need a level of investment of time and money to produce something people are willing to pay for. Early in a market when customers have no experience and nothing to compare to they often over pay for unworthy product, now tons of apps have had to move toward free, I would even say in years to come we may see some or all the mobile providers dump their app stores completely, how long can you keep serving up free programs? And with android on its way to really dominating the smart phone market you can expect its users will continue their trend. Also in the future apps are going to become more desktop like where an app is more of a suite.

The thing is simple if you have an idea you think is useful go ahead and make it, but dont try to play it like the stock market where you are just in it to make money and trying to come up with an idea for an app. The general rule of thumb for making money is , if you want to charge alot, you need to make something no one else can make, usually that means alot of programmers and a large investment. IE disney land can charge alot because it cost billions to build it, that doesnt even count exclusive IP. Otherwise you need to rely on volume, but how do you get volume when so many things have already been done?

The other thing is well, how much do you want to make? Because if you just want to make a little and all its costing is your time then there are lots of people pulling that off.

Some interesting responses.

I have not made any mobile apps or anything that has sold for money for that matter but just figuring that most apps sell for a few dollars at most, you'd have to sell a lot of copies to make a living off of even if you are a one man act. I'd imagine it is like most software, the top 2% sells a lot and the bottom 99% sells little to none.

I'd never go into it expecting I could make a living off of it.

I would say find a second job or better your current career instead of looking at mobile apps. Not every mobile app company are not making millions, but it depends on the work you want to do.