The App Economy Is Now 'Bigger Than Hollywood'

According to this article, the web might be the most important medium in American culture.

Although the totals for Domestic (U.S.) Box Office are not the complete Hollywood revenues picture, Apple’s App Store billings is not the complete App revenue picture either. The Apps economy includes Android and ads and service businesses and custom development. Including all revenues, apps are still likely to be bigger than Hollywood.

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I'd like to see a follow up report showing who makes the many. A lot of indie developers make nothing from the app store - it's a tough business.

Most apps, particularly the games, suck. There is so much potential with the computing power on phones, and it's all horrific cartoony micro-transaction laden pay2win garbage. It's such a waste

I'm sure there are some good ones out there, but it's such a slog, like picking a needle from a haystack.

Pay2win is getting so lame. The other day I spent 20 bucks just cheating on the 'pick the brand' game.

Pay to win can be a good thing as long as its more of a way to get somewhere faster in a game than overcome an actual feature that's blocked. Why shouldn't people who have the money to spend be able to get better and nicer things with less effort and time? It's like that in real life and reflecting that in a game is a good idea for people with money they don't really need for necessities.

Problem with Apps is the phones and slates out there today don't need another crappy 8 bit game, or for that matter even more 16 bit games. This means you won't have 2 dudes in a garage, you'll need bigger teams with bigger dollars and more pressure to perform. This means more risk and more to lose, the App store can't support $20 shovel-ware.