"How Much Do Average Apps Make?" (don't quit your day job) AAPL; GOOG; MSFT
From Forbes:
The last few years have seen an unprecedented number of people rushing
to develop mobile apps for iOS and Android. But looking at the installed
user base on each platform and information on the payouts made by the
different companies, it appears that the vast majority of developers
will find themselves with little revenue to show for....
...So taking all that data into account, we can summarize it as follows:
Looking at this, it is clear that Apple is winning the game in terms
of total number of apps and money paid to developers. But lost in the
shuffle is how much money developers can actually make on those
platforms.
Meager dollars per download
Taking the data in front of us, we can get a sense of how many apps
the average developer creates and what kind of revenue a developer can
expect from those apps, on average (granted, power laws dictate that a
small number of developers will do extremely well while the vast
majority will fail, but we’re trying to look at averages here).
Based on this, the average developer on those platforms is pretty
busy, developing 3 to 5 apps depending on the platform. Interestingly,
Android is the big winner on downloads for a given app but this is
largely offset by substantially lower revenue, with the average app
download bringing in around 2 cents to its developer; Apple fairs 5
times better, bringing in a dime for every one of the 40,000 potential
app downloads a developer could strive for. But the interesting thing is
that Microsoft’s platform may be substantially more rewarding for its
developers, bringing in $.15 per download (a fact that is offset by
download numbers shown to be only 10 percent of what the other platforms
can offer)....MORE