A friend of mine wants to make an iPhone app for people in his field. He's not a software developer so he needs some help. He works with the top people world-wide in his lucrative field, so he is in a good position to really find out what people want.
He asked me,
Have you had any experience with iphone apps? Do you think there is money to be made? Or is it a waste of time?
Here's my answer:
Everything below is my opinion - ask another software guy and you'll get another answer. However I am also a business guy...
Developing an iPhone app is a crap shoot. A few people hit it big. A few more earn enough for a good income. Some more people would have earned just as much money if they had spent their time waiting on tables instead of working on an iPhone app. And most people? If they account for their time they end up well behind. It's like wanting to become a musician or an actor. A few people do exceedingly well, but chances are you'll get very little income from it.
You need a good idea that fills a need in the market, you need to execute it well, you need to promote it well, and you need buckets of luck! Actually this applies to software in general.
Keeping the idea secret is a mistake. The idea itself is nothing. Anything you create for the iPhone can be easily copied by others. Whether they do that a few weeks after you release or in advance is immaterial.
The important thing is how you execute (keyword: iterate, key phrase: release early, release often) and how you market. In my opinion you should bounce this idea off anyone in your field who will listen. Then you can gauge the level of interest, get suggestions, make improvements on the idea. With your contacts and experience in your field, you have the opportunity to get killer feedback from your colleagues. Once you've got a unreleased beta version done, you can give it for free to everyone you know with an iPhone in your field to try it out and give you more feedback.
If you want to get started working on some ideas, I recommend using Balsamiq Mockups to sketch out how you might want the user interface to look and work. You can use it for free on the web (with nag screens that appear once every few minutes), and it has some good iPhone templates to work with. Work on some mockups, rework them, and then rework them a few times. Then after taking a break do some more rework.
My friend asked me not to disclose his idea, so I can't tell you the field he works in.
Do any of you reading this have experience creating and selling iPhone apps? If so, do you have anything to add?
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4 comments:
Good points here. Let me add one more from personal experience: for most apps, you need to sell a very high volume as people are not willing to pay more (pay at all) than $0.99.
Your app needs a great design and even better marketing.
A personal data point: shortly after the app store opened I released a basic puzzle app for $0.99. I made about $40 within 20 months.
I figured it's not worth it and made the app free. It was downloaded over 2,000 times within two days.
Having said that, if you cater to a niche where you can charge significantly more and you can stand out from the competition it could be worth a shot. Competing with a $0.99 app is a waste of time.
-Rico
First, your friend should get out of the "iPhone app" mindset and start thinking whether he is *solving a large enough problem*. Then figure out if iPhone is the best avenue for this.
If he knows of a huge domain problem he can solve, with a large enough market, he can charge whatever he wants and make money.
I agree with you and both gapps and Sohail. It sounds like your friend is in a good position to do some customer development first and find out if there are people who need his proposed solution and are willing to pay for it and how much. Platform considerations are secondary. The iPhone ecosystem is nice because you can easily get something onto the app store, but you are also at Apple's mercy for the same reasons.
I have found, for my one app (a simple stretch timer) that actually does some sales (~1 copy per day) that I can sell just as many at 1.99 as I did at .99. Yes, I actually raised the price of my app when it seemed like sales were gone and I still am managing to sell a bit.
Marketing is hard, even when there seem to be obvious opportunities. I posted a message on the Facebook wall of the San Francisco Bay to Breakers 12k race saying I was giving away 10 promo codes for my app. So far not one person has taken me up on the offer. So here I am offering to give my stretch timer app away for free to runners and nobody is biting. Go figure.
On the other hand, I did get an e-mail from a user saying how much he liked using the app as he was recovering from back surgery, which made me glad that I was able to help at least one person in some small way.
I continue to make iPhone apps mainly because I like the process of coming up with ideas and translating that to software and because Apple makes it easy to get on the App Store. I fantasize about being able to support myself, but realize the reality is that I will probably need to find something else.
Steve,
It's really all about the app and the industry - to build an iPhone app or not is irrelevant.
If your buddy has a good application (i mean use case, not software), I have a guy who can build it.
Al
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