[amelius]

> With well over 2 million apps by now (officially 1.5M as of July 2015), the iTunes App Store is an incredibly crowded place where it’s almost impossible to get noticed. Despite the persistent myth of the app developer millionaire, it’s extremely hard to make a profit—let alone a living—as an iOS app developer. The Google Play Store is a similar story, except with the added bonus of rampant piracy and a zillion devices to support. There really isn’t gold in them hills, at least not anymore, and independent app development will soon be in sharp decline, if it isn’t already.

Is this true? Is the app store deceiving developers by pretending that earnings are better?

[jgrall]

I wouldn't go as far as saying that Google and Apple are actively deceiving developers. However, they do have a strong incentive to keep things the way they are, and to keep the end user ignorant of how the app economy functions.

You might be surprised to know that many customers on the App Store, and even some members of the press, seem to think that apps being featured by Apple have been bought by the company. I would get emails like: "how have things changed for you since Apple bought your app?"

If people knew how bad the app economy has become, there'd be far fewer app developers than there actually are, and the device makers would have a serious PR problem on their hands.

In the end though, I do believe that the short-term thinking I alluded to in my post will soon come home to roost. I do hope that Apple and Google course-correct before we end up in a situation where indie apps are a distant memory. It's in their long-term interest to keep the App Store diverse and the app economy healthy.

[fencepost]

I wouldn't be surprised if it was more possible to make money on the Windows side - not so much with Windows Phone as with Windows Universal apps on both the Desktop and Mobile Windows Store.

The ending of "Project Astoria" that could have let some Android apps run on Windows 10 Mobile has undoubtedly hurt Windows Phone because of the dearth of good apps, but that same lack means that a quality application could still be a smallish fish in a small pond rather than a minnow in a large lake - even with the disparity in adoption 1% of the smartphone market is a significant number of devices. If an app is also something that's viable as a desktop or tablet app, that may provide enough of a larger market over time to keep some folks in business.

[reality_czech]

In the grim dystopian present, writing an app is basically purchasing a lottery ticket. Developers are locked in a race to the bottom selling apps for one or two dollars and giving a third of the proceeds to the platform owner.