[andrewljohnson]

Make an iPhone app, make some money, and never get a job.

I would recommend you either make a Bible app, or a Menstruation Calendar app. Those would both not require any server-side programming, and they are proven ways to make money.

[chc]

I see so many people suggesting this, and I just don't get it. A very small percentage of iPhone apps even get into the high four-figures. That's not even quit-your-side-job money, much less quit-your-day-job.

[andrewljohnson]

Most people don't try and build apps that they know will suit an audience, and most people don't try for long enough (as with anything).

I believe that anyone who works on an iPhone app in their spare time for a year, and who picks a known winner category (GPS tracking, bible app, free book downloader, offline city maps, etc.) can make a living.

Remember - most people who try at everything fail. Right now, the mobile market is red-hot, and it's a good way to make a living. It's got to be the easiest way to sell software and make money, with a much higher success rate than making a website or a Facebook app.

Moreover, you can command ridiculous rates as a contractor right now for iOS expertise - much better than for JavaScript programming on average.

[chc]

I don't mean to be argumentative, but I still think you're making it sound a lot easier than it is. For example, I know more about iPhone dev than most people who aren't full-time iPhone devs, but I have no idea what is a "known winner" category or even how I'd go about guessing. AFAIK, Apple doesn't release the kind of numbers I'd need to figure out what categories are profitable. With a web app, we can use analytics, keyword tools, A/B testing, etc.

This feeling — that releasing for the iPhone is a crapshoot and that anything I release would probably be crowded out by the absolute flood of junk in the App Store — is why I've never bothered with the iPhone, despite having done Cocoa development since the early days of OS X.

[devs1010]

Not this. Even if you want to do mobile apps, just starting out you need to work with other developers as you learn a lot from them. If your goal from day 1 is to work solo you aren't going to have that feedback loop where you are pushed by your peers and can learn from your (and their) mistakes. This is compounded by the fact that you will probably develop proficiency working solo to where you can do things well enough to make money, but the customer doesn't know software design patterns, writing maintainable code, etc, they just know whether something specific works or not. Overall, without working with others I feel a career can stagnate. Its a bit of a cliche, but a lot of developer bloggers write about how if you aren't working with people smarter than yourself than you need to find a new job, by always working solo you're missing out on this entirely.

[axefrog]

This is absolutely true. I've worked both solo and in small teams many times and whenever I've worked with others (particularly senior developers) who had decent skills I always learned a lot. When you work by yourself you don't have the benefit of other people to bounce your code off of, or of being exposed to various techniques, methodologies and tools you may not have discovered if left to your own devices.