[waterside81]

Our app (shameless plug: itunes.apple.com/us/app/little-heroes/id477247738?ls=1&mt=8) cost $15K to make by a Toronto-based developer. We were able to keep the costs that low (I think that's a pretty good price for a better than average iPad app) because (1) all of the art was done in house and (2) all of the server side functionality was done in house. Our app developer just had to wire up the various pieces. (I say just sarcastically, it was still a lot of work).

If you have to outsource the entire cost of development, and you want a good looking, well functioning app, it's very expensive. And then there are the inevitable upgrades, improvements etc.

[reidmain]

So $15k was the cost the iOS developer charged you?

What was the cost of having the art assets and server side functionality done in house?

Adding that to the $15k seems to be the actual cost of the app.

Also how much time was spent designing the app before art assets were made or server side programming started?

[waterside81]

Right, that's the point I was making - if you had to pay for those services to an external party, the cost goes up, quickly.

I did the server side work, my co-founder did the artwork, both at a > 0 opportunity cost I'm sure.

We designed the app ourselves, again, at some non-zero opportunity cost.

[reidmain]

But what is the app worth? This sort of creative accounting is the problem that this article is trying to highlight.

If you strip out all the bullshit making an iOS app is going to be expensive because you can't cheat time and everyone's time is worth something.

If you mention to someone that you made your app "for only $15k" this just compounds the problem because that person has a skewed perception of what an app is actually worth.

[enjo]

How many hours did the developer put into it?