How much do iOS app developers make ?

[pcslookout]

I was told by one there app pays for the mortgage of their house.

 

[Red Storm]

I'd imagine it goes from next to nothing to lots and lots. Depends on how popular your app is.

 

[Mopetar]

I would imagine it's another case of feast or famine where you either are incredibly popular and make a good deal of money or you're obscure and make next to nothing.

 

[Commodus]

I was told by one there app pays for the mortgage of their house.

Red Storm has the sense of it: it's either a little or a lot, depending on the app.

Most of them don't make much money at all, whether they're not very good or just aren't getting much visibility. Having a well-designed photo sharing app doesn't matter if you're 539th in the Photo & Video category, and a niche or me-too app rarely does well.

However, there is a subset of app developers that are genuinely successful. It's rare that you find a lone person so successful that they're wealthy from their apps, but numerous small outfits make a good living from their work, like Taptaptap (Camera+) and Tapbots (Tweetbot). And of course, there are a few companies that hit it big, such as King (Candy Crush Saga) and Machine Zone (Game of War).

 

[hans007]

friend of mine put an app where you just hit a soccer ball and bounced it over and over without letting it fall when the app store first opened. i think he made around $30k in paid buys.

but now that app brings in nothing. its so saturated now that unless you have a super popular app its tough to make money. and if you do have a semi popular one, there will instantly be clones.

 

[gorcorps]

Semi-related question... do you still have to have a mac computer to develop iOS apps? I remember when I had an iPhone 4 that you could only develop on a mac, and IIRC you had to pay to join their development program just to get the tools to try making an app.

 

[Zahid Iqbal]

Its just depend on your chances and luck. Large developers get small and some people made from one application very huge amount

 

[Phynaz]

Semi-related question... do you still have to have a mac computer to develop iOS apps?

Yes.

 

[boomhower]

Zero to millions. Last number I saw Supercell makes around a million/day on clash of clans. The game is graphically ancient, but the gameplay is what makes them the money. Time is money and people spend money to save time.

 

[Shlong]

If you get a popular app (top 20 in downloads) you can make millions. Rego Apps (Allen Wong) made a ton of money from ad revenue inside the app (more than people buying the software to remove the ads). I think at its peak, 5 figures a day in ad revenue alone. He's bought some nice cars and a house with that money: https://www.facebook.com/allenapp?_rdr

Make a popular app and put ads in it.