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How to make money from iPhone Apps

How to make money with iPhone applications? – It may seem like a daunting prospect but if you hit on a popular idea – no matter how simple it may seem – you stand to earn a nice amount of cash (after Apple take their 30% cut of course!).

Since the inception of Apple iTunes App Store in 2003, millions of people have downloaded apps from not just large software companies but also small, independent developers. In the first 60 days of operation, 100 million downloads were achieved and its popularity has grown and grown.

The iPhone and iPod Touch Software Development Kit (SDK) has enabled people to become developers overnight and has allowed them to earn huge sums. Small time programmers have embraced the relatively low learning curve from what they were already programming in and have been able to make use of the touch screen technology with prebuilt code modules. There are now numerous businesses setting up whose primary focus is on developing iPhone applications. After all, what other business do you know of that for no initial outlay other than time can earn millions?

iFart Mobile app

Take the iFart Mobile, a 99-cent “fart machine for all ages,” developed by Joel Comm, which staid as the top downloaded iPhone app in Apple’s (AAPL) iTunes App Store for a good week or so netting the developer well over $100,000 in royalties over that short period. One year on that figure probably stands at treble that!

It would also seem that christmas and other holidays are great times to release apps. Joel himself said that his sales per unit increased by 50% during the 2 days of xmas (24th and 25th). Imagine earning $27,249 in one day – that’s the power of iPhone apps! It’s often the simplest ideas that spawn the most popularity. The iFart app just caught App store users imagination – most of them probably thinking “that’ll be a laugh for work tomorrow!”. Of course, when you start earning a lot of money in the iTunes store, like many other industries, you can often get people’s backs up as was the case with Joe Comms iFart. A similar app, released shortly before iFart was called ‘Pull my finger’ released by Eric Stratton.

Pull my finger vs iFart application Court Case

The video below shows how the dispute has ended up going to the Supreme Court of Justice!

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Air-O-Matic and Eric Stratton of ‘Pull my finger’ and Joe Comm ’s InfoMedia are still locked in battle over unfair business practices and trademark infringement. InfoMedia claims the term “pull my finger” is common English slang and a “descriptive phrase” and therefore not covered by trademark. Apple says “sort it our amongst yourselves!”.

There are of course plenty of other examples of how to make money from selling iPhone and iPod applications.

Steve Demeter, developer of iPhone game Trism

After an initial expenditure of $5000 on developing the game, Steve is selling it for $5 a go on iTunes Store. Doesn’t seem that much for $5k but just 2 months after releasing the game to the world, Steve Demeter ’s company raked in $250,000 profit….sorry, $245,000 net profit! He ended up breaking the $2 million mark 8 months later.

Demeter offers the following advice to wouldbe app developers – make sure your app includes unique gameplay; high replay value and an online leaderboard to help build up a community.

It obviously will involve a certain amount of luck to have a hit app in the iPhone App Store. However, you can certainly increase your chances by having a useful product and marketing it across the social platforms effectively. Word-of-mouth is a really effective tool for marketing – using sites like Twitter can mean you start to build an online marketplace for your app within days. Of course, also having a well designed website with a strong internet marketing campaign can work wonders – visit Web Design Showroom and see what they can offer you.

So why don’t you start on the road to making money from selling iphone apps: iPhone App Developer.

3rd Generation iPod Touch launch

Apple will hold it’s annual iPod event today – 9th September 2009 – in San Francisco. This is a particularly exciting event because Apple will reveal the 3rd generation iPod Touch bringing the device more in line with the current iPhone and adding loads of key features that will make those of us who can’t get an iPhone on contract very happy.

The event is expected to showcase upgrades to the iPod line and an update to iTunes that may involve some sort of social element. Our sources insist it will not involve any discussion whatsoever of the tablet that Apple is reportedly developing.

-John Paczkowski, Blogspot

The event is likely to bring us new iPods with GPS and camera capabilities. It is also expected that the new memory of 16/32/64GB iPod Touch will be announced and price points at $199/$299/$399.

Here’s a list of the key updates!

1. Camera, Camera, CAMERA!! – Singularly the most important update. The Nintendo DSi got there first and now the iPod really can seal the deal as the industry leader in this market. Sadly it will more than likely be the pretty woeful 3.2 mega pixel variety found on the iPhone though.
2. Improved Memory – The 64gb iPod Touch is now guaranteed. This will actually put it ahead of it’s cousin, the 32gb iPhone giving it a much needed boost as a music and games device. I’m sure the iPhone will follow suit soon enough!
3. Faster processor – It is expected that the new iPod will receive the same processor behind the iPhone 3GS, which is not the fastest mobile processor (compare it to the one in the Samsung) but is still more than adequate.
4. Improved Gaming Experience – With the release of the iPhone 3.0 Software Update including support for vibrations, and the new processor and improve RAM, games should feel a lot better and run a lot smoother.
5. Replaceable battery / larger capacity size – The one major floor with both iPhone and iPod Touch is that you have to send it back to Apple to get the battery replaced. Will Apple correct this mistake in the new iPod Touch? This hasn’t been confirmed but we’ll find out for sure in about 3 hours!

If you want to watch the live event tonight at 6:00pm (British Time), here is the link to the live iPod launch event.

iPhone 3GS overheating risk – Apple releases warning

The Apple iPhone 3GS has been on sale now for about 2 months and while general user feedback is that it is an amazing feet of engineering, some reports are beginning to appear on the internet about how hot the device is getting during extended usage and when the phone is on charge, plugged in through the AC Adaptor.

Apple have released a general statement informing users not to leave the phone in direct sun light, or in an excessively hot atmosphere – going on to say the the iPhone will throw up a warning if it overheats.

Apple also go further to sat that using intensive applications such as the GPS in a hot car for long periods may be causing the temperature warning to appear and the device to stop.

The causes maybe linked with the faster processor (the old iPhone 3G ran at 400MHz while the new 3GS chip runs at 600MHz). It may also be linked with the new iPhone battery which has significantly more cells in order for it to run longer between charges. All of this being packed in to the same slim, beautiful case that we have all grown to love – so is it any wonder!

Melissa Perenson of PC World wrote of her experiences whilst using the iPhone while plugged in:

Very, very hot — not just on the back, but the entire length of the front face, too. I was using a game, and then later the Web browser for reading the news about Michael Jackson, all over a Wi-Fi connection while plugged in. And in those circumstances, well…toasty doesn’t even describe how surprisingly hot it got. It was too hot to even put the phone against my face.

As mobile processor technology evolves, and the newer chips require less power to run, and batteries become better and producing less heat, this sort of overheating problem shouldn’t occur as often.

Wikipedia App for the iPhone

The Wikimedia Foundation has announced that Wikipedia Mobile is now available for the iPhone and is on the app store for download now. The app is free and is a 1.6MB download so go and get your copy now!

Although many people complain that Wikipedia contains many inaccuracies,  it is still a really useful resource and generally contains information that can be of use. With any open-source resource, there will always be some but because of the huge user base, these are actually often corrected relatively rapidly.

It will be really useful having this as an app on the iPhone because it’s apprently focussed solely on speed and simplicity and saves you having to visit the website everytime.