The App Store Hype Gets A Dose Of Reality

Getting rich fast and with no pain! It takes many forms with the exactly same message. Now, it is getting rich through iPhone apps. Sorry, reality check. The top 100 apps may have only tens of download a day, the revenue can hardly get you rich.

The App Store Hype Gets A Dose Of Reality

software entrepreneurs frequently use the “huge successes” of a market to gauge its potential, rather than looking at the average outcome. I think this may be true for some of them, just as some would-be actors venture to Hollywood with the expectation of simply jumping into the spotlight only to find themselves waiting tables at a diner. But I think that most developers understand the risks involved, and how unlikely it is that their app will hit the big time. The same can be said for most of the web entrepreneurs I meet. They may invest many months or years into their work, but they know that the vast majority of new online ventures are bound to fail.

So for all of you iPhone developers who are new to these somewhat discouraging facts of life, I’m sorry if I (and the media as a whole) have failed to underscore the low probability of striking it rich on the App Store. To those of you who keep building things anyway: rock on.