There has been a lot of
talk about the App Store this week. I observed curiously as developers like
Craig Hockenberry caviled at Apple's ranking algorithm for their product. I feel like I should feel bad for these guys, but thanks to a recent
article from Daniel Lyons I can continue my apathy towards their outcries.
For every Dodgeball, there is a Brightkite.
For every
Craig Hockenberry there is a
Ge Wang.
Wang released
Ocarina last month. Since then it has skyrocketed to number one in the Top Paid Apps list in the Music category and boasts more than 400,000 downloads in less than a month.
Smule will make nearly ten times their projected revenue this year. Brian Greenstone of
Pangea doesn't
sound so sullen. "It's crazy. It's like lottery money. In the last four and a half months we've made as much money off the retail sales of iPhone apps as we've made with retail sales of all the apps that we've made in the past 21 years--combined."
Does Apple's App Store embody American Capitalism? Probably not. But the App store
is a blessing - a bright spot in a bleak economy. "Some kid in his bedroom can literally make a million bucks just by writing a little app," Greenstone told
Newsweek. It's hard to complain about that.
Ask Steve Demeter, creator of the hit iPhone game
Trism, how he's enjoying life. His game has netted $250,000 in two months. Demeter credits the App Store not only for his success, but for bestowing the developers with the power to do what he has done. "Apple has made it so easy to put [game publishing] in the palms of developers. You just make it and then you submit it to Apple."
In light of all this, and more, I can't commiserate with those who fail in a system that has finally put software-development into the hands of entrepreneurs.
