twitterific
Twitterific, the most popular Twitter application on the App store, was developed exclusively with our own efforts. Craig Hockenberry, the man behind Twitterific, recently revealed the amount of work it takes to build the app: about 1.100 hours. At $ 150 / hour, Twitterific for iPad costs over $ 165.000 for the code alone (the iPad app also uses existing code worth about $ 20.000). In addition to all that, the cost of the design phase was approximately $ 34.000. Lastly, project management, testing, and other expenses were about $ 16.000.
Adding up all these figures, the cost to develop Twitterific is roughly $ 250.000 - keep in mind that this app didn't even use a back-end support system, which has probably doubled the development costs.
KEEP READING the rest after the jump.
Flud and other newsreaders
Flud, the popular newsreader, was also built mostly through job fairness. Compared to the competition, the team behind Flud is very small, as just like Twitterific, only two coders are behind the app. To kick things off the ground, Flipboard has invested $ 13 million and had a staff of 16, and Pulse News had 5 full-time people.
The developers didn't give much detail about the cost of their app, but given the number of hours spent running the app, it would probably have cost at least $ 200.000, if the folks behind Flud had used a third party to build it. .
The app costs $ 4 and has sold about 20.000 copies to date, so Flud's gross revenue is around $ 80.000. Good sales figures if you do the work yourself, not so much if you have to pay someone to do it.
Cute the rope
At the other end of the spectrum, the great game producer Chillingo recently released the hit Cute the Rope, and it sold 1 million copies in less than 10 days. The iPhone version costs $ 1 million, while the iPad version costs $ 2, so the average revenue generated by the application is between $ 1 million and $ 2 million. If the app succeeds other great games like Angry Birds, it is likely to generate five times more revenue over its lifetime.
Chillingo does not usually develop its applications directly, and uses third party game development studios. In this case, the UK-based company worked with Russia's Zeptolab to build the game. The cost of putting the application as a whole is not public knowledge, but is probably in the range of $ 200.000 to $ 500.000. Chillingo and Zeptolab are also likely to have some sort of revenue-sharing arrangement, but still, the game should already be profitable for both companies.
And to finish some tips:
Ask yourself these basic questions: Is it a new concept? If not, is it much better than what is currently available on the App store? What will your marketing be like? What price will it have? Payment application? Free app with in-app purchase option? Or a totally free application? Who will design and develop the application?
If you have a great idea, and you are a developer, hard work is the way to go, as the costs of outsourcing an application are high, even for the simplest applications.
If you do not know how to program, and you decide to use third parties, you will need to invest at least $ 35.000 dollars in your application. If you have high expectations for your application, multiply that number by 3. Also keep in mind that only a small percentage of the applications in the App store generate income of at least $ 35,000.
Do not forget that Apple above charges 30% of your income!
Source: padgadget.com
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