iPhone App Makers Reel In Millions

First-time designers score huge sales with Apple programs

By Wesley Oliver, Newser Staff

Posted Dec 13, 2008 6:24 PM CST

(Newser) – Thousands of programmers are hoping to take their million-dollar bite out of Apple by designing lucrative applications for the iPhone, Newsweek reports. “It’s kind of a gold rush,” said one programmer, whose game applications will net $5 million in revenue. “Some kid in his bedroom can literally make a million bucks just by writing a little app.”

Apple, which takes a 30% cut of any revenue, is less concerned with money than with becoming a dominant mobile-computing platform. It’s well on its way: The App Store, an iTunes offshoot launched in July, already boasts more than 300 million downloads from more than 10,000 apps. “We've never seen anything like this in our careers,” marveled Steve Jobs.

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Thousands of people are writing applications for the iPhone and selling them through Apple's App Store, which is part of the iTunes online market. (AP Photo/Sergey Ponomarev)

Apple CEO Steve Jobs says he's surprised by the iPhone's application business. "We've never seen anything like this in our careers," he said. (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma)

Apple gets a 30% cut of any revenue generated by apps, but right now the money isn't the point. The big thing is the race to become the dominant mobile-computing platform. (PRNewsFoto/SGN)

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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 of the apps that we've made in the past 21 years—combined. - Brian Greenstone, programmer

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iPhone App Makers Reel In Millions