New Business Model: Free iPhone Apps. The Source Costs Money.

by rlm on 11/21/2008, 7:07 PM with 6 comments
  • by nolanbrown23 on 11/21/2008, 7:59 PM

    This is a new idea but the market is extremely small. None of the those applications are that difficult to replicate. I might be willing to pay for some OpenGL app with a lot of documentation but I don't see this really turning into a good business model.

    Even an OpenGL app is pushing it, there is already code from Apple freely available and you can download the code from TouchFighter 2 in some places. I just don't see this filling a need.

  • by stcredzero on 11/21/2008, 7:41 PM

    Is this a consequence of the broken "What's Hot" ranking at the iPhone App Store combined with the NDA? Perhaps there's more profit potential in the horde of greedy wannabe iPhone app authors than in the AppStore customers?

  • by markessien on 11/21/2008, 7:46 PM

    What this seems to be saying is that the iPhone apps that are not popular are no longer making money. Someone who has some not popular iPhone app should tell what's really going on there.

  • by danw on 11/22/2008, 1:37 PM

    I'm tempted by the bonjour apps. Are there any open example of bonjour on iPhone currently?

  • by bprater on 11/21/2008, 10:08 PM

    Resale rights for E50 on 9 apps? That's a surprisingly good deal.