It’s would be a good topic to discuss… life time of our business… I really don’t think that this business will be keep being profitable for us the developers so long… every time there are more and more developers…
IMO, there always will be something that you can make money on - now it’s android, in 10 years it may be something different, you just have to think and accommodate quickly.
yup, got to change with changing times.
Thats what happened with Google search and small website… I mean, look at adwords and SEO, you cant compete with big publishers anymore!
App markets used to be just another channel for big dogs, but not anymore… apps are competing with TV in consumption time and big publishers are noticing! They enter app markets, acquire real customers through it, and drop some serious coin on marketing, some even hang in the charts for a while.
Just like with everything else, the big dogs with big marketing budgets eventually take over, unless YOU become the big dog FASTER than they can outcompete you.
We are lucky to be involved in this mobile revolution, smartphones took over feature phones sales just last month, but there is still a long way to go.
We have at least 5 years run time with this. I made my first app one week after android release in 2008, tmobile g1 
its crazy how far android has come since then.
2009 was era of mobile sheykhs, earning money from mobile was so easy … About big dogs: if you have great product I think that you always can compete with them, for example good guys from reddit may get your indie awsome app on top of charts, I know that it is harder than doing mid-apps but you always have chances if making apps is what you love and you have passion for it.
big dogs now are developers which develop awesome apps. Example: I used real player, winamp, jet audio. All well known companies for desktop music players. But I purchased PowerAmp which I never heard of in the desktop arena.
Big dogs can also be someone like this developer (sarcastic comment): https://play.google.com/store/apps/developer?id=MGG1.com
How could they come up with so many graphic reskins :eek:
i am 21 yrs old and i am from India :)…i am a student and during my industrial training i learned android app development.i took inspiration from my friend’s brother.
he has got millions of downloads on his apps, so seeing someone from ur daily life doing this inspired me.i have published 2 applications (although they are very simple). my first app didn’t got much downloads but my second app is doing good.i am earning around $10-$12 per day. which is enough for me.(although i haven’t received my payment,its still in admob account).i stiil have one year left in my college so i don’t get much time to devote to apps.i am planning to keep making android apps, enhancing my skills.
i love making these apps and when users comment about how good your app is, is gives so much pleasure and happiness.
My brother (32) and i (26) started working full time developing android since January 1st. So far we have made 2 unpopular games but we have learn a lot these 9 months (we didn’t know much about game design or the android industry)… We work 8 hrs everyday to make our dream come true: Make a living out of android apps.
I am currently 20 yrs old. American student at a 2 year college living in the basement of a family member.
Started developing apps back in high school and didn’t know what the hell I was doing. Just jumped in head first.
Now I have 3 games on the Android market. One accounts for over 90% of my revenue which is not much around 2$ a day if that.
Goal is to keep trying new things. Learning from previous mistakes and keep building new quality games.
Plus, I relay love making games and apps…even though I’m not making much money from it right now, I don’t care because I love doing it. I know eventually it will all come together and pay off.
That’s a really good attitude! It’s harder to do well with games compared with apps, but when things go well the prospects are much better.
Yeah I’ve heard people say that.
I always thought games would do better than apps. I feel like people play and spend more time downloading and using them. Just my opinion…
When I first started about 3 years ago I was building crappy apps…lol they are all unpublished now. But now I’m into Games and love it.