This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
Question of the day for you here. How many apps are on your phone? Do you even know how many apps are on your phone? Would you even be able to estimate? And also, how many apps do you actually use?
Because you probably have a lot more on your phone than you're actually using, right? Like we often get in the habit of downloading new apps and trying them out once and never using them, but also never going to delete them. And over the years, most people end up paying for a good number of apps. Of course, a lot of them are free as well, but you've got apps that are one-time purchases, you've got recurring subscription purchases, and then, of course, the evil genius of in-app payments. So today's caller, she's planning to make an app and wants to know how this breaks out for the app designers, app coders, app creators.
How much money did they get? What's the average app designer income? What are the outliers? And good news, I actually know the answers to these questions. So there's a bit of a range, of course, but I will break it down for you and our caller right after this quick thank you to our sponsor.
Thank you sponsor and thank you listeners. So glad you're out there. [Music]
Hey Chris, this is Katie from Sacramento, and I started listening to Side Hustle School this year. Everyone has an iPhone, right? Or at least everyone has a smartphone of some kind or another.
And there have to be millions of apps available for sale. Many of them are made by independent developers who own the intellectual property and are responsible for making updates and handling customer service. I know that Apple takes a cut, but how much on average do these app designers make? Have you featured anyone who earns a full-time income from a single app? Thanks.
[Music]
Katie, thanks so much for the question. We have actually featured a bunch of people who have earned a full-time income from a single app. I'm gonna tell you one example from a friend of mine here in a moment. But the first thing to note with a question like this is that there will be a tremendous range of results. So sometimes like looking at the average number or what's called the arithmetic mean is not always helpful.
And in these situations, sometimes the median is a better measurement. So not necessarily the average because of the outliers, but the actual number in the middle. So side note, this is probably the only thing I know about math as well. So thank you for allowing me to remember and demonstrate that one concept. But to answer the question directly, according to the latest research, overall independent app developers, average monthly income is $1,500.
If you're a medium-sized developer, you make $7,500 a month. And a large studio developer, which can often be more than one person. It can be a team, right? But they're generating an average of $40,000 a month. That's not a year, that's $40,000 a month.
So of course, quite a range there. And it's good to say lots of apps make no money at all. Lots of apps make no money at all. And some do very, very well. So to give you a personal story, I have a good friend.
We actually have not featured this person on the podcast. He wants to remain anonymous, but he has been earning a full-time income from a single app on the App Store for more than five years. When I say full-time income, I don't mean like he's in the 1%. He's not making several hundred thousand dollars a year or more from it, but it's a very good income, especially when we're talking about one app. Now, to be fair, we spend a good amount of time supporting this app with updates, bug fixes, new features, communicating with customers.
So it is kind of like a job in that way. But of course, it's something he's made for himself. And he has complete control over his schedule. And because he continues to focus on it, I'm sure that's a big part of why he continues to sell so well. So making apps definitely a world with a lot of competition, but also a lot of buyers with a lot of money to spend.
So I definitely encourage Katie and anyone else out there to explore that world a bit and perhaps ask yourself what it is that you can create an offer that's different from all the other stuff that's out there or what's different or a little bit better or just some kind of twist for a specific market 'cause that's often a key to success as well. So good luck. Listeners, if you've got a question or a comment or an update, come to sidehustleschool.com/questions. Thank you so much for being part of this community. I enjoy making this show for you every single day.
I hope you'll subscribe or follow and come back tomorrow. My name is Chris Guillebeau. This is Side Hustle School. [Music]
From the Onward Project.
