21.4 million users is nothing to sneeze at, but it's hardly mainstream. I would wager apps won't become really profitable until the phone's monthly service goes down in price. Of course, when that happens, the market for applications is going to get REALLY flooded.

the fact that it was free probably ment that people were downloading as an experiement as opposed to an application they actually thought would be useful. now there is a price, no matter how small, people will ask themselves “will I really use this?” before purchasing.

this would have created his dramattic slide in sales.

look at the guy who built iShoot for an example of an app that was worth money that made money.

Why does everyone want to talk about iPhone apps sales as if all iPhone apps were created equal? 'Zen Jar' is not Twitteriffic, and 99% of iPhone games are not as compelling as Trism. We don't call the PC market a 'failure' because some software sells better than others – why does everyone insist we do this with the iPhone app store?

Also – he's #34 in social networking – that doesnt mean the sales figures above him scale linearly.

Look at it this way – 'Zen Jar' wouldnt make a dime on the web, mac, or pc.
From casual inspection- maybe it took an experienced iPhone dev 80 hours tops to launch?

One year ROI: $7665
Hourly rate: $95/hour

Thats just for the first year – after that, the rate just goes up and up.
Now multiply times 20 apps – $153,000 the first year.

Good for them, but public education will catch up soon enough. Then again, I've said that about them bs'ing the media too and I've been wrong, so who knows..

If you offered $400 a day for a year in exchange for 2 or 3 months work, I think you'd have a few hundred thousand takers.