Report charts out “iPhone Middle Class” of app developers

July 29, 2009 | Paul Boutin | Comments | |

iphone_appstore_new_vs_establishedgamedevs_sep08-jul091Flurry, a small San Francisco company that provides application use data to mobile app developers, has done a study of the app developers you don’t normally read in the press. They’re neither the top nor the bottom of the field, they’re the bourgeoisie in the middle, the iPhone Middle Class making money but not garnering headlines for their moderate sales revenue.

Flurry’s analysis will be ongoing, but the first post already brings useful analysis of the App Store, by comparing established developers against newcomers:

New game developers not only hold their own against established game developers, but also outrank them, on average, among the Top 25 games on iPhone. With speculation that more incumbent mobile gaming companies are investing more heavily in the iPhone platform, we would have expected to see an increase in the number of top slots held by established companies over the last several months. However, new developers continue to rank well.

Flurry VP of Marketing Peter Farago, who writes up Flurry’s analysis, says his next report will focus on original titles versus licensed brand names, and he’ll also look at the app market for Android. Hype stories about get-rich-quick app makers and their going-broke-fast counterparts are too common, and not helpful. Flurry’s middle-of-the road focus is refreshingly functional. It shines a light on the part of the app market where most developers will end up.

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About the Author, Paul Boutin

Paul (paul@venturebeat.com) covers Apple & the iPhone, social networks & social media, digital music & video, and any crazy Internet story. Paul wrote and edited for Valleywag from 2006-2008, after several years with Wired magazine and Slate. He writes regularly for The New York Times' technology section and sometimes for Wired and The Wall Street Journal. He studied computer science at MIT in the early 1980s, and worked as a software developer and network administrator for 15 years before becoming a professional writer. Follow him on Twitter at @paulboutin, and follow VentureBeat on Twitter at @venturebeat.

  • The title is inaccurate: all of these apps are in the Top 25 (out of 50,000+ apps!), which makes them the 'very rich' of the App Store, not the 'middle class'. The fact that being "App Store rich" means barely making a living tells you a lot about the economics of iPhone development.
  • pfhagermark
    Hi,
    I found this confusing as well. The data is from 148 apps out of the 65 000 in the store. What are the median app making and the percentiles around that? Isn't that the real "middle class" in this case? really interesting subject and required analysis. Totally agree that there are too much about the top and the bottom of the ladder in the coverage about the App Store. Let's dig a bit further and see if we can profile the "middle class" of the iPhone app developer.