It doesn’t matter whether you want to find out the location of the next bus stop in a foreign city, identify an unknown song or want to book a hotel room in advance, there is a strong probability that someone has developed an application for that already. The rapidly growing popularity of these apps has given birth to a new type of entrepreneur class – ‘the app entrepreneurs’. The rise of the app entrepreneurs can be summed up in just four steps including:
- Commencing of the journey
- Expect the unexpected
- Getting inspiration
- The gift of technology
Getting on The Ride
The app industry began its journey basing on the iPhone. The era began in July 2008, when Apple opened up its App Store to individual developers. More than 120,000 apps have arrived in the App Store since then. Apple was the dominant player at that time, and its success soon enticed other major players like Google, Nokia, Samsung, Blackberry and Microsoft into the app industry. According to Flurry, app market is now worth $10 billion in 2012 .
Expect The Unexpected
The huge amount of money in the apps market has opened a new horizon of opportunity for the developers and entrepreneurs. Some of them even became millionaires by developing apps. One such developer is Dave Castelnuovo, the co-creator of the massively popular iOS game, Pocket God. This game costs only 99 cents and is already downloaded more than two million times. He accepts the fact that their game most probably has become the best-selling app in the market. The huge success of the game has caught him by surprise.
The developer’s initial plan was to allocate a week for Pocket God; they planned to use this as a framework to build a real game later. The game features a tropical island with inhabitant called as pygmies. Their daily lives are directed by the iPhone users. Though it is enjoyable to watch them doing their everyday chores, the main attraction is in doing violent things like throwing them into volcanoes or sacrificing them. Dave describes his game as a safe sandbox allowing the users to express their mean desires in a harmless way.
Encouraging Other Developers
The massive success of Pocket God and other best-selling apps has encouraged a lot of small scale developers to keep their hopes high. Mobile based start-ups contain more prospect than the traditional business concepts, according to Collin Mitchell, a former NYU stern alumni and a successful entrepreneur himself. Even in this period of recession and slow growth, mobile industries are booming. The future of business lies in the hands of app developers and entrepreneurs. Though the initial cost of developing apps has shrunk considerably, the competition is intensifying too.
Now is The Time
Due to the continuous evolution of technology and communication, entrepreneurs have never found a more suitable time than now. Unlike previous decades, when technology was the biggest obstacle to growth, it is now acting as one of the supporting pillars of a successful business. The easy availability of smart phones and tablets has provided an incredible opportunity to reach millions of people from just single app. App entrepreneurs should utilize these gifts of technology to achieve ultimate success. Now is the time to prove their actual capabilities and to develop the next big-selling app of all time.
"According to some estimates, app market is now worth more than four million dollars a year."
A year? Or did you mean to say, it increments by 4M every year? It's ambiguous. Could you please steer me in the right direction?
"According to some estimates, app market is now worth more than four million dollars a year."
A year? Or did you mean to say, it increments by 4M every year? It's ambiguous. Could you please steer me in the right direction?