Planet Money Reports on the App Economy
by Tom on Friday, February 3rd, 2012
Not too long ago making money from software development required venture capital funding and a team of software engineers, but that has changed significantly in the last few years following the success of Apple’s App Store. In the 4 years since it was introduced, hundreds of thousands of Apps have been released, enabling anyone with an idea and a bit of technical nous to make money.
This week the team behind the Planet Money Podcast investigates this new economy, following the incredible story of Web entrepreneur Marco Arment, creator of Instapaper. In the interview he explains how his product started out as a “side project” which gave him a bit of extra pocket money turned into a full time business and a 6-figure income.
Instapaper began its life as a free web service, making money solely from the advertising banners placed on the page. When the App Store came along he created an app equivalent of the website and started experimenting with prices. Before long Arment discovered that people are willing to pay if the price is right and the product is good.
You can listen to the episode by subscribing to the free podcast here. It’s well worth a listen for anyone interested in not only how people like Arment are making money, but why the App Store stuck a cord with users and became the phemonenon we know of today.
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