July 11 to 17th: It's Pay-A-Mobile-Developer Week
I admit. I made this up. I'm trying to start a trend.
Mobile Developers work hard, and yet many are hardly making any money at all. According to a recent report from VisionMobile, nearly a third of mobile developers make less than a $1,000 per app, which is much less than the cost of actually making them.
It irks me that app stores have so many free apps available ... they certainly aren't free to develop. Interestingly, you don't find many free SONGS on iTunes, so why does Apple think it's ok to give APPS away for free? Ultimately, giving apps away helps them sell more handsets, more subscriptions, more usage ... and that's what really drives revenue and huge market caps. But the money isn't making it back into the developers pockets.
This has been grinding my coffee for several years. The mobile ecosystem is tough on the very people who are driving unprecedented mobile usage and smartphone/tablet adoption: mobile developers. So, despite successes such as Angry Birds, many can't even afford the caffeine drip that's required to keep them up until 3:00 a.m. working their fingers to the bone.
SOOooooo ... let's pay them. It'll take you 10 seconds and cost less than a Grande Skinny Vanilla Latte. Do this:
- Pick 3 of your "free" apps on your smartphones and tablets:
- If the app is a fremium that allows you to upgrade, do it!
- If the app is ad supported, click on some ads.
- If the app has in-app buying opportunities, buy some. - Go to your favorite app store, find and buy 2 more apps.
- If you feel like you can skip both your morning AND afternoon Latte, repeat steps 1) and 2) throughout the week.
App stores need to get MUCH better at representing the mobile developers rights, or they risk losing the mobile platform war. I'd like to see app stores really trying to help monetize mobile apps on behalf of mobile developers, vs. just providing them a channel to give their apps away for free.
To SUMMARIZE ... Pay a Mobile Developer!
