It is true that some developers cannot strike gold developing applications for the iPhone, it is also true that many developers are doing really well. Thus saying something like “iPhone app development is fool’s gold for developers,” is out of the track. This is the main reason why I have to disagree with Bill Snyder and his post titled “iPhone app: Fool’s gold for developers.”

iPhonefootprint team had an interview with Bob, (Robert A Hearn) the developer of the puzzle games Subway Shuffle Lite and Subway Shuffle. Bob has only these two applications in the App Store, one free and the other one is the full version of the same puzzle game prized at $2.99. When asked whether his applications have generated the ROI he expected, he replied:

The revenue so far has exceeded my expectations. If it were to continue at its current level, I’d be making a decent software engineer’s salary, which is pretty cool for a side project.

Subway Shuffle puzzles were side projects Bob worked on at his spare time. The applications have earned recognition for being innovative and engaging and not because of being deployed by a big player. On being asked whether start-up companies still have chances to strike gold  in the App Store, he said:

Absolutely. It’s a huge market, and still growing……

With the latest changes Apple made to the App Store, such as display of application ranking for all the categories, featuring of top free and paid apps, etc, he asserted:

Users and developers both win with that change. The good apps get more of a chance to be seen, and pulled up in the rankings.

In one of my posts, I cited the reasons why app developers seem to hate Apple. One reason why the App Store is too crowded just six months from the time of its launch is lack of transparency between the developers and Apple.

Apple has no clear guidelines for developers (having clear guidelines would trigger unwanted criticism, though). Due to this, developers are left to deal and work out their own ideas. Many developers deploy applications for the sake of deploying something even if what they deploy is worthless. Whom do we blame here? Developers grumble if their applications are rejected and users blame Apple if there are junk applications in the App Store.

The blame game goes on; however, we can’t deny that App Store is one of the best development platforms, which has huge potential. This is a platform where developers can make fortunes if they deploy innovative, solid, engaging and stable apps.