Michael Yuan

The answer is 3 to 20 million dollars per year.

I had the chance to sit on the iPhone panel with Brian Greenstone at InnoTech a couple of weeks ago. Brian runs a very small (one man?) development shop that has so far produced 3 iPhone games that are in the top 10 list. His game Cro-mag Rally was the #1 iphone game for many weeks. So, he speaks with authority when it comes to sales figures of top iPhone app store applications.

According to Brian, the #1 paid app in the app store generates around 8000 downloads per day. The number drops to around 2000 per day if you are #25. Consider that many top apps have been selling for between $5 to $10 a piece. Considerring that apple takes 30% from the top, you can see how I arrive at the 3 to 20 million range for profits.

Of course, a big assumption is that your app can stay in top 25 all year long. That is difficult but not impossible. In the end, it is relatively simple to write an iPhone app (as opposed to a PS3 game or a full enterprise app). As Brian has demonstrated, given the talent, it is possible to have multiple hits from even a one man shop.

And we have not even touched free apps in the app store. Free apps see much higher download numbers than paid apps. But their revenue is hard to measure since it indirect. My guess would be that a lot of those popular free apps are also making decent money via “off deck” subscription payment and advertisement. In fact, that is exactly what I plan to do with my “yet to be approved” iPhone apps. Stay tuned!

Ever since we put an Obama campaign sign in our front yard, I kept getting questions from neighbours and friends: why do you go against your own self interest to support Obama? Haven’t you read his tax plan? Indeed, my own short term financial interests suggest that I should NOT support Obama:

* He already said that he will raise tax for families making $250k per year (or, was it $200k?). Either way, we can fully anticipate our income tax to go up under Obama.

* Obama’s tax plan is also not very friendly to small businesses. As I am starting my own company in a reccession, this is the last thing I need.

I hate higher tax as much as the next guy. But, I am supporting Obama since he at least is honest about the tax sitution. Bush has created a trillion dollar debt for the country. The US borrowed so much money from China –it is not even funny. The money to pay the debt and it’s interest will have to come from somewhere. What alternative do we have?

Let’s say that McCain keeps his promise not to raise tax on anyone. Let’s say that he manages to cut all the $18B / yr so-called “pork spending”. He is still not nearly close to find the money to pay the debt. Let alone the fact that McCain would like to spend $120B / yr of tax money indefinitely in Iraq. The pork McCain talks about so much is a rounding error for what he wants to spend on the useless war.

So, under the McCain plan, the only choice would be to let the US dollar slide in value — as it did all through the Bush years. This way, we run a cruel scam on China — the debt China holds will be worth much less since it is calculated in US dollars. Do you think China will continue to lend money to the US if this happens?

A much weaker dollar also has very bad consequences for everyone living in America. Think about higher costs for everything, and drastically reduced the standard of living.

In the end, Obama might have to raise tax and borrow even more money to create government spending that compensates the weak consumer spending. He may even need to raise tax on people making less than $250k a year. None of these is pretty. But it at least is a honest plan.

I truely believe that we need a president who can talk about shared sacriface to get us through the crisis, as opposed to someone who promise even more fantasy of “tax cuts”.