Do independent developers still make money off of mobile apps?

No. They are all just made for fun. That's why all of them are free and have no ads in them.

>>1320248
tell that to flappy bird guy tho

>>1320256
I think he was being sarcastic. Anyways, I'm interested in transitioning into mobile dev. I do webdev freelance for a living now and it is still a job and it sucks dick. I want to get revenue from advertisements. I'm planning on just making some nicer versions of infoapps I see to get the basics of development/marketing down then try to make a game that will go viral.

>>1320159
yes, but it's fucking hard since you are competing against the entire world of pajeets and kids in school

So you need to make something top quality.

personally, if I was serious about mobile apps I'd look for some boring niche

>>1320256
Didn't the flappy bird guy have some kind of mental breakdown when his game got successful?

The app market is dead (or at least on the verge of dying)

Overall app downloads are down something like 80% over two years

A company can expect 1/10th of the download numbers when being featured in the app store compared to 1 year ago

On average, people spend 80% of their app time in 3 apps (All of them being huge social media apps like Facebook or Instagram)

Those are just stats that I remember from the top of my head, but I personally really wouldn't go into app developing unless I absolutely had to

>>1320457
to be honest the most used app that didn't came with my phone is the fbreader that i downloaded for free.

>>1320457
This is completely true. Games have gone out of fashion, now the only place where you can make money is with tool apps and social media, an area where you actually need to create something new to succeed.

>>1320448
Yeah. I read somewhere that with the amount of traffic the app was making $30,000 per DAY from ad revenue. This, for some reason, made him take the app off the appstore and google play. WHAT THE FUCK?

>>1320586
Everyone was being a bitch to him and demanding money and then getting mad when he didn't give his money away.

>>1320598
He was living in vietnam or korea or some shit

>>1320457
Literally none of this is true, btw.

>>1320586
It was $50k a day actually.

>>1320613
okay it wasn't 80% y/y but 20% but the rest is true

http://qz.com/253618/most-smartphone-users-download-zero-apps-per-month/

http://www.recode.net/2016/6/8/11883518/app-boom-over-snapchat-uber

http://marketingland.com/apps-eat-digital-media-time-with-top-3-capturing-80-percent-143555

File: main-qimg-60ec9ad9e27b910e8d758b254a448196.jpg (36KB, 572x345px) Image search: [Google]

36KB, 572x345px

>>1320665
The big popular apps have always been the ones where most users spend most of their time. That hasn't changed since 2010, when the "boom" ended. It's still the most profitable tech platform and growing as steady as any other platform.

Getting featured in the Trending apps section has the same effect that it had a year ago.