More reasons the iPhone is the most awesome device on the planet

I've been doing some research on iPhone development. I don't pretend to be able to be a developer -- supposedly the iPhone programming code is easy to use, if you know how to use programming code, but I have no pretensions about being able to do it myself. (Heck, I had a haard enough time installing this new Blogger template!)

No, I've been researching it so that I can be knowledgeable as I try to step into the realm of iPhone comic apps. I want to know what to look for . . . and who to look for.

So articles like THIS are interesting to me:

App Watch: Mirror, Mirror on the iPhone, for Free

Favorite bits from the article include:

By Inner Four co-founder John Swartz’s own admission the app “doesn’t do anything.”

and

Even inside the company, the developer who created the app has become the butt of jokes. Its description on the App Store actively discourages users from downloading it, saying “Honestly, don’t download this. It is just a blank screen with a frame.”

and

AdWhirl’s co-founder Sam Yam says the app could generate as much as $2,000 a day in ad revenue. “Maybe because there’s no use for the application, they click on the ads,” says Swartz.

Wow. Now THAT'S the American spirit at work!

On a different angle, there's this guy:

The Numbers Post (aka Brutal Honesty)

His post is very interesting and very eye opening. Basically, he's created a game for the iPhone. The game cost him $32,000 to develop. In its first month, it netted him $535. Not a great return on investment. But his article, and updated articles, cover a number of facets. Update articles include him getting a minor upswing when his first article was picked up by Slashdot (w/ some responses to feedback he's gotten); a post where he announces a mark down on the game's price; and a "Number Post: Part 2" that details more follow up information about his game, upswings from press and exposure, and dropping the price. All of it makes for a VERY interesting read, quite educational, that I recommend to anyone who's interested in developing for the iPhone. I appreciate his whole "brutal honesty" thing, and have taken the information he's shared to heart.

But the interesting thing to me about the iPhone is that here are two examples (and I say this without irony, now) of the American spirit, Or whatever you want to call it. The iPhone has taken publishing and distribution to a new place. Like the internet, it breaks down the walls with their gates and gatekeepers and allow anyone to find an audience.

I can't wait to see the TouchBook when it comes out . . . which will be that cross between the Kindle and the iPhone. (I'm guessing; I don't know if it's really coming.) But we're looking at a whole new frontier here. To quote Scotty from the new Star Trek movie: "I like this ship, it's exciting!"

Now, off to get that developer working on our comic reader!

~ Ben