So Apple gets $99/year PLUS 30% app revenue share?

So at a $2.99 "fair" price point as mentioned in the post, how many copies does he have to sell to break even (assuming 4 days of development priced at $2,500/day contractor rate)?

  (1     * .99) * .70 - (4 * 2500 + 99) < 0
  (10    * .99) * .70 - (4 * 2500 + 99) < 0
  (100   * .99) * .70 - (4 * 2500 + 99) < 0
  (1000  * .99) * .70 - (4 * 2500 + 99) < 0
  (10000 * .99) * .70 - (4 * 2500 + 99) < 0
  (14574 * .99) * .70 - (4 * 2500 + 99) = 0.78

The answer is => 14,574 downloads would give him $0.78 profit, before taxes. (In that time, he would have earned more than $13,000 for Apple.)

On what planet do iOS contractors make $2500/day?

That aside, 1) the author is not an experienced iOS dev 2) hourly rates != cost, and 3) you can certainly get the same app built for under $1000 by a freelancer.

You also seem to have accidentally used a $0.99 price instead of $2.99.

Real break-even would be closer to 1k-2k sales.

I thought it was 15% for devs selling under $1M per year.

It also seems like a super-weird analysis angle to both pay yourself a (very generous) full day rate AND then expect upside on top of that and conclude that making just the $10K for 4 days’ work is somehow a loss for the solo entrepreneur.

I think he is implying that that is neutral, not a loss. It is opportunity cost.

Is the opportunity cost of someone who has never programmed an iOS app before $2500/day as an iOS dev?

Maybe in some analyses, but that’s not where I’d estimate it. If they’re turning down other $300/hr work, sure, but that’s not how I read the account.

We're talking about an app made as a weekend project to solve a problem the developer themselves has. Most normal humans would count their time as being free. I pity the person who considers the economic value and tax implications of their leisure time projects. So the calculation is just how many downloads do they need to make up for the $99 developer fee which breaks even at 47 downloads at 30% or 38 at 15%. Definitely not unrealistic.

> I pity the person who considers the economic value and tax implications of their leisure time projects.

Learning iOS development also has economic benefit beyond the app created.

$2500 a day?! I will do anything, including clubbing baby seals to death, for half that rate. Is there any place where you can make that kind of cash doing contracting work?

You calculated based on a 0.99$ purchase price though, at 2.99$ it's 4825 purchases to break even.