Personally I made some websites and started selling my apps from then. I quickly started making more than most salaried jobs and get complete control without having to be horrible to anybody. I don't understand why more people don't do it.
Maybe I should spend more time thinking about this :)
“I wouldn’t be able to handle the added stress” was the response, and I can see why from that answer more people don’t do this. Decide to freelance in addition to doing a 9-5 and you’ll not only put more work on your table but other sorts of responsibilities - accounting, client relations, being your own project manager, etc. - will make it much more harder to decompress if you had a shit day at work.
edit: And I only have to work two hours a day!
For the Apple store in particular I've seen it get so crowded without adequate app discovery mechanisms in place that it seems like without serious marketing money you're essentially rolling the dice on how successful your app is going to be. I don't really want to spend a bunch of my time on that, when I could spend it on other pursuits.
But maybe this is a mistaken perception? Why do you think it's so simple to do? Just because you've found success or is your approach different than the norm somehow?
But when you do get one, it can generate revenue for a long time coming.
I think with some good market research you could probably be more sure though. And also going into partnership with somebody lowers the risk as you can churn out more apps then share the profits when you do get a successful one. Personally I have not had much luck with the Apple app stores because of their crowded/discovery issues etc, but I also have not put much effort into them due to their horrible restrictions (the sandbox is a killer with the way they've implemented it, and a lot of my software needs admin privs to run)
I like the traditional setup. Some stuff is abstracted away nicely (benefits, office space, working hours).