But is this really still possible in todays world?
Isn't there competition from the thousands of software devs laid off in last couple years. They can all make apps.
Just like the Flappy Bird guy. Sure, it was big hit, but so easy to have a hundred knock offs within a week.
I have four products that make money, built over the course of seven years. None of them really benefit from each other. If it was pure luck and 1/1,000 chance of success I don't think my current portfolio would be possible. (I also have a lot of failures, so I agree there's luck and risk, just not as strong as you're making it out to be)
They're also not a cross-domain expert at the same things you are. You might be in the top N coders in a niche, and you might be the only one with the motivation to work on the problem.
You also might just do it better than them.
And last, you might just split the pie with them. Really, it's okay to have many apps doing the same thing with different approaches.
In a pre-app world, I wrote some blogs with ads.
Some of my favourite ones were dumb but fairly evergreen articles where I had domain knowledge like “best directions to the dmv offices in $mytown”. (Pro-tip: it’s upstairs at the XYZ shopping mall, but if you park by the pizza place, you’ll be at the doors that take you straight there)
Reliable and consistent income.
Not a ton, but more like a bond than a stock.
It's one thing to be a good dev/coder, but another level entierly to be a one man team delivering a product.
Being able to make apps isn't enough. You also have to develop a broad set of skills to complement that.
They could, but most likely they are doom scrolling while saying things like "Isn't there competition from the thousands of software devs laid off in last couple years. They can all make apps."
:)
How many apps we can point to that are huge today, are really not that complicated, and any number of people 'could have' built them.
I doubt the creator minds too much, I know I wouldn't: he still made millions off it.