But it might buy you a nice vacation on top of your $dayjob for an app that's probably very low maintenance.
Certainly not bad for three days work.
Certainly not bad for three days work.
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
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.
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.
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.
Learning iOS development also has economic benefit beyond the app created.