Is app development hobby or a job to you?

[WAZUMBi]

I have seen that many of us are becoming increasingly frustrated with Google Play, Admob, and the whole monetization process in general.

Many of us set out with intentions of perhaps making some money and possibly even quitting our day jobs while making a sole living off off app development.
Then, reality sets in. For most of us this aint gonna happen.

I admit, like (most) everybody else, I dream of making it 'big' and focusing on development. I've been doing this (app development) for three years now and never had realistic intentions of becoming self reliant on my app income.

This is something I enjoy doing very much. The second it becomes anything other than fun, interesting, and something I look forward to doing, then it is simply just another job. I have a job. I don't need another one. In this case I will quit and move on to something else more rewarding....

So, I am curious, how many of us do this for fun, hobby, or something to do in our spare time?
Do any of us get our sole source of income off of our apps?

 

[Beja]

Learning + making some money. but I don't think the store will make me rich or even independent. You need to be a professional game developer with so many years of experience to be so.
The best way to make some money by the weekend is to find solutions for the store in the corner.

 

[ilan]

something in the middle i guess..

i have a full time job and developing is a nice income for me (was at least until today ...)

i also enjoy very much developing all starts as a hobby for me (VB)
i never took any classes all i know and learned is from forums like this (and others...)

at the beginning i didnot make any money with b4a but after a while i start make a nice income from it and then i
start focusing how i can increase this income, so i improved and improved my app until it become one of the leading app
in its category (it took me about 8 month to do it) and the money also start come

the thing is that you can never know what tommorow will bring to you and thatswhy you cannot count on those income unless you
have a winner app with 100.000's active users...

 

[Cableguy]

Well...
I belong to the dreamers class...
I've been around here ever since b4ppc (about 8 years now)... all I have to show is a buggy (as in full of bugs) game on GPlay with admob, wich I cannot access anymore...
I am considering creating a serious app, so that I can make a few beer bucks, but for now... all for fun.

 

[ac9ts]

I'm an electronics engineer by trade and do a lot of embedded and VB.net programming. It's a hobby for me. I have a few apps published, some free, some paid. They are mostly things I wrote for myself to use or to learn a new concept. I only have 1 paid app out of 3 that are published that have been purchased. So far, I've cleared about $20. Enough for some good beer and a bag of pretzels.

 

[lemonisdead]

Most of you already know : app development is my daily work but Android development is only 20% of that time. So, even if I put some apps on Google Play, my "force" is to deal directly with companies (for their main needs or because they resell the apps).

The biggest advantage of this is for the incomes : you earn quicker because when you sign with a company you can ask for a deposit before to start coding. And companies do hire services most regularly.
That's only my modest opinion

 

[RandomCoder]

I'm very much like @Cableguy and recall joining and using B4PPC at around the same time. I like to think that my programme's are pretty bug free though .
As my username suggests, I tend to flit from one thing to another. My day job involves me programming automated machines, mostly Allen Bradley PLC's but also Seimens, Mitsubishi and Omron. My favourite part of the day job is programming Kawasaki robots using they're own proprietary language called AS. Then there's vision systems and all manner of sensing devices etc. I love technology and I'm very fortunate to have such a good job, the factory is like my playground
With regard to programming (PLC's don't really count ), my previous employment had me coding in Assembly language and Intel PLM, I like VB and VBA and I've done a little C+. I've also taught myself a basic level of Python.
Being an Engineer I have an inquisitive mind and like to know how things work. The time I spend programming with B4A is mostly spent testing how things work and assisting others here on the forum (when within my capability). There's no better forum!

 

[eps]

It's a Hobby for me. I've had a single App which was downloaded 100k+ times (suspended from the market) and another which was downloaded 50k+ times and is still going quite strong.

I started to make Apps to fill a void which was there.. Since then I've developed a couple of complimentary Apps. They're all in a bit of a niche area, so unlikely to be downloaded huge amounts.

If you aren't getting over 100k downloads, for whatever reason, the App will not pay out big dividends for you.

Who knows though!! I've got a half completed App, which has wider appeal.. and also an idea for a Game, but have struggled to get that started.

Thankfully it more than pays for the B4A licence and the Google Play cost and ULV licence and a few trips out etc...

 

[susu]

At first, when I came to Basic4PPC it's just my hobby. I made some programs (we didn't call "app" on that day) for my phone. When I quited my job and started my family business, Erel introduced Basic4Android, it's my hobby too. However, when I tried to get some money with Admob on 2011, I earned about $50-$100/month, it's a average income for my country's people. I thought "let try and see how much I can earn with my apps". I spent more time and effort to make more useful, more beautiful apps. From 2012-2014, I earned more than $100,000 with ad supported apps. I still do my business at day and develope my app at night. It's still my hobby but with higher level because my apps got more than 3 million downloads. I started to compete with other developers as the market grow bigger. Everything seems fine until Google terminated my account.
Now I need to start everything from the beginning, I will not republish my old apps. I think it's better chance because I can make app for both Android and iOS.

 

[moster67]

@susu
Wow! Impressive figures. Considering the average monthly income in your country (as you mentioned) and taking into account what you earned during 2012-2014, I guess you must feel quite pleased with yourself and that your investment in B4A repaid itself.....

 

[susu]

@moster67
I was so lucky on that day. Back to 2012, there's no many developers that make apps for my country.
And I need to thank you and @warwound alot for your Vitamio plugin. It made my app be the first and only one app can play video without Flash.