Apple's app store is still bigger than Google Play and still earns much more revenue. But while Google's app store grew revenue 200 percent in the fourth quarter of 2012, Apple's iOS app store grew only 20 percent.
The nation’s app store can be likened to the state of Nevada in 1951, when nuclear weapons testing sprouted a continuous stream of mushroom clouds throughout the flatland.
While the average app store developer might make under $10K a year from his or her apps, Joe Kaufman has managed to generate millions of downloads to his hit Lost City and Secret of Grisly Manor apps, generating massive revenue and making him a self-made millionaire.
The new search function in the Apple iTunes App Store will probably give game developers more headaches. But there are ways for savvy developers to turn the problem to their advantage.
Any yahoo can publish a game these days. Yet today's market still demands of the specialization of the past, allowing the creator to focus on creating and the distributing to focus on marketing. And this relationship matters more now than ever before in Digital Publishing 2.0.