I ran across a very sobering list of articles today that suggests the iPhone isn't a map to buried treasure.

Other than a few rare cases, most very "successful" developers are only seeing about $20 a day or less - and those are apps that are ranked in the top 50! The AVERAGE lifetime return of an app is less than $3,000.

Here are links to some of those articles:

Tech Crunch A dose of Reality
Great blog entry from a developer with 20 Apps in the store...STROMCODE
Another great blog from developer Jake Behrens with a well performing Ap.
And I've embedded a LONG, but interesting video from diamondTearz development team below:


Of course I am determined to keep going...I'm a believer, I choose to be, so I'll continue to believe its possible to have one of those big paydays...The big paydays seem to be dependant more on Luck and Timing - I believe you make your own luck, but I can use some help!

So other than eating Marshmallow cereal- how do I capitalize on Luck and Timing? Please put your comments below!