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As per the recent report published by Distimo, very few developers are actually making money (by selling apps) in Android store. The figures actually look quite depressing for android developers though Androids remains as one of the favorite platforms for developers. I am wondering what are the actual experiences of companies building apps in BlackBerry, Windows Phone and Android platforms in earning revenue through selling apps.

The insight will be very useful to me as we are about to begin development on some of the app ideas and with limited budget, we want to target platform that will give us wider audience (and revenue).

Thanks.

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Lately I've been developing Android apps on a contract basis. I approach businesses (or they approach me) and I develop a promotional app for them. This app will be a free download on the market, but I get paid by the business for my work.

A typical promotional app could get you in the range of $1500 to $2000 obviously this all depends on the features and development time.

So it's not all about market sales.

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You are right and thanks for sharing your experience. However the apps which I am working on are more likely to have their primary revenue stream from app store. – Ali Jun 3 '11 at 7:22
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On my experience on Android an blackberry we can generate more revenue on Android compare to Android. I have submit application on Android play free of code and download at 90K set admob advertisement. we can generate monthly $30 only. I have not idea about iPhone.

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At this stage, Android is the only platform worth looking at if you're wanting to reach a wide audience (except for iOS, which you didn't mention). Just look at the latest figures - 1 million new Android devices activated every day. There are now more Android devices in the world than iOS devices, and that number is growing daily.

On the other hand, BlackBerry as a platform is dying, and Windows Phone has very limited market share.

While the average revenue for Android developers is quite low, this doesn't mean it's impossible to make money with Android. There are just a lot of developers out there who are doing it for fun, or not putting much effort in. So far I've made over $1000/month with Android, with practically zero marketing budget, just from being persistent & trying a few different app ideas. Several other developers on the forum are also making similar amounts.

I would suggest you've got two options - Android, or Windows Phone. Android is currently where it's at - huge market share, growing daily, low barrier to entry & plenty of monetization options.

Windows Phone is not very profitable at the moment, but Microsoft is putting a lot of marketing clout behind this one (along with Nokia), so as a platform it's got a fair chance of taking off.

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