When the iPhone first debuted back in 2007 there were only
a handful apps available. However,
today there are over 500,000 applications in the Apple app store alone,
according to Apple. Some of the
most popular of these apps include games such as Angry Birds. According to Wired Magazine, Angry
Birds, which was created by the software company Rovio, has made over 70
million dollars in revenue since debuting in late 2009 (Cheshire 2011). What is staggering is that the cost to
make the app Angry Birds was roughly 140,000 dollars (Cheshire 2011). That equals a 500 percent profit. What is even more amazing is that Angry
Birds is available as a free application.
All their money is made off advertising and merchandise. They also sell an ad-free version of
the popular game for 99 cents.
Rovio has enjoyed much success in the recent years because of the app
phenomenon. Now there is Angry
Birds clothing, stuffed animals and even candy. Rovio has even been approached by another gaming company
called Zynga to be bought out for $2.5 billion (Gaudioso 2011). However,
Rovio decided not to go through with it and instead continuing developing their
own content. Zynga is successful
in their own right making the popular application games such as Mafia Wars and
Farmville. Zynga is currently
traded on Nasdaq with a market value of $1,293,000,000 and sells at $12.93 a
share (Nasdaq 2012). The company
Rovio also plans on going public on the stock market soon (Cheshire 2011). To say that some app developers are
successful would be an understatement.
References:
Gaudioso, John. “Angry Birds Developer Rovio Is Growing
Faster Than Zynga” Forbes.com. 9 December 2011.
Cheshire, Tom. Magazine. “In depth: How Rovio made Angry Birds a winner (and what's
next)” Wired Magazine. 7 March 2011.
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