Everyone probably knows by now that Apple is making money from the iPhone. Factor in the 8 million units sold this year alone and the 100 million downloaded applications from the App Store and it’s not at all surprising to hear that the iPhone has been a very profitable venture so far for Steve Jobs and his company.

However, what about those developing the apps? Well, apparently, one such developer has managed to earn himself $250K in just two months for his mobile game Trism. It costs $5 to download, 70% of which goes to him and the rest to Apple. Not bad for a 3rd party developer, don’t you think? While his case maybe one of the more successful ones and there are probably some who are not as fortunate, you can’t deny that the whole iPhone-App Store tandem does give people like him better exposure to the public. The iPhone has not only become a hit for Apple, but its integration of the App Store has proven to be a very reliable sales platform for software developers as well.

If Microsoft and the others wish to compete with the iPhone and get support from 3rd party developers, they likewise have to come up with a solution to rival the App Store. We know the Android team’s got the Market; I wonder what the Symbian Foundation and Microsoft have up their sleeves?

[source]