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Recently IGM did a bit on the 9-year-old iTunes app developer. iTunes app developer as of late seems to be a good gig. Case in point, Ethan Nicholas, the developer if top rated iShoot app. Ethan quit his job last month at Sun Microsystems to be a full-time app developer. His prospects seem promising after writing iShoot in six weeks during his free time, and then generating $250,000 at $2.99 a pop. And that was a month ago. Not bad. In his blog Ethan describe his decision to quit Sun. "And while I freely accept that I might never have another hit, I have a tremendous amount of difficulty believing that I can’t make at least what I was making at Sun. iShoot won’t be at the top of the charts for long, but as long as it’s making even 2% of what it’s making now I’m still earning considerably more than my job at Sun pays." It's always a gamble to go out on your own, however, a cool quarter million is a nice safety net to give it a shot. While quitting a job in an uncertain economy brings up notions of a bird in a hand, the flip side is nothing is certain. As Ethan describes, "If the idea of giving up the “security” of working at a company that is cutting 6,000 jobs and faces an uncertain financial future for the “risk” of working at a job where you can live in style on just 2% of your current income sounds overly risky to you… seriously, grow a pair. Nothing is risk-free, and this is far less risky than staying at Sun. (Not that Sun isn’t a great company. I love Sun. But let’s be realistic here.)" The iTunes model spins software development on its head. Apple offers up a great distribution model, and gets a cut of course. This allows the 9-year-old in Singapore or moonlighting tech workers to hit it big time without worrying about getting distribution and shelf-space somewhere.
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