What are the chances of making money from developing iPhone apps?

[Durbs]

Is this a realistic idea?

I heard there are something like 100,000 apps already available and it would cost a few quid to get set up with the kit to get started (I don't own a Mac or an iPhone).

Theres certainly money still to be made if you have a good enough idea or the skills to do something that already exists, but better. iPad market looks good and theres a lot less apps designed primarily for that.

Its a STEEP learning curve though, especially if you've not used a Mac before as you'd have to get used to the OS as well. Depends what you do - I'm a .NET developer and it took me a good few months to get my first app in the store, mainly because I had to learn the Xcode IDE that I was unfamiliar with.

Also Mac's aint cheap, but I used to develop on one of the older Core2Duo Mac Minis and they are fine for the job and can be picked up (relatively) cheaply on eBay.

Haven't made any money off it though as it was a free app to support one of my Plan B's.

Had a cool idea though and my next app is gonna make millions.

[NickFitz]

The gold rush ended a while ago; as others have said, there are still chances to make a few bob if you have something special, or can make something better than an existing product. You need to be very aware of marketing and such though: there are a lot of blogs offering good advice on how to market iPhone apps specifically, so Google for them.

One point I'm surprised people haven't made more of is that contracting rates for iOS devs are excellent - it's some of the better-paid contract work out there at the moment, assuming you're happy working in a trendy studio full of hipsters in Soho, producing ephemeral gubbins that ties in with big brands' marketing/advertising campaigns

Get a few apps in the App Store (even free ones) to establish a portfolio, and hit JobServe.