【实例披露】小软件赚大钱的新路子

大钱, 路子, 实例, 软件

内容是英文配图资料，内有详细的销售数据，已经翻译成了中文。

iPhone game saves a family's home
Matt Ehlers - Staff Writer
Published: Sat, Feb. 21, 2009 12:30AMModified Sat, Feb. 21, 2009 04:14AM

WAKE FOREST -- With unexpected medical bills piling up and his employer suspending its bonus program, Ethan Nicholas and his family faced a financial crisis.
因为突来的医疗费用，以及老板停发奖金，伊桑·尼古拉斯全家陷入财政危机。

So he struck a deal with his wife, Nicole: If she took on more responsibility in caring for their two young boys, he would devote the hours before and after his regular job to building a video game for the Apple iPhone.
他和老婆商量，老婆负责带两个儿子，他抽出下班后的时间开发iPhone的视频游戏。

The 30-year-old computer programmer hoped to sell enough copies of the game that the couple wouldn't have to put their home on the market.
这个30岁的计算机程序员希望卖出足够多的软件拷贝，以免被迫卖房。

Game-designer Ethan Nicholas, 30, of Wake Forest spends a good bit of his time working on his Apple laptop while sitting on the couch in his living room. It's paid off.

Staff Photos by Corey Lowenstein - Ethan Nicholas' hot-selling iPhone game.

That was more than $700,000 ago.
现在，这个小游戏让他净赚七百万美金。

The game Nicholas built, "iShoot," sat atop the most downloaded list in the iPhone application online store for weeks. Phone users couldn't get enough of the game, which features tiny battling tanks and sells for $2.99.
尼古拉斯做的游戏叫“iShoot”，连续数周在苹果软件网店上的下载量都名列前茅。这是个小型坦克战斗游戏，手机用户非常爱玩，每个拷贝只卖2.99美金。

Did he expect it?
当初他完全想不到今天能赚这么多钱。

"Nobody could, for a little tank game I wrote in six weeks on my couch."
“谁能想到，我在沙发上只不过花了6周的时间就开发出来了。”

An Apple spokeswoman said she could not share sales figures about a specific game, but noted that more than 15,000 different applications have been made available since the App Store's launch in July 2008. They have been downloaded more than 500 million times.
一个苹果的发言人说，她不便透露具体某个游戏的销售数字，但她可以公布的是，从08年7月以来，苹果商店里已经出现了超过一万五千多个软件，总下载量超5亿。

A double hit
双重出击

Pinch Media, an analytics and market-research company that specializes in smart-phone applications, confirmed that iShoot topped the best-selling app list for more than three weeks. To help goose sales of iShoot, Nicholas released a free version, iShoot Lite.
Pinch媒体，一家专门从事智能手机软件市场分析和研究的公司证实，iShoot 确实在苹果网上商店的销售榜上稳居榜首长达三个多星期。为了提升销量，尼古拉斯还发布了一个名为iShoot lite的免费版。

For a few days, iShoot Lite was No. 1 on the free download list, while iShoot topped the paid-download list, said Greg Yardley, CEO of Pinch Media.
“几天后，免费版就蹿升上了免费游戏的第一名，而收费版在付费下载列表里也相当风光。”Pinch媒体的CEO Greg Yardley 说。

Because iPhone applications tend to be inexpensive and can be downloaded on the go, users can buy on impulse, Yardley said.
“因为iPhone软件的售价普遍低廉，且可在运行其他软件的时候同步下载，用户往往一时冲动就买了。”Greg Yardley 接着说道。

And by setting up a store where programmers can sell their wares, Apple has "made it very easy for developers to make money."
通过开设自己的商店，程序员就能销售自己的作品，“苹果让开发者赚钱变得非常容易”。

For every $2.99 game that Nicholas sells, Apple keeps 30 percent. Nicholas gets the rest -- about $2.09 for every game sold.
每销售一个2.99美金的游戏，苹果要分走三成的销售额，尼古拉斯得七成，大约每个游戏能赚到手2.09美金。

"I am thrilled to give them 30 percent," Nicholas said. "I wouldn't have made a penny without them."
“我很激动地分给他们（苹果）三成，”尼古拉斯说，“没有他们，我一分钱也赚不着。”

Prior to his iShoot coup, Nicholas worked from home as a programmer for Sun Microsystems.
在iShoot推出以前，尼古拉斯是SUN公司的一名在家工作的程序员。

On Jan. 6, he made about $2,000 on the iShoot game. On Jan. 11, he gave his two week's notice to Sun.
1月6日，他从ishoot游戏中赚到了2千美金，1月11日，他向SUN提交了两周后离职的辞呈。

On his best sales day, Nicholas said he sold more than 17,000 copies of the game. He earned about $37,000 before taxes that day, all for a game he designed "holding a bottle in one hand and typing with the other."
销量最佳的一天，尼古拉斯说，他卖掉了一万七千多份的拷贝，税前收入在三万七千美金左右。所有这一切，只不过是他一手拿酒瓶，一手敲键盘写出来的一个小游戏罢了。

Nicholas, who graduated from Enloe High School in Raleigh and later dropped out of N.C. State University to start his programming career in earnest, built the game on a laptop while sitting on his living room couch.
尼古拉斯毕业于洛里的恩洛高中，后来在就读北卡罗来纳州州立大学时辍学，然后就开始了他职业生涯中编程人生，坐在客厅沙发上，在笔记本上开发小游戏。

He wanted to work where he could easily interact with his sons -- Spencer, 3, and Gavin, 19 months.
他想一边工作，一边能照顾两个年幼的儿子：三岁的Spencer，19个月大的Gavin

Nicole said she had no hesitation about his taking on the iPhone project.
妮可说，她毫不犹豫地就支持了丈夫开发iPhone项目。

"I really believe in him. I have faith in what he does," she said.
她说：“我真的相信他，我对他做的一切也很有信心。”

For her dedication during the building phase, they used some of the money to buy her a new laptop.
为了奖励她在游戏开发期间的全力支持，尼古拉斯为老婆买了一台新笔记本电脑。

Nicholas built iShoot because he's always enjoyed artillery-style games, and a good one hadn't been devised for the iPhone.
尼古拉斯开发iShoot，是因为他非常喜欢这种炮击游戏，而且iPhone上也还没有这样的游戏可用。

He's already working on iShoot version 2.0, and has another game in development for the iPhone.
他目前正在开发 iShoot 2.0 版，以及其他的iPhone游戏。

He's also started his own company, Naughty Bits software, to concentrate on building iPhone games.
他也开创了自己的公司——Naughty Bits software，专门开发iPhone游戏。

The market for iPhone applications is so new, it's difficult to know what the future holds, he said.
“iPhone软件市场目前仍然还是一个新兴市场，前景不可限量。”他说。

But he's going to find out, on the couch in the home that his family loves.
但是他也在沙发上思考寻找出他家人喜欢的东西。

原文链接：http://www.newsobserver.com/front/story/1413551.html

[ 本帖最后由 Joe 于 2009-2-22 23:07 编辑 ]

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