A question for developers.

I was talking to a couple of my mates who, unlike me, are android app developers. We got to a part in the discussion about revenue and what it actually means to developers. One of my mates said that he enjoys making revenue and its a perk but he enjoys creating /marketing the apps more. Upon him saying this, I replied with a question asking why he separated "creating and marketing" and he said sometimes he doesn't always create the apps he makes revenue with. I asked how and he said he purchases already established apps with revenue made from other apps of his and makes revenue with them. The discussion sort of died down from there and it got me thinking, how many developers actually use this method or is it just him? Do any of you use this method with success? If you haven't heard of this method before, would you consider it? First time I have ever thought about it. It would mean that even non-developers could benefit from the market if they had a little bit of money behind them. It seems like quite a good idea to me and something I could be interested in. He seems to make quite a bit of money with it.

Discuss?

I just moved the thread over to the developers forum. You might get better answers there.

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Android News I Android Apps I > App Center

Hey Daniel, I think what you're trying to say is that your friend purchases established apps in the Android Market, does marketing and user acquisition for them, and tried to recoup his investment. Is that correct?

If this is the case, I can tell you right away that it's not going to be a sure money maker without some serious knowledge of the Android Market (how to market on it, etc), some concept of what makes a good app (app design), some idea of what trends are taking place, and a bit of startup capital. I don't think this is necessarily a good career, but I'm sure that individuals with at least two of those four things can take a crack at it. I'm guessing that his knowledge of Android development helps him make minor tweaks and changes to the apps, which in turn makes them more profitable as well, so it's a long list of skills that he is leveraging to make this happen

People do this with websites all the time. Some people create websites with the hopes of making money... but fail. So they sell their websites ( on Flippa.com or Ebay.com or whatever ) and the person who buys them, hopefully, has a better grasp of making money with the website. So the seller has done all the hard work, and the buyer makes the money because they know how to add value to the website.

The same thing is happening with Apps now. I'm seeing a lot of these websites popping up, but they are no where near as popular as Flippa.com, which is the de-facto marketing place for selling websites.

http://apptrading.com/
http://www.appsbidder.com/
http://buysellapp.com/