>In 2008, is it too late to start writing software, actual installable software, and sell it on the internet?
Hahahaha .. funny. Of course, not. Here's some anecdotal and motivational evidence for you:
# Project 1 - a software to deal with file transfers - feeds about 10 people for past 10 years. 3-4 major competitors of the same level and in the same niche. End-user oriented, effectively outdated at the moment, but still selling well due to a market inertia. The program itself is about 3-5 months of work to write from scratch (e.g. by just looking at the screenshots and a feature list).
# Project 2 - network sniffer application - brings about 800k a year in sales. Oriented on professional market, sales cycle is outsourced to a dedicated company and so it the support.
# Project 3 - a remote computer/desktop access app. I don't know exact numbers, but they are in the range of #2.
These are not, of course, very typical, but they all are single-developer projects. Moreover their success is a result of persistent focused effort rather than a fad or a blind luck. On the other hand if you work on a project in your spare time, it's not unreasonable to expect 10-30k a year. Assuming you are catering to a general home user crowd and your app in fact works and doesn't look like crap.
Also, if you investigate shareware development a bit you will see that there's an established and mature "shareware support" ecosystem. In a simple case you just write an app and other people will gladly do the rest - anything from creating a website and producing boxed version of the app (i.e. "publishing") to payment processing and a front-line support (i.e. "e-com"). Some care is needed dealing with these guys though, because frequently they rely on ignorance of the developer to milk him out of disproportionate % of a revenue.
Good luck, dude. You asked a great question and the answer is that the shareware is very much doable and it is in fact less delusional get-rich scheme compared to web-2.0 craze.
In short - hell, yes.
>In 2008, is it too late to start writing software, actual installable software, and sell it on the internet?
Hahahaha .. funny. Of course, not. Here's some anecdotal and motivational evidence for you:
# Project 1 - a software to deal with file transfers - feeds about 10 people for past 10 years. 3-4 major competitors of the same level and in the same niche. End-user oriented, effectively outdated at the moment, but still selling well due to a market inertia. The program itself is about 3-5 months of work to write from scratch (e.g. by just looking at the screenshots and a feature list).
# Project 2 - network sniffer application - brings about 800k a year in sales. Oriented on professional market, sales cycle is outsourced to a dedicated company and so it the support.
# Project 3 - a remote computer/desktop access app. I don't know exact numbers, but they are in the range of #2.
These are not, of course, very typical, but they all are single-developer projects. Moreover their success is a result of persistent focused effort rather than a fad or a blind luck. On the other hand if you work on a project in your spare time, it's not unreasonable to expect 10-30k a year. Assuming you are catering to a general home user crowd and your app in fact works and doesn't look like crap.
Also, if you investigate shareware development a bit you will see that there's an established and mature "shareware support" ecosystem. In a simple case you just write an app and other people will gladly do the rest - anything from creating a website and producing boxed version of the app (i.e. "publishing") to payment processing and a front-line support (i.e. "e-com"). Some care is needed dealing with these guys though, because frequently they rely on ignorance of the developer to milk him out of disproportionate % of a revenue.
Good luck, dude. You asked a great question and the answer is that the shareware is very much doable and it is in fact less delusional get-rich scheme compared to web-2.0 craze.