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At first, Jon Trainer had visions of retirement. The software developer had created a game that could be played on the Apple iPhone and iPod touch devices, and sales were through the roof. Users of the iPhone couldn’t get enough of the $7.99 “Bullfrog Touch,” which pits a ravenous swampland amphibian against a swarm of invading insects. After two weeks, reality set in. “People moved on,” Trainer says. The number of nifty new software-based games, tools and other pastimes came flooding into the online App Store, elbowing aside early entrants.

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The iPhone Apps Sweepstakes

Can developing free software for mobile phones be a business? It can if you’re Illusion Labs, a fledgling company in the Swedish port city of Malm. Illusion Labs was started a year ago by Carl Loodberg and Andreas Alptun, who had worked together at another Swedish company called “TAT,” designing software for companies including Samsung and Nvidia. They set up their own company so they could concentrate on developing applications specifically for Apple’s iPhone.

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How to Make Money Off Free iPhone Games

iPhone and iPod touch users have downloaded over 60 million applications from the company’s App Store in the 30 days since it opened, according to CEO Steve Jobs. Although a great deal of the applications in the App Store are free, users have purchased $30 million in software since the store’s opening, Jobs said. “I don’t think those numbers are shocking,” Joshua Martin, a Yankee Group analyst, told MacNewsWorld. “It’s a good sign for Apple, especially with [somewhere between] 6 and 8 million iPhones out there at this point, it’s about 10 apps per phone.”

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Jobs Trumpets App Store’s Bursting Till, Confirms Kill Switch

Apple’s new iPhone App Store is full of ways to waste time, but some Houston entrepreneurs are trying to leverage the device’s popularity to turn a profit. Houston private equity investment adviser, software developer and private pilot Tyson Weihs, 32, appears to be one of the early success stories. In the first weekend after the iPhone 3G launched July 11, Weihs’ application, ForeFlight, brought in an estimated $3.4 million, according to Medialets, a mobile advertising analytics firm tracking iPhone application sales.

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Bringing In the Bucks With Practical iPhone Apps

Call it the iPhone economy. Apple’s soon-to-open online App Store has triggered a scramble among software developers to write business plans aimed at making money off Apple’s iPhone, a mini-computer that doubles as a phone. “I’m seeing an excitement among mobile developers that I’ve never seen before,” said Sam Altman, chief executive and cofounder of Mountain View, Calif.-based Loopt, a location-based social networking service. “People who said they’d never start a mobile company because they didn’t want to rely on the carriers are now starting companies focused only on the iPhone.”

iPhone App Store: A Beacon for Mobile Devs?