Brands usually make terrible apps. Very few work out well. Partially because people don’t want to spend money on a “brand” when, in all likelyhood, it’ll be a cobbled together mess of an app where other developers will do the same thing, cheaper and far better. Utilising the devices power and UI features.

Look at all the terrible clock alarm apps out there. The one that trumps them all is a simple but genius idea that uses the gyro to tell what cycle of sleep you’re in and produce a graph based on it. It has sold a huge amount. That developer can now go off and develop something else using that money to supplement the lack of income he/she’ll have while working on the next big thing.

Why?

Because the early adopters of the iPad will buy everything with “iPad Version” written on it, to test drive their new toy.

Just like the people who made the first app store apps… these fart noise machines and what not made load sof money. Useless now, of course, but the initial investment and time to develop a simple 79c app returned dividends and allowed the developers to go on and work on better apps later on. I know of one person who got into the Android store early and made bucket loads of cash on small, simple & cheap apps that do very little – like a fart noise machine or voice changer. The money was then re-invested to make a “serious” iPhone app which has gone on to do very well.