Table of Contents
PART I: THE BIRTH OF THE APP 1 Chapter 1: Introduction 3
Th ere’s Gold in Th em Hills 4
App Store Roulette 5
Challenges with the App Store 6
The App Community 8
The Siren Call 10
Why I Wrote Appillionaires 11
Where Will the Market Take Us? 11
The Band of Dreamers 14
Summary 15
Chapter 2: The Rise of the App 17
Apple’s False Start 18
Taking a Journey Back in Time 22
Finding a Carrier Was the Th ing 23
Summary 23
Chapter 3: A Bedroom Revolution 25
Birth of the App Store 25
What Apple Learned from the First Successful Apps 28
A Renaissance in Gaming 33
Summary 35
Chapter 4: The Gold Rush 37
A Taste of Success 37
Feeling the Appillionaire Buzz 39
The Fallacy of Easy Money 40
Summary 41
Chapter 5: The First Million 43
A Box of Delights 43
The Boy Genius 45
The Hacker Army Grows 47
Apps Invade by Stealth 49
The Bedroom Programmer Awakes 51
Summary 57
PART II: THE APPILLIONAIRES 59
Chapter 6: Doodle Jump 61
Croatian Dreams 62
Bubblewrap 64
If at First You Don't Succeed . . . 67
Tic Tac Toe 69
A Hand-Built Look and Feel 72
Doodle Jump Is Born 74
Doodle Jump 2 Is Born 83
How Doodle Jump Changed Th eir Lives 87
Summary 90
Chapter 7: Harbor Master 91
Romancing the App 92
Harbor Master Is Born 95
Behind the Scenes 101
Summary 103
Chapter 8: Pocket God 105
A Basic Start 106
Dropping Out 107
Hardware Secrets 109
How to Play God 110
The Evolution of Pocket God 114
The Life and Times of Castelnuovo 116
The Public's Reaction 118
Luck Is Part of the Formula 119
Summary 120
Chapter 9: StickWars 123
Defending the Castle 124
A Life at Sea 129
Summary 131
Chapter 10: Angry Birds 133
A Global Hit 134
52nd Time Lucky 135
A Rich History of Flying Animals 139
Bigger than the iPhone 142
Setting the App Standard 145
Summary 146
PART III: THE APP REVOLUTION 149
Chapter 11: From Bedroom to Boardroom 151
A Golden Age 151
An Escape from Corporate Tyranny 152
Invasion of the Body Snatchers 159
Summary 162
Chapter 12: Life in the Trenches 165
An Expensive Game 166
Trust-Fund Fantasies 170
Feeding Time 176
A Wicked Game 178
A Special Time in History 184
The Patent Th reat 190
Summary 191
Chapter 13: The Future of the App 193
The Changing of the Guard 194
What Makes a Killer App? 195
Summary 199
