The Beauty Of Simple Execution - What we can learn from an iphone app

Some of the biggest hits of the business and internet world share one thing: a simple concept executed flawlessly. Google let's you search for web pages. Facebook connects you with your friends. Microsoft allows you to start your computer (okay maybe not flawlessly).

And the same holds true for iphone applications. The above image is from Flight Control, the unofficial #1 app for the iphone. Airplanes come on the screen, and you touch them and trace their path to the proper runway. Sound simple? It is and that's the beauty of it.

My wife, Tara, is by no means a video game player. She never even passed world 1 in Mario Brothers, something I thought every 20-something had done. But my iphone is constantly missing and I hear the familiar ding of planes sucessfully landing... followed by a crashing sound and a loud "DANG IT!". (Her high scores are 137, 116, and 59 for levels 1, 2, and 3 respectively).

In fact, we joke about her getting a $200 ipod touch just so she can play a 99 cent game! How in the world can you make money selling a 99 cent game? How about sell 700,000 copies in just over a month! FireMint, the publisher of Flight Control, has committed to make all sales figures of Flight Control available to the developer community. They released their first 16 page report detailing sales for the first month.

Where this gets really interesting is if you compare these sales to something mainstream like the Xbox. Grand Theft Auto IV generated $500 Million in sales in it's first month. Sounds totally uncomparable, but consider the fact that it took 3.5 years to develop and over 150 developers. That equals $57k per developer-month in revenue generated in the first month. Flight Control lists 10 people on the credits. Assuming it took 3 months, that equals $23.3k per developer-month.

To accomplish effectively 50% of the highest grossing video game in history is pretty good considering Flight Control is a new game on a new platform. That's why I love the iphone platform. Mainstream video games have turned into Hollywood productions with hundreds of staff and a bankroll in the millions before you even think about getting started. A handful of guys/girls can get together and write an iphone app in a few months and make almost $1 Million the first month. The great equalizer.

It doesn't take an army of people with an amazing complex idea to become a success. Just a handful of people, a simple idea, and flawless execution.