He rightly points out that in this market, ideas are worthless. I’ve seen this in software development before – an idea, all by itself, is worth nothing, and it’s the execution of the idea that matters. The author of this article says: “I am someone who is highly motivated by ideas. So, it pains me to say that the value of an iPhone application idea right now is pretty much zero. A great idea isn’t worth anything under these conditions. There is no shortage of great iPhone ideas, just a shortage of talent to bring these ideas to market.” For someone like me, who doesn’t seem to have a creative bone in my body (kidding!), I think that ideas are worth slightly more than that. But not much.

Which brings me to my point. I see lots of people offer to work with a developer and split the profits 50/50. In this market where a developer’s time is so precious, I hardly think that this would be any motivation for a developer at all. The idea person gets half the profit and the person that does all the work gets the other half? Hardly seems fair. Especially given the fact that the split isn’t actually 50/50. It’s 30/35/35. That is, Apple gets 30%, the “idea person” gets 35%, and the person who creates the app gets 35%. That’s even more unbalanced.

As an experienced developer who’s now doing iPhone development, I don’t see any iPhone devs making $125/hour. Maybe I just don’t know where to look? I’ve been looking for good telecommuting iPhone jobs, and they’re hard to find. I’m starting to be open to finding someone who is willing to offer me a true 50/50 split (that is, 30/20/50). But I still think full time/contract work is what I want.

Thoughts?