Do people really write apps and maintain them as a hobby?

Maintenance is the hassle, especially when your app needs to adapt to 3rd party changes.

I've found a way to make a thousand people's life's a tiny bit easier, and it only costs me a couple of days per year, so I keep the apps running out of a sense of civic duty.

Having to pay one off the most profitable companies in the world before I can provide that service seems weird.

Like charging charity workers for the privilege of helping.

I've just checked the apple app store. They is an lack of apps in my niche, the nearest available is significantly more basic, costs $3 and has only one review.

And having said all that, Android's Play Store has been getting increasingly annoying with policy changes in recent years, and if it wasn't for the positive reviews I'd have abandoned the apps.

Naw.

When I was a student or freshly qualified, $100/year would've been a lot.

But it's more than just the money.

I've coded hobby / small android apps. I was charged a one off fee of $25, and I can use my nice gaming PC with my lovely high end mouse and keyboard, and over the years I've used Windows and Linux to write the apps, both from a shared hdd.

My apps aren't useful to the general public, but I've got a couple of decades experience in my field, and those apps are genuinely helpful to the people that use them.

For apple, the last time I looked into it, I'd have needed a specific type of apple computer (one with an intel chip, couldn't compile on the cheaper non-intel chips).

That automatically makes it a pain in the ass, I couldn't just use my normal PC for coding. I'd need to transfer assets to a network share or use a convoluted way of keeping the same assets updated on two computers, and look into ways I could use the same mouse/keyboard on both machines. Would using a splitter or KVM cause problems? Input lag when gaming? Would it need a power brick? Just finding the desk space for another PC case would mess up my speaker layout.

It just adds unnecessary complexity, and to slap a $100 yearly fee on top is just insulting.

Absolutely not worth my time for apps that would never make $100/year in sales (which after apples 30% cut, would need to be $142/year. Plus extra for taxes and occasional iMac upgrades).

Maybe things have changed since then, but every time I use a small, niche app or find a wonderful free app, I wonder if it'll exist on apple.

I upvote things I like, and don't want to be one of those people who comment "THIS!", but you did proper research and it didn't get the acknowledgement it deserved.

Thank you the for data, I found it insightful.

Android Debug Bridge.

It's used automatically when programming android apps on your PC (it'll send the development app to the phone and tell the phone to run it), but you can also use it to run commands on the phone that it normally wouldn't allow, and can sometimes unbrick a dead phone.

It can't fix everything, but it gives you a lot more control over the phone than you'd get otherwise.