Cool, elegant and useful the iPad is the programmer’s dream

The Apple iPad is not the end of computing as we know it but it is going to make a difference.

After the naysayers have their way, the iPad will ship in a few months and millions of people will start using them and exploring what they can do. Several thousand programmers are getting ready to show them new apps that will be downloaded from the Apple iTune App Store. For those programmers it means 70% of what was $250 million in December 2009.

The Apple iPad represents one of the best self-employment opportunities for Mac Developers in decades. They don’t need a 10 person start-up. Programmers only need the SDK and one good idea. There are millions of good ideas for software that will run on the iPad.

The programmers may not get rich, but thanks to the iTunes distribution model, they get a good shot at selling some software with a high return.

Bob Thibodeau in ComputerWorld wrote If you want a job, build an iPad App. The point is well made.

According to gigacom.com, the Apple App Store Economy has 133,979 apps for easy download that were developed by a mere 28,000 developers, who waited only 5 days for Apple to approve their App Store listing.

App Store customers download 4 apps a month and buy one. They spend $4.37 per user every month which generated $250 million in January and $170 million went back to the developers.

Of 58 million App Store users, 23 million have an iTouch which is the baby of the iPad. These people are the ready-waiting-and willing market for iPad applications.

Getting a product to market efficiently has been the problem for most developers. Apple took away that barrier to market.

Some people chafe at Apple’s restrictions but that’s the price of letting them help you make money.

If that doesn’t sound like a dream come true for self-employed developers, I’m not sure what they want.