…It costs $99 and it’s called the App Store. This post over at the FairSoftware Blog starts out funny, but ends up making sense. If you’re working toward a degree in Computer Science, you’ll be writing (one hopes) cool and useful programs. Unless your future plans for world domination necessitate a separate MBA degree, consider the quick and dirty (and extremely practical) business lesson that selling your iPhone app at the App Store will provide.

You’ll be out the $99 fee to become a registered iPhone developer. That’s less than a textbook would run you, and you’ll have the chance to make that cash back, assuming you learn your MBA lessons well and write a kick-ass iPhone app that people will want to buy.

According to FairSoftware, here’s what you’ll learn by doing:

Marketing: How do users hear about your app? How can you create some buzz to attract more people? You will learn that having an amazing technical product is nothing if you can’t communicate its value.

Customer support: You will be forced to look at your product with the eyes of your end user. Is the app really intuitive? How come every user seems to be making the same usability mistake? You will learn to respect your end user and project yourself to code for what they need, not what you think is neat.

Economics: By now you should be having fun. Some money is coming in. You’d want more. How can you manage that? Maybe it’s time to bring on board another student to help with support or graphics. How much will that cost you? Is that a good return on investment? You will learn to make your own business decisions.

Posted by Alexa Harrington

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