Digital Chocolate is planning to release many games in order to saturate
the iphone Free Market place.

BOYCOTT DIGITAL CHOCOLATE/TRIP HAWKIN GAMES.

Give the independent developer a chance you greedy bastards.

Of course bigger firms have the advantage. They ALWAYS do. Apple never stated that this was a "free market". There is really, in the present day, no such thing. There is ALWAYS some form of control over the market. Apple has a great deal of amount of control, yes, and bigger firms on the app store market, just like the market in real life, have an inherent advantage over small firms. This is widely known and accepted. The app store is NOT some newfangled market totally outside the realm of the same things that influence other markets.

How can other marketing be as good? No one said it was "as good", but rather that being featured by Apple is NOT the ONLY way in which marketing works for apps on the App Store market. Developers/publishers have the real ultimate power. There have been, in fact, apps that are NOT featured by Apple which have done well, and then, after doing well, Apple features them and they do better. But the fact remains that said apps did well without Apple's help initially, so there is no reason to think that success, at least initial success, depends SOLELY on being promoted by Apple. In fact, there have been reports of some apps that are promoted by Apple (featured apps in one of the feature spots) which STILL haven't done well. So it is NOT the "be all, end all" of marketing in the App Store market.

Again, if you want to ensure a better chance of your app doing well, you have to put in the legwork, and that doesn't mean just developing a "good" app. It means self promotion, self marketing. It doesn't ensure that your app will do well, but it ensures a better chance of it. And, again, being featured by Apple ensures an even better chance, but it doesn't totally negate the possibility of a financial failure.

I think he has a point.

So what I really think Apple should do with the next iTouch/Phone (not the small increment, but rather the major hardware revision coming in a few years) would be to merge the idea of iTouch/Phone with that of Apple TV. This merged idea would look like this: the iTouch/Phone would be the Apple TV (the hardware used), with a set "station" consisting of a connection dock for the iTouch/Phone, a harddrive, ethernet connection, and TV output connection facilitating charging, TV output, and downloads via iTunes…without the need for a computer as we know it.

Basically, think of it as a package consisting of the iTouch/Phone hardware and this "station" (which would look like the current AppleTV, but have only those things I pointed out) used for the things to which I alluded earlier. iTouch/Phone would drive the apps, and the music and shows and movies, but the "station" would take the place of what people normally use their PC or Mac for now when connected to iTunes and iTouch/Phone (extra storage, downloading system updates, faster downloads, etc.). Packaged and sold together, this would end the "requirement" of being tethered to a computer for system updates, etc., which would make it more likely to do well in the Japanese market.

Apple can highlight some choice apps, but it's not their job to promote everyone.

It's not Apple's job to promote a 3rd party's game; it's the 3rd party's job to promote their own products. Far too many 3rd parties (whether "big" devs or indie devs) don't do that very simple to grasp but difficult to execute job. Having a "good" game is not enough. You have to have eyes and ears on it from when it is announced to before release to after release and periodically afterwards as well to bump up sales. And Apple ain't gonna do it for you. And even if they do, you still have to put in most of the work by self promotion.

I agree on the lottery ticket metaphor–but I'm getting into iPhone gaming (on the side) because I figure the odds of paying are at least better than a REAL ticket