Webgoose.com owner Matt Staton, like other direct iPhone app developers, has a 70-30 percent revenue agreement with Apple for his two apps: Get Served and Unclaimed Funds.

That’s on top of a $99 a year fee. Still it could be well worth it if either of his apps make it big. As described in this article, Get Served already has about 2,000 downloads in 45 or so days and Staton can envision it picking up steam. Staton isn’t oblivious to the idea that one runs the risk of looking silly holding up on iPhone to flag down a bartender, though he insists it’s been a hit everywhere he has tried it out. If that’s the case, more downloads will come in. If that happens, more advertisers will come and Apple could be compelled to give the app more promotional attention. His eventual dream is to procure “real money” by approaching entities like the Miller Brewing Co. to purchase advertising within his app, which by this point would be a success with the downloads and subscriptions to back it.

“It’s exciting for me because I’d love to walk in as a Matt Staton, who lives in Willowick, Ohio, but knock on the door of a multi-billion-dollar company like Miller and say, ‘look what we can provide to you. We have 100,000 users and they are using your products.’ We have some high hopes for it because there are lots of companies with lots of advertising dollars.”

The belief is that a free app like Get Served is better suited to make money by limited use and ads, while a for-money one like Staton’s Unclaimed Funds draws in dollars by the user fees. His Miller idea, as well as previously discussed ones about GPS-based advertising of area sports bars, may sound far fetched to some, but what business idea doesn’t seem that way to outsiders before it actually happens?

Staton and others are also prepping apps for Blackberries, Droids and other mobile devices, but it’s obvious that Apple’s popular App store is where it’s at (Google is incentivizing app developers with comparably light annual fees to create apps for the Droid). It will be interesting to see how many other business owners in the area decide to develop apps themselves or employ others to do so. It is certainly another useful way to market products and if Apple opens its iPhone to other carriers, like the rumored deal with Verizon, then the technology’s foothold and power will only increase.

-- Brandon C. Baker

-- Screenshot courtesy of iTunes.com