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The number one selling iPhone Application last month was iFart. The modern day whoopy cushion, it allows its childish owner to select from a variety of sounds, set a timer and then prank an unsuspecting victim with the most humerous sound known to man (no I'm not being sexist, men do find this a lot more funny than women).
By my rough calculations, to be the number one downloaded iPhone Application worldwide, would require you to sell about 250,000 versions per month (although I can't find the exact number). At 99c per download the iFart Application would gross its creator (who could very well be a 14 year old) close to $250,000 per month!
Now considering that this App might have taken all of a few days to create and Apples cut is only 20%, that's not a bad ROI!
iPhone applications are big business. Techcrunch projects that a BILLION downloads of iPhone Apps could happen in the first 12 months of the App Store being open. That would make it as big of a success as iTunes.
The difference is that iTunes music store has a library of 10Million songs however the App Store has just "10,000 Apps and Counting". That's a lot of cash to go around.
The californian gold rush of 2009 might just be finding silly little ways to entertain and delight the 15M+ iPhone users worldwide. So, if you hear your 14 year old making terrible sounds in their bedroom, fingers crossed they are recording it.
This month is the third solid month of mass layoffs since the house of corporate cards began to fall. Hundreds of thousands of highly skilled people find themselves looking for work, hoping for a fast break that will prevent them from defaulting on the loans that prop up the "good life".
But as the shocking news spreads about these disastrous layoffs lets not forget that behind it all there is a whopping big secret...
...Hardly anyone really wants their corporate job to begin with!
Movies are made, books are written and songs are sung about people who break free from the office shackles to pursue a greater and more fulfilling purpose with their life.
They go on to start their own small businesses, run marathons through the Sahara, volunteer for charity, act in a musical, audition for a play or even sell widgets on ebay between play time with the kids.
Sometimes people need to be pushed from the nest in order to discover their brave spark and to see their value.
I can guarantee that there will be some green eyes peering at those "unfortunate folk" who are packing their desks and taking their first steps into the uncertain, bold new world that lies beyond the homogeneous days of meetings and reports in a corporate cubicle.
Five years later he had sunk all of his money into the film, been arrested on attempted murder, chased by the mafia and had come close to death several times (none from sharks).
What he stumbled upon was one of the greatest environmental crimes of our time and an issue that no one would champion. The mass decimation of shark populations is linked to the high price of shark fin soup in Asia. It is big business and over 100 million sharks are finned alive each year for it.
Rob's film was released in 2007 and won 26 awards and found distribution all over the world. His story was picked up by the media and his message has caused waves of change.
Rob's courage to follow his passion has paid big dividends. His message has been heard, his film making career is powering and he has won well-earned admiration all over the world. Be sure to see "Sharkwater".
eBay's roots date back to 1995 when (co-)founder Pierre Omidyar and his fiancé were talking about the difficulty she was having trying to contact other people who collect Pez candy dispensers. Omidyar realized the Internet would be the perfect vehicle to create a trading community, but on-line auctions were still more a concept than a business when Skoll and Omidyar quit their jobs a year later to work on the project full-time.
As founding President of eBay, Jeff Skoll has had a track record of launching businesses that result in positive social change. At eBay, he developed the business plan that the company still follows today, creating entrepreneurial opportunities for individuals around the world. In 1998 he inspired the company to take an active role in philanthropy, pioneering creation of the eBay Foundation through the allocation of pre-IPO shares. This innovation sparked similar initiatives by other young companies in high-technology hubs across the United States.
In 1999 Jeff created the Skoll Foundation, which takes an entrepreneurial approach to philanthropy by investing in, connecting and celebrating the world's most promising social entrepreneurs in order to effect lasting, positive social change worldwide. Through its Skoll Awards for Social Entrepreneurship, the foundation provides financing and complementary services to leading social entrepreneurs whose innovations are poised for growth and replication.
In 2004 Jeff founded Participant Productions, a global media company that produces entertainment to inspire and compel social change. Participant's 2005 films, including Good Night, and Good Luck, Syriana and North Country, collectively garnered 11 Academy Award nominations. One of its 2006 releases, An Inconvenient Truth, has been at the forefront in driving an unprecedented grassroots commitment to address climate change and has received two Academy Awards.
In April 2005 Jeff partnered with Silicon Valley entrepreneur Kamran Elahian to launch The Gandhi Project, which dubbed the epic film Gandhi into Arabic in order to screen it throughout the Palestinian territories. Working with nongovernmental organization partners, The Gandhi Project promotes nonviolent resistance and the teachings of Mahatma Gandhi through screenings combined with discussion. Plans are under way to expand the project throughout the Arab world.
Today Skoll serves as Chairman of Participant Productions and the Skoll Foundation and resides in California. In 2006 he was named as one of TIME Magazine's 100 People of the Year.
In 1904, 43 year-old engineer Henry Royce sat with a 27 year-old, pioneering car dealer, Charles Rolls to discuss the idea of selling his cars in Britain. In 1906, the pair formed their new company Rolls Royce Limited. In their first year of business, they won several awards for quality engineering.
Charles Royce was as passionate about airplanes as he was automobiles, forming the Royal Aero Club in 1903 and becoming the 2nd person to be certified by it. He broke several records in hot air balloons and aero-planes before disaster struck in 1910. Rolls was piloting a Write Flyer when the tail snapped off and he was the first Briton to die in a plane crash at just 33 years old.
Henry Rolls assumed custodianship of his partners legacy for excellence in automotive and aeronautic engineering and began manufacturing plane engines as well as cars in 1914. This proved to be a stroke of genius when war broke and Rolls Royce was able to finance its growth by making engines for planes during the war.
The company swelled and in 1931 bought out its rival, Bentley, during the great depression.
Today the Rolls Royce brand has the “Super Luxury Car” category almost entirely tied up, it works with Airbus and Boeing to provide state-of-the-art engines for their flying fleet and it's brand is one of the most well known and respected in the world.
Charles Rolls will never know the strength and importance of his legacy however by following his passion boldly he has become an immortalized figure in Briton's history.
One of the greatest entrepreneurs in history, Steve Jobs is one of only a handful of people to ever create more than one businesses worth over a billion dollars. After creating the first personal computers and building a billion dollar company while still in his 20's, Jobs was fired from Apple at age 30.
Steve Jobs went on to acquire Pixar from George Lucas which released Toy Story, a blockbuster success at the box office. After growing and merging his second Billion Dollar Company, he became the single largest shareholder of Disney. He then returned to the stagnating Apple Corporation where the innovative iTunes and iPod combination resurrected the failing technology giant to make it one of the strongest brands on the planet.
This inspiring entrepreneur has transformed the way the world relates to computers, movies and music!
This video shares some of the critical moments that have shaped Steve Job's life and indeed billions of people worldwide.
In this episode of Ted Talks, Richard Branson advances the term "capitalist philanthropy". The concept of not just acquiring wealth for the sake of getting richer and bigger and better goodies, but in turn using that responsibility of power to help humanity and the small planet in which we inhabit.
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