App Developers - realistically affordable

Yeah, I have a whole lot of great ideas for apps but I don`t like the prices either.. It`s just a newer market .. the prices will go down as more and more developers appear..

The job market is currently very good indeed for developers, so good ones aren't going to build an app for $50 or whatever.

I'm not sure prices will come down - the number of apps that need to be built is way bigger than the number of good developers in the world. Companies like fitbit are really shaking up entire niches, and there is a lot more of this to come.

Are you serious?
If it was easy then go out and do it. Look a web site is generally much simpler to put together then a app. Think kindergarten on the web development experience / value scale. App development and more importantly, quality app development that can get passed into the play stores is high school. Don't ever look at enterprise development rates lol.

A app is engineered. Your developer has to be able to put together the app overview then implement it. Even if they use all open source technologies they still have to make it all communicate and flow seamlessly.

If you can not afford to lay out 60 - 100k for a app you have 2 choices, don't or go to school for about 4 years then cut your teeth for about 2. Then you will laugh at this question with a hearty HAR HAR.

Let's also make clear, a lot of what get's put out and called a "app" are not in fact apps in the classic sense as they are reskins of a few common engines doing some pretty routine tasks. That can pare the cost down considerably. We took the same approach.

We developed a platform in house for our stuff that we develop a single code base and it produces a web / ios / android / blackberry / windows code base and binaries. It took us a year and about 4 full time staff members. However we can now develop a single app for all platforms in a very reduced time frame and cost per platform.

Creating an actual app is really time consuming job. And specially if its a game app you need much more then just a programmer. you need a designer, you need a sound expert, a tester etc etc. If you are looking for something extremely simple it can be done within a 3 digit amount, if you have some requirements or functions that have to be custom made for you, forget about it unless you have some solid start budget. Thats just the way it is.