Ethan Nicholas used to work for Sun Microsystems. That was, until he whipped up a little iPhone game called iShoot in his spare time. Now, he doesn't work for Sun anymore, because he's filthy rich.
Unlike other major platforms (ie anything run by Microsoft, Sony or Nintendo), Apple's App Store for the iPhone (and iPod Touch) lets developers keep a reasonable share of the profits of a game. So when iShoot quickly shot to the top of the store's games charts, Nicholas was in line to make a lot of cash.
How much cash? At the moment, he's averaging a take of, oh, $37,000. A day. That's over $600,000 to date.
"I'm not going to be a millionaire in the next month, but I'd be shocked if it didn't happen at the end of the year," he told Wired. "If it weren't for taxes I would be a millionaire right now".
Coder's Half-Million-Dollar Baby Proves iPhone Gold Rush Is Still On [Wired]