gatti Wrote:However, programmers in USA or other European countries are at a starting point of $50/hour.

My friends in Phoenix say it's more like $100 on up for contract programming (not referring specifically to iPhone, but just general PC programming). I have no personal contact with any of that though, so take it with copious amounts of NaCl.

@ ttkauffman: Kodex has some really good points. The iPhone developer situation is really a major supply and demand model at the moment, and right now the developers are in *extremely* high demand and short supply. If you can get a contractor to do it off-shore for 1-2k in 4 weeks, you should drop your objections to language barriers and go for it right away! I expect this situation will change greatly in the next nine months, but right now we're all so busy handling our own products, for what looks like potentially outrageous money, that there's just no way most (if not all) of us could consider accommodating your request. Anything less than a dump-truck full o' money just isn't going to attract much attention at the moment, as far as I can tell. iPhone is great to develop for, but it's not a no-brainer yet. If you want in *right now* you'll likely have to pay handsomely for the spot. It's possible an affordable US offer might show up right now, but I'm skeptical they'd know what they're doing. I wish you good luck with it, but off-shore developers seem like your best bet to me right now.

AnotherJake Wrote:My friends in Phoenix say it's more like $100 on up for contract programming (not referring specifically to iPhone, but just general PC programming). I have no personal contact with any of that though, so take it with copious amounts of NaCl.

As a Phoenix area contract programmer I second that. I normally charge $80/hr but with the iPhone it has been so crazy that I couldn't take on anymore work if I wanted to.

gatti Wrote:However, programmers in USA or other European countries are at a starting point of $50/hour.

Hey, so I'm getting into the right business?

Just to clarify, my price point was mainly for beginners in the field (mainly college folk or sole-proprietorships). Prices definitely go high though... the consulting firm I work for bills my web/design time at $150/hour, but they are established.

Hairball183 Wrote:Hey, so I'm getting into the right business?

Well like all contract work, $100/hr does not mean 40 hours per week, 52 weeks per year. There is downtime, dry spells, and a host of other issues. But software engineers make a very good living. It is hard work but if you enjoy it is very rewarding. You will make a lot more working for someone else then yourself however.

Once you become experienced you can expect to make towards 100k/year with most companies. Entry level work in the field will typically be around 60k/year depending on your cost of living and such. San Francisco pays more then Arizona. If you become a master in your field companies like Google pay around $150k/year, but that is reserved for the top tier.