As mobile and tablet users, we’re as in love with the ‘app’ as ever we were.

In May 2013, the 50 billionth app was downloaded from Apple’s App Store, meaning that in less than five years, the app has gone from zero to 50bn without stopping for breath. These figures are based on unique downloads, so doesn’t include add-ons or people re-downloading an app they’ve previously deleted.

The total value of the apps downloaded is US$9bn, or just under £6bn. With that amount of money involved, it’s hugely tempting to down tools and get to work on an app to take care of you in your retirement.

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However, not just any old app will allow you to buy your own private island. It’s worth remembering that to get an app onto the Apple App Store, any revenue generated from downloads is instantly split between the developer and Apple, with 30% going to the vendor. Even some big names have recently declined to offer products through the App Store, notably the Financial Times and Microsoft, who aren’t selling Office for iPad due to disputes about how to pay for it.

Some developers have chosen to offer their app for free and make money from in-app advertising, thereby getting to keep more. In fact, a study by App Hero, based on Apple’s own January figures, showed that 56% of apps on the App Store were free.  At the time, Apple estimated that there were 775,000 individual apps, a growth of over 25,000 apps in less than three months.

Faced with getting your offering noticed as one developer in a pool of 200,000, it’s easy to see why many firms can’t keep pace and stop producing. A study by Canalys in December 2012 showed that the US App Store alone generated $120m, but half of those sales figures went to just 25 publishers. That means $60m was left over for every other developer, which is hardly enough to sustain a whole business.

There are those who are always looking for a bandwagon, undoubtedly some apps have been driven by the same mentality as the first dotcom bubble. Whereas every business suddenly had to have a website, whether or not it was suitable or sustainable, lots of businesses will have sunk large amounts of money developing apps that either aren’t fit for purpose or simply aren’t needed.

If you’re about to use an app for your business, the app is the product. It either needs to stand alone as something exciting or necessary in its own right, or it has to support an existing product in the best manner available. It’s no coincidence that the most popular paid and free apps are still Angry Birds and Facebook, respectively. One is an individual concept which broke moulds when it launched, the other exists to allow access and as a platform for a pre-existing successful product.

If this disheartens you, there’s really no need, as one young man recently took his bitesize-newsfeed app Summly and sold it to Internet pioneers Yahoo! for a cool £18million, then went to sit his A-levels. It’s proof that its possible to change the world via the smartphone screen, but the same rules of business apply to apps as anything else.