“Todd Moore didn’t foresee that he was about to embark on a new career when he bought his first Mac last year. It just sort of happened,” Mike Musgrove reports for The Washington Post.

“Moore, a 35-year-old Sterling resident, had been spending his working life pulling down six figures as a network security professional — a job he liked well enough. But after reading a few get-rich-quick stories about programmers making good money from selling applications designed to run on the iPhone or iPod Touch, he decided to give it a go,” Musgrove reports. “How hard could it be?”

“Learning the tricks of iPhone development in his spare time, Moore rolled out a handful of applications and posted them for sale on Apple’s App Store. Some went nowhere, sales-wise, but a couple have hit the big time,” Musgrove reports.

“The biggest success, so far: White Noise, a $1 program that generates soothing sounds for people who have a hard time getting to sleep. Card Counter, a $3 application designed to help users learn the principles of counting cards to win at blackjack, has also been a brisk seller,” Musgrove reports. “Last month, on the software sales-tracking charts at iTunes, both programs appeared on the ‘top 20′ most-purchased list. That’s about the time Moore gave his two weeks notice and decided to pursue this dream full time. ‘In one week, I made what I would’ve made in four months,” he said. “That’s when I decided to pull the trigger.’”

Musbrove reports, “Moore isn’t the only Washington-area dreamer who has hopped into this hot new area of software development…”

Full article here.