Independent iPhone game developer Noel Llopis, creator of the Flower Garden app, recently analyzed his first ten months of work and concluded that he was making $13.44 an hour during this period.That's not exactly the iPhone gold rush that everyone has been talking about.

With a total of $21,546 in sales after ten months, Llopis believes that he's still making more money than 99% of the app developers out there.

Indeed, Adam Martin, a U.K.-based online game consultant, last year published a survey indicating that 52% of iPhone developers had earned less than $15,000 for their efforts and 33% earned less than $250.

iPhone development in essence is like trying to be an actor. A few get rich and famous. The rest wait tables, waiting for their big break.

Ironically, in publishing an account of his woes, Llopis is working to reverse them. And such tenacity in the face of long odds may be what's needed to succeed.

Llopis reports that Apple this week selected Flower Garden and featured it as a Staff Favorite worldwide in the iTunes store. That's the lottery every iPhone developer hopes to win -- being featured means a huge surge in sales.

So maybe there is a path to success -- create a good game and pray to be noticed by Apple.