I've been thinking about a £1 a month scheme that allows people to join and download any of the apps... the apps would be spread out amongst the developers...
Needs a hell of a lot of thought... but could work - unfortunatley that could also undermime TMO....

as suggested in a brainstorm earlier: implement a flattr button to let people donate for foss. i might have a flattr invite left.

this might interest @brokep as well.

That brainstorm have seemed to die silently.
We need something to happen - The Maemo/Meego platform has great potential, but not enough force to play in the big league.

Summary

The app store is funded by advertising, donations and corporate sponsorship?

People can pay for individual apps via PayPal and/or use flattr.

An alternative method is for a person to subscribe to the site - possibly get additional benefits?

A "Hire a Developer" system where people can make app requests?

How about an escrow / bounty system, so that a developer can expect a minimum payoff for creating an app? The store can take a small cut of the bounty, and/or a higher cut of the proceeds beyond the bounty.

What percentage should the store take?

Wasn't there a website years ago that did something like this?
As a programmer you would search the site for jobs then contact the person/company and negotiate a price?

Such a system is already in place, seperated into 2 parts:
The first is called garage (or app manager on your device).
The second is called "paypal".
IMO it would be better to get the garage admins to implement some sort of automatic/integrated paypal scheme.

But then again, a different approach wont harm anyone.
However, Google already knows about my mails, search habbits and my exact location and movement profile (if I activate the geo location stuff anyway). No need to give them even more infos about me.
Hence, I hope the new approach would be a wrapper around existing apt repos so you do not HAVE to use it if you want a certain app.

@rofltov You're right that the technology already exists (e.g., garage, paypal). But it's not integrated, nor is it accepted as a community norm.

The point is to pick a model that's likely to be attractive to both users and developers, to support it with user interfaces *and* infrastructure, and to promote it.

For the bounties, those are probably best when
- users can publicly collaborate on a describing the functionality they'd like to see, and on growing the pot of money they'd be willing to spend
- interested developers could respond by refining feature proposals and bidding on the work

@jacktanner Well defining your needs is not easy - Most of the apps bought on Appstore is the one in the category "Ooooh - New and shiny - Gotta get that". And with the upcoming drive from Nokia and Intel to get Meego more mainstream, it's even more so.
I think we should go for large, and mainstream - With the option to have such projects which you described - well defined projects which developers could grab, and work on - and after that, those apps could go mainstream.

I wouldn't go anywhere near describing me as well versed in what users need, but I think K.I.S.S. is an excellent approach in getting users for a product. And in this case the product is the Appstore. People wants a simple way of finding the app they like + plus some impulse (there you got the "oooh - nice and shiny"-factor). And that you don't achieve with donations and complicated things like defining needs, and waiting for a response, and then wait for the app to be coded and tested.
We want more users, and we want them to use the software the devs are making, then we have to provide an easy way of acquiring the software, and an easy way for the "customer" to repay the developer for him/her effort.

HAM, apt-get and dpkg comes easy to me, since I've been dabbling with Linux since back when Slackware 1.0 was hot. But for the casual user, it might seem like a minefield which they he/she have to cross to get the app they want.

I'm thinking a app where a user can browse for apps, with some small adds (textual/graphical). And the user finds an app which look suited for the users need. After that the user is presented with some choices with apps the user might be interested in too (Freedom of choice). The user then do a checkout, and pays for the app the given sum of money. And voila, the user is the proud owner of a new and shiny app, and the developer gets some buck on his/her bank-account.

I realize I described an ordinary way of doing things in the business, and that's why we need some unique selling point, like the possibility of hiring a developer or describing a need, and get some more users (with a similar need) to put up some money to get it coded and tested.

Probs lots of errors in this text, but I'm a bit tired atm.