It's passive in the sense that once you invest in establishing a working income stream, it takes very minimal effort to maintain. I wake up and can do nothing to earn it, or work to grow it if I choose.
But if you choose to wake up and do nothing, how long is that income stream going to last?
I think with the tech industry in general, things move along too quickly for these types of 'passive income' to be stable for more than a few years. After a while, if you're not keeping up with the changes, the stream will die out. Unlike, say, passive investments in the stock market (although there's more volatility there, of course).
For as long as your product is relevant and your positioning doesn't collapse. Tweaking things to keep up doesn't necessarily require full time effort when it's small and the markets don't shift that much.
Waking up and doing nothing for a few weeks or months doesn't hurt. Making sure you're still relevant in Google, Amazon, App store or whatever your channels is about the same as poking around in your e-trade account and managing some stocks.
If you keep the business small and automated, it's not as unlikely as it sounds. Tech needn't be bleeding edge. The economy is huge and there's a place for solving all kinds of tiny problems. You can still love the business and give it whatever you want, but it doesn't have to own all your creative and mental output.
