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Mobile App Developers Are Suffering

15 points by mada299 11y ago

nostrademons 11y ago
There's a fundamental categorization mistake that the author makes, which is: If you think of yourself as a "mobile app developer", you've already lost. You're a commodity, just like the other 4 million app developers. Instead, you need to think of yourself in terms of the industry your app services, not the technology used to accomplish it. You're a transportation network that's coordinated through your mobile phone. You're a personal shopper that you call through your phone. You're a way to share moments with your close friends. If you do this, your growth strategy becomes "Make yourself valuable enough that people see their friends or competitors using you and want in on a piece of the action." It's completely independent of what Apple & Google decide to feature in the app store. It's harder because you can't just write some code and put it out there, but also a lot more under control of the entrepreneur. And there are still plenty of opportunities where the widespread deployment of mobile phones gives you an opportunity to do things 10x more efficiently than how they're done now.
- maephet 11y ago
  That's a great insight, to think beyonds the bounds of the app ecosystem itself. In a lot of ways the mobile is a tool to deliver a service. However, a company has to prioritize and nowadays the app is the first foot forward. It's important to realize the constraints of the system that you're operating in so that you can properly gauge expectations and strategy.
- mada299 11y ago
  That's fair, but when we built an app, it really became our life to promote it and drive traffic to it. Especially in the early days it's hard to focus on all the different channels - website, mobile app etc so you do start identifying with being an app developer.
- swah 11y ago
  Please write a book, Jon! You have a thousand valuable insights in one of the worst possible places for us to re-read them ;)
  - nostrademons 11y ago
    Maybe some day I'll start a blog. I try to stay relatively focused on my own startup attempts (that's where the insights come from, after all ;-)), so HN is just my way to blow off steam and indulge in a little distraction.

15 points by mada299 11y ago

There's a fundamental categorization mistake that the author makes, which is: If you think of yourself as a "mobile app developer", you've already lost. You're a commodity, just like the other 4 million app developers. Instead, you need to think of yourself in terms of the industry your app services, not the technology used to accomplish it. You're a transportation network that's coordinated through your mobile phone. You're a personal shopper that you call through your phone. You're a way to share moments with your close friends. If you do this, your growth strategy becomes "Make yourself valuable enough that people see their friends or competitors using you and want in on a piece of the action." It's completely independent of what Apple & Google decide to feature in the app store. It's harder because you can't just write some code and put it out there, but also a lot more under control of the entrepreneur. And there are still plenty of opportunities where the widespread deployment of mobile phones gives you an opportunity to do things 10x more efficiently than how they're done now.

maephet 11y ago
That's a great insight, to think beyonds the bounds of the app ecosystem itself. In a lot of ways the mobile is a tool to deliver a service. However, a company has to prioritize and nowadays the app is the first foot forward. It's important to realize the constraints of the system that you're operating in so that you can properly gauge expectations and strategy.
mada299 11y ago
That's fair, but when we built an app, it really became our life to promote it and drive traffic to it. Especially in the early days it's hard to focus on all the different channels - website, mobile app etc so you do start identifying with being an app developer.
swah 11y ago
Please write a book, Jon! You have a thousand valuable insights in one of the worst possible places for us to re-read them ;)
- nostrademons 11y ago
  Maybe some day I'll start a blog. I try to stay relatively focused on my own startup attempts (that's where the insights come from, after all ;-)), so HN is just my way to blow off steam and indulge in a little distraction.