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I am using a mobile app to track the milage of my car and thus pull it up only at the gas station. While a little more specific than general expense tracking, i

by lindig 11y ago

I am using a mobile app to track the milage of my car and thus pull it up only at the gas station. While a little more specific than general expense tracking, it seems to be similar enough for a comparison. According to the article these apps are a hard sell because they are used so rarely. I can't comment on how the app creator is doing but it's still an app that I would pay for. But maybe the market is too small and the simplicity of the app creates an unsustainable race to the bottom.

marwann 11y ago
I think you're one of the exceptions, figures showed people were mostly opening it once a month, and not contextually as we wanted them to. We're still on mobile, but without an app now! More about it here: https://medium.com/inside-birdly/there-s-no-app-for-that-slack-as-a-platform-for-your-product-feeade7e6737#.vjjloauoo https://medium.com/inside-birdly/there-s-no-app-for-that-sla...
taco_emoji 11y ago
Me too! It's an Android app called aCar which I did end up spending the $5 on (for no ads and IIRC more advanced backup options). I use it infrequently, but A) it takes less than a minute to enter a new "fill-up" record right after I get gas, and B) I programmed in all the reminders for oil change, tire rotation, etc., so entering the fill-up records (with mileage) means I keep on top of maintenance. It provides value (B) with no friction (A), so pretty much a no-brainer.
- ajeet_dhaliwal 11y ago
  To track car mileage I get out the manual and look up the size of my tank. Every time I fill up I reset the trip odometer in the car. At fill up I calculate the mileage. It's so easy, why is an app needed for this? May be the calculator app but that's all that should be required unless it's doing something else.
  - taco_emoji 11y ago
    A) Why would you need to look up the size of your tank? The gas pump tells you quite precisely how much you used since last fill-up B) Nobody said they needed an app for this C) I'm not really sure how pulling up the calculator app and punching in numbers is any easier than pulling up the mileage app and punching in numbers D) If you use your imagination very slightly, you can come up with other obvious features such an app would provide, such as tracking average miles driven per day/month/year, average MPG per day/month/year, gas prices over time, service records (when was the last oil change/tire rotation/brake job), etc. E) I also explicitly talked about another feature it provides (reminders), so I don't get the impression you actually read my comment before replying

by lindig 11y ago

marwann 11y ago

I think you're one of the exceptions, figures showed people were mostly opening it once a month, and not contextually as we wanted them to. We're still on mobile, but without an app now! More about it here: https://medium.com/inside-birdly/there-s-no-app-for-that-slack-as-a-platform-for-your-product-feeade7e6737#.vjjloauoo https://medium.com/inside-birdly/there-s-no-app-for-that-sla...

taco_emoji 11y ago

Me too! It's an Android app called aCar which I did end up spending the $5 on (for no ads and IIRC more advanced backup options). I use it infrequently, but A) it takes less than a minute to enter a new "fill-up" record right after I get gas, and B) I programmed in all the reminders for oil change, tire rotation, etc., so entering the fill-up records (with mileage) means I keep on top of maintenance. It provides value (B) with no friction (A), so pretty much a no-brainer.

ajeet_dhaliwal 11y ago
To track car mileage I get out the manual and look up the size of my tank. Every time I fill up I reset the trip odometer in the car. At fill up I calculate the mileage. It's so easy, why is an app needed for this? May be the calculator app but that's all that should be required unless it's doing something else.
- taco_emoji 11y ago
  A) Why would you need to look up the size of your tank? The gas pump tells you quite precisely how much you used since last fill-up B) Nobody said they needed an app for this C) I'm not really sure how pulling up the calculator app and punching in numbers is any easier than pulling up the mileage app and punching in numbers D) If you use your imagination very slightly, you can come up with other obvious features such an app would provide, such as tracking average miles driven per day/month/year, average MPG per day/month/year, gas prices over time, service records (when was the last oil change/tire rotation/brake job), etc. E) I also explicitly talked about another feature it provides (reminders), so I don't get the impression you actually read my comment before replying