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Show HN: Turning my Dashboard widget into a profitable iOS app

48 points by nixy 16y ago

DanielBMarkham 16y ago
This is a neat story. So I'm a IOS noob and have a couple of dumb questions. I'll address them to the author, but please anybody just jump in there. You still had to run a server with PHP to do the scraping to get the data, right? Were your server costs included in your profit estimate? Because this was split up over several years, what kind of effort and money do you think it would be to go from being a competent Javascript/HTML/Server programmer to having an app in the store for this type of project?
- nixy 16y ago
  Actually, the scraping is done in the client nowadays, so no server costs at all. The client is basically making a visit to the page, and then the relevant information is extracted and presented with a different UI than the original site. In regards to your second question, I'd say it is not too much effort. If you're a skilled web developer you can spend one day getting familiar with the iOS web platform and then build a cool app. There are tonnes of material on Google and since you can test the web app using iOS Safari there is no reason to spend money on an iOS developer license until you're confident that the app idea will work.
maukdaddy 16y ago
Thanks :) I might be visiting Stockholm soon and I'll grab your app!
tl 16y ago
> The app was selected as "New and notable" by Apple for the Swedish App Store, and my goal of 150 sales in three months was reached in less than one week. That's the key point. Making it onto one of Apple's lists is the real moneymaker here.
- smikhanov 16y ago
  Not in the case of "New and notable". This particular list is, to the best of my knowledge, autogenerated (as opposed to "Staff picks", which is put together manually). There's a sliding time window and if your app generates some significant number of downloads/reviews while in that window, it will appear in the list. Reviews, to the best of my knowledge, worth more than pure downloads.

48 points by nixy 16y ago

This is a neat story. So I'm a IOS noob and have a couple of dumb questions. I'll address them to the author, but please anybody just jump in there. You still had to run a server with PHP to do the scraping to get the data, right? Were your server costs included in your profit estimate? Because this was split up over several years, what kind of effort and money do you think it would be to go from being a competent Javascript/HTML/Server programmer to having an app in the store for this type of project?

nixy 16y ago
Actually, the scraping is done in the client nowadays, so no server costs at all. The client is basically making a visit to the page, and then the relevant information is extracted and presented with a different UI than the original site. In regards to your second question, I'd say it is not too much effort. If you're a skilled web developer you can spend one day getting familiar with the iOS web platform and then build a cool app. There are tonnes of material on Google and since you can test the web app using iOS Safari there is no reason to spend money on an iOS developer license until you're confident that the app idea will work.

maukdaddy 16y ago

Thanks :) I might be visiting Stockholm soon and I'll grab your app!

tl 16y ago

> The app was selected as "New and notable" by Apple for the Swedish App Store, and my goal of 150 sales in three months was reached in less than one week. That's the key point. Making it onto one of Apple's lists is the real moneymaker here.

smikhanov 16y ago
Not in the case of "New and notable". This particular list is, to the best of my knowledge, autogenerated (as opposed to "Staff picks", which is put together manually). There's a sliding time window and if your app generates some significant number of downloads/reviews while in that window, it will appear in the list. Reviews, to the best of my knowledge, worth more than pure downloads.