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First Week Analysis for news:yc (HN for iPhone)

59 points by news-yc 15y ago

Joshim5 15y ago
Your strategy involving submitting cracked versions of your app was quite interesting. It would be interesting to see the rate of the app store purchases vs. piracy for your app. I would expect your strategy would reduce the rate of piracy
msie 15y ago
I'm really surprised at the number of sales. Congrats!
shii 15y ago
Hey Grant, I saw your news:yc app in Installous and see that it was submitted by you (chpwn). Usually when app-authors submit their own apps to Installous, it's to deter pirates by shaming them and disabling the whole functionality of the app until it gets cracked by someone else, or to log who actually pirates. I haven't gone the Installous route, so I'm wondering what you've decided to do with the version on filedude and fileape?
- news-yc 15y ago
  That's actually the full app. news:yc is open source, and I want anyone to be able to use it, even if they don't want to (or can't) pay. Since building the app yourself isn't always easy (or possible), I submitted it there so anyone could install it easily.
  - shii 15y ago
    You're a pretty cool guy, Grant.
  - deleted 15y ago
    [deleted]
  - arikfr 15y ago
    Just that makes the $5 price tag even more justified. Rock on!
izak30 15y ago
I bought it from the iTunes store directly, after seeing the post and reading the comments (specifically, $5 isn't much to support a fellow indie-dev trying to make his way through the app store, for an app that I'll probably use every dayish). Next time I was out, had my phone, and was bored, I looked for the $5 app, because it had to be yours. It's really well put together, and I really like the features you added. My only complaint is that it goes to comments first, not stories first, but that's easy to get used to.
- omaranto 15y ago
  I think a lot of Hacker News readers actually look at the comments first. I remember people mentioning that on HN and I know my wife and I usually do, presumably so does the app's developer.
  - sant0sk1 15y ago
    Spot on. I often use the comments to quickly judge if a link is worth visiting. If so, I click through and then come back for more conversation if I'm still interested. I think showing comments first was a great design decision.
stevenj 15y ago
You made something of value to people and put a price tag on it. People bought it. Nice work!
aherlambang 15y ago
So did you get an internship already because of this? That would be another interesting story to tell
noahhs 15y ago
Still waiting for that price drop. I understand if you have to wait a few weeks, to appease the buyers.

59 points by news-yc 15y ago

Your strategy involving submitting cracked versions of your app was quite interesting. It would be interesting to see the rate of the app store purchases vs. piracy for your app. I would expect your strategy would reduce the rate of piracy

msie 15y ago

I'm really surprised at the number of sales. Congrats!

shii 15y ago

Hey Grant, I saw your news:yc app in Installous and see that it was submitted by you (chpwn). Usually when app-authors submit their own apps to Installous, it's to deter pirates by shaming them and disabling the whole functionality of the app until it gets cracked by someone else, or to log who actually pirates. I haven't gone the Installous route, so I'm wondering what you've decided to do with the version on filedude and fileape?

news-yc 15y ago
That's actually the full app. news:yc is open source, and I want anyone to be able to use it, even if they don't want to (or can't) pay. Since building the app yourself isn't always easy (or possible), I submitted it there so anyone could install it easily.
- shii 15y ago
  You're a pretty cool guy, Grant.
- deleted 15y ago
  [deleted]
- arikfr 15y ago
  Just that makes the $5 price tag even more justified. Rock on!

izak30 15y ago

I bought it from the iTunes store directly, after seeing the post and reading the comments (specifically, $5 isn't much to support a fellow indie-dev trying to make his way through the app store, for an app that I'll probably use every dayish). Next time I was out, had my phone, and was bored, I looked for the $5 app, because it had to be yours. It's really well put together, and I really like the features you added. My only complaint is that it goes to comments first, not stories first, but that's easy to get used to.

omaranto 15y ago
I think a lot of Hacker News readers actually look at the comments first. I remember people mentioning that on HN and I know my wife and I usually do, presumably so does the app's developer.
- sant0sk1 15y ago
  Spot on. I often use the comments to quickly judge if a link is worth visiting. If so, I click through and then come back for more conversation if I'm still interested. I think showing comments first was a great design decision.

stevenj 15y ago

You made something of value to people and put a price tag on it. People bought it. Nice work!

aherlambang 15y ago

So did you get an internship already because of this? That would be another interesting story to tell

noahhs 15y ago

Still waiting for that price drop. I understand if you have to wait a few weeks, to appease the buyers.