7 ms·

Ask HN: Anyone making a living from Desktop apps?

96 points by umenline 14y ago

is there such thing still developers that make desktop apps and making a living out of it ? that is i guess indie small teams not the big companies like adobe

kindohm 14y ago
I'm an independent contractor working on a Windows desktop app used in the casino industry.
patio11 14y ago
Certainly still an option. There's a long history of folks like that, the market for e.g. Mac apps was if anything helped by the launch of the Mac app store (some devs more than others, long story, ask them for the specifics). I could give you two dozen examples from my social circles but most of them would not appreciate the publicity. That said: can I talk you out of it? I've done both, and from a business perspective doing it as a web app is a MUCH better option. http://www.kalzumeus.com/2009/09/05/desktop-aps-versus-web-apps/ http://www.kalzumeus.com/2009/09/05/desktop-aps-versus-web-a...
- umenline 14y ago
  link is wrong or something ...
- SuitAndThai 14y ago
  And it's down, here's a cached link for everyone else: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:yjYTJSoWR3gJ:www.kalzumeus.com/2009/09/05/desktop-aps-versus-web-apps/+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:yjYTJSo...
- hokua 14y ago
  What is definitely dead are Java Swing apps. I believe desktop BCC was a Swing app. Swing app installation and updates are a major pain. Native apps on an App Store dont suffer from these issues, and their ability to integrate with special OS features make them more compelling vs a web app. Not so with Swing.
  - jetti 14y ago
    Swing vs Native isn't the issue. The issue becomes users using old versions of your software and having to support them when bugs pop up, even though it may be fixed in the newer versions. It is hard to get everybody up to the latest version (even if the upgrades are free). It can eat up a lot of time doing support. Whereas, when you make your app a web app, the changes you make are instant (for better or worse) and you don't have to worry about supporting various versions.
    - jaredsohn 14y ago
      >It is hard to get everybody up to the latest version (even if the upgrades are free) Automatic patching helps with this, although it requires a little more work designing a patching system (you might not want everyone hitting your servers at once), and it doesn't affect everyone (some people's computers are offline or require a proxy to be set up for patching.)
      - jetti 14y ago
        That is true, but even that has its caveats. Depending on who your target is, the user may be skeptical of a program "phoning home" on its own every so often.
- mej10 14y ago
  Do you have any data on how well non-App store applications are doing? Specifically I am looking at the power-user/developer market.
deleted 14y ago
[deleted]
- iusable 14y ago
  I am certain he meant as an indie dev.
  - umenline 14y ago
    indie dev ! (:
moondowner 14y ago
It depends. If you mean desktop apps in the like of Twitter clients, mail apps, media players and etc I'd guess the answer is no. There are a lot already and new ones are not needed. But if you mean desktop apps in the like of 'fat clients' for big companies, Eclipse or NetBeans RCP based apps for example, the answer is yes. There are a lot of companies who have a lot of data which they'll be happy to have a good UI to be able to use it in their own purpose. http://platform.netbeans.org/screenshots.html http://platform.netbeans.org/screenshots.html http://www.eclipse.org/community/rcpcp.php http://www.eclipse.org/community/rcpcp.php
kaitnieks 14y ago
We are (at http://www.blumentals.net http://www.blumentals.net). Windows apps, in fact, and not for big companies but regular people. I don't know what to tell you, the market is far from dead, maybe it will be dead someday, but right now things are fine. The hardest thing about making mass-distributed Windows apps is getting your good app to the customer through a pile of crappy ones.
- powertower 14y ago
  I'm curious if there's a reason why all of the products on the website are version "2011" instead of "2012"? They seem to be up-to-date, and could have been spun up... I've heard once before that in some circumstances people are more comfortable buying last year's version numbered products than this year's version numbered products. I'm just wondering if that's the case (a), or if it's just that no new major changes have taken place (b).
- axx 14y ago
  I don't want to offend you or anything, but maybe a redesign of your site would give you some extra boost!
  - tonyedgecombe 14y ago
    It looks fine to me. In fact I've become a little suspicious of sites that are highly polished but seem to have little history.
  - dgdg 14y ago
    I don't want to offend too, but it really does look more like a pirated software site, that.
  - kaitnieks 14y ago
    It's in progress. The new version is at http://blumentals.biz http://blumentals.biz and we're switching product by product.
- umenline 14y ago
  Hi ! this is what i meant in my question . small apps that folks that ready to pay for , to get things done ! kaitnieks : can you tell about difficulties ? what software you are using ? and how do you handle pirates?
FigBug 14y ago
I do. I split my time between firmware and desktop apps. I work for a small company of about 5 people. Before that I worked at a larger company, but was the sole developer of an Audio Recording app. I also worked on speaker modelling and configuration apps. All the apps I've worked on recently have very small user bases and tend to be part of a larger system.
zacharywentz 14y ago
We're a small knit crew at [Docudesk](http://www.docudesk.com http://www.docudesk.com), we make PDF software, and we're doing some other things in the cloud now as the market does seem to be on the decline.
rbanffy 14y ago
Steve Ballmer? ;-)
terhechte 14y ago
I'm a lone developer hacking away on a couple of Mac apps. I also have a few iPhone apps, but these generate little to no income. The Mac apps are better. Most notable is InstaDesk (http://www.instadesk-app.com http://www.instadesk-app.com) which generates my main income and I can live off it thus living the dream (i.e. right now I'm sitting outside in a small cafe, enjoying the sun, watching people, and fixing a couple of bugs for the upcoming 2.0.2 update; after that I'll head to a green park which features fast wifi). I'd say it's a lot easier if you're working alone and have little costs. I have a small flat, and I don't have any employees. Also, I do the website myself, the customer service, the one or other ad campaign, the graphics, etc. So apart from my small rent and hardware (which is where I do invest, since I do think that good tools are really, really important) I have almost no expenses. Living in a small student town also helps since good and healthy food is really cheap here, too (like 3 eur for a solid and healthy lunch).
- Killswitch 14y ago
  I've noticed, correct me if I'm wrong, but pirates are more abundant in Windows users than Mac users... I did a quick search and there's barely anything available for download on TPB for Mac (Just the usual big company name stuff), and tons for Windows. Seems Mac users have no problem paying for the software they use, considering that it's not overpriced crap that costs $60. But decently priced like $4.99
  - yardie 14y ago
    I believe it is the history of the Mac. Mac users want good software and since the number of Mac developers is equal to the ratio of Mac:Windows users you had fewer choices so users were incentivized to pay developers, or else development dried up. On the other hand since there are so many Windows users and Windows developers it's a perpetual race to the bottom. For example, you have no shortage of Windows text editors that are free. For the Mac your only real option is TextWrangler.
    - deleted 14y ago
      [deleted]
axx 14y ago
I think there are three kinds of desktop app developers that make real money today: * People who make huge profits fast, because they built a desktop client for popular webservices (see terhechte and his InstaDesk) * People creating good software for niches that REALLY NEED that piece of software to get work done. * Companies building large software suits for big companies that spend huge amounts of money in licences and support. I personally think everyone in the middle is also doing well, but not enough to make a living out of it.
- umenline 14y ago
  do you have examples for the second section ?
  - PopaL 14y ago
    CAD and FEM software for example.
  - EwanToo 14y ago
    A good example of a developer in a specific, unfashionable, but successful niche is Progressive Solutions [1]. Their target market is far from glamorous, but it's a very successful business (they've actually just been acquired last month). 1 http://www.progressive-solutions.co.uk/products.php http://www.progressive-solutions.co.uk/products.php
NikoR 14y ago
I've been also thinking about this same question for a while. All the hype seems to going for web/mobile apps. But then, I have couple of Windows desktop applications (http://byteptr.com/squirrel/ http://byteptr.com/squirrel/ http://byteptr.com/fort/ http://byteptr.com/fort/) and they seem do fine considering that I don't get much traffic or anything. I'm not making a living out of these however. My point is that with enough advertisement and press coverage I think it's very possible to make a living writing desktop software. Of course the software need to be good too. : )
hokua 14y ago
Im make about $2k/mo off a Mac App
- statictype 14y ago
  What's the app?
- rdubb 14y ago
  How did you build it up to that level?
  - hokua 14y ago
    Its really all due to the Mac App Store. Having a free lite version helps. My conversion from lite to paid is around 6%
saddino 14y ago
In 2003 I began to supplement my contractor income by writing OS X apps as a sole indie developer and eventually went full time. In the first six years I made enough to live on. In 2008, mostly out of curiosity, I wrote a free iOS app and started a small company to publish it. This company made no revenue in its lifetime but was acquired this year. My return from that acquisition exceeds the revenue I earned from my desktop business (for every year combined). Chances that I return to desktop app development? Zero. To be honest, it is bittersweet. I love the desktop, but that's really not where users are anymore. Skate to where the puck is going to be and all that.
- hokua 14y ago
  > I love the desktop, but that's really not where users are anymore. Depends on the application and the targeted user. There will always be a demand for apps for the "truck" users. But you are right, the desktop is overkill for the vast majority of people only using computers for email and social media. If they are your target, good luck. For the majority of developers, prices for apps that target these users is a race to the bottom.
- yolesaber 14y ago
  What was the app?
brolewis 14y ago
Desktop apps still have a place in some B2B settings. For a year I worked for a company that developed software that managed fork lift battery inventories for warehouses. These were warehouses that had little to no internet connectivity on the floor and so having a desktop application was crucial. It was a niche market but highly profitable.
- skulquake 14y ago
  It always amazes me how a business can be built out of anything, "fork lift battery inventory" You just need to find a pain point.
  - brolewis 14y ago
    Surprisingly, its such a pain point that a company would spend $50,000 - 150,000 for a single installation.
jorgeleo 14y ago
I make a nice living (so far) out of making windows desktop apps, but they are very niche oriented. Mostly statistical analysis of millions of rows. All though it is possible to make them in html, it would be really hard to meet the UI, performance, and mobility requirements with web apps.
damian2000 14y ago
Desktop apps are still used for a lot of equipment command and control scenarios. I work on a small team who make a desktop app that needs to communicate with some custom hardware over an RS-232 (serial port) based protocol. For this sort of application, laptops which have a real serial port (or via a port extender) are the only option.
LTheobald 14y ago
There most definitely is still a market for people making desktop applications. Take Sparrow (http://sparrowmailapp.com/ http://sparrowmailapp.com/) for example. They seemed to be doing well for a desktop application - so well they got acquired by Google. An number of other applications I have purchased on my Mac are done by small teams: Alfred, 1Password, TextExpander, Things, Coda, Tweetbot. As other comments have mentioned, it may be easier on the Mac due to a perceived higher quality & richer client base. Independent games are also doing very well. Look at games like Braid & Limbo (true these also were XBLA titles). Games are still desktop applications after all. So yes, I'd say there most definitely is a market for desktop apps & I wouldn't be surprised if the market was the strongest it had been for a while with the rise of the Mac App Store.
- nl 14y ago
  They seemed to be doing well for a desktop application - so well they got acquired by Google. I think the general consensus was that the correct characterisation of that was that they were doing so badly that an aqui-hire was an attractive exit. Google certainly didn't buy them for the app...
DavidThi808 14y ago
I started off with it being just me - part time. Then full-time me and a salesperson. And year by year we've grown - a lot (we don't release numbers). We did this a sale at a time. No venture funding and not really even any self-funding. Just keeping it profitable and growing from those profits. So yes, it can be done (my company is http://www.windward.net http://www.windward.net). The trick is to create something of value. And then to focus on what you need to do next to grow the company.
jakobe 14y ago
My Mac app grosses around 3k € / month (http://jabakobob.net/mdbviewer/ http://jabakobob.net/mdbviewer/). Might not be much for someone living in SF, but it's more than my day job at an Austrian research institute pays.
- GFischer 14y ago
  The website looks great :) . Also, I'd love to make 3k € / month ! . I'll probably be in Vienna for a few months next year, are there Hacker Meetups or similar?
  - jakobe 14y ago
    I was at a couple of Cocoaheads meetings (http://cocoaheads.at http://cocoaheads.at), nice people there, but I am too busy lately...
- adambenayoun 14y ago
  Care to share your marketing channels? Are you spending money on Ads?
  - jakobe 14y ago
    I assume most people find my app directly on the Mac App Store. There is the "Search App Store..." button that Mac OS displays when you double click an unknown file type. I think that's important for my app, but I have no numbers to back that up. On the website, I get some hits from fileinfo.com. I also posted to a couple of forums where people asked how to open mdb files on a Mac. I tried to be as little spammy as possible, and always disclosed my affiliation with MDB Viewer when writing about it (for example see http://hintsforums.macworld.com/showthread.php?t=27957 http://hintsforums.macworld.com/showthread.php?t=27957 at the bottom of the page) I provide really thorough documentation on my website. I hope that the docs double as search engine landing pages. I tried Google Adwords (I got 100€ credit for free), but I don't know if that actually led to any sales. I didn't continue because it seemed too much of a hassle. I don't do much analytics, so I have no clue how successful the different things I did were. I occasionaly check my website using awstats, and I check app sales with AppViz, and that's about it.
guilloche 14y ago
I used to develope desktop applications for security printing. In such a niche market, it is very hard to gain customers. Now I moved to web application and launched online Torapp guilloche designer (http://www.torapp.info http://www.torapp.info). Hopefully things will be better.
- GFischer 14y ago
  What's your market? Aren't you replicating the problem? (it's still a very niche market). I hadn't heard of guilloche before now. Also, the website doesn't look professionaly designed - maybe you don't need it to, but it might help.
  - guilloche 14y ago
    Yeah, the security printing software is still a very niche market. I need to consider using some of the expertise to something on mobile.
resettarget 14y ago
I assume by desktop you mean either Windows or Mac or any Linux distro. I mostly work on Windows as an engineer, there are some great products from small or one-man company: Emeditor: a text editor | UltraEdit/UltraStudio: a text editor/project IDE | Beyond Compare: a compare utility --> they have Linux version | Source Insight: a source tree oriented code editor and browser | Those are all paid software and I bet the authors are making good lives from their software
b0 14y ago
Of course there are. They just aren't as noisy which is why you don't think they exist. Away from the buzz of the tech cities, the trendy "apps" culture and tech giants, there are lots. In fact, these people are actually the silent (and better paid) majority in the industry. However, there is not much fanfare and most of them produce specialist software for niche industries. I myself produce specialist financial modelling software which is all Windows desktop (C# + WinForms). I spent a few years doing logistics software (C# + WinCE + WinForms) and before that I spent 10 years writing a large desktop based system for distributed logistics and asset management for the defence industry.
justinbaker 14y ago
EMACS FTW... As for your question, when run efficiently, yes.
umenline 14y ago
good example of mac shop don't know much about them but it looks like they do cool apps "only" for mac http://www.belightsoft.com/company/overview.php http://www.belightsoft.com/company/overview.php
webwanderings 14y ago
I wish people would make desktop application which transcends various browsers and cloud. For example, look at the Bookmarks and History in browser. I would wish to keep my bookmarks to myself wherever I go and it should be browser agnostic. Currently, there are tons of web-services out there socializing your bookmarks on the cloud but none would liberate your browser's bookmarks/history for yourself. A local application could remedy such situation.
yashg 14y ago
I do to an extent and that too on Windows. I have this watermarking software I developed 6 years ago and I keep updating it whenever I get time and its on an auto pilot. People buy, download, I get money in bank. I am considering doing it full time making a Mac desktop version and iPad one. Desktop apps are here to stay. People will still do their business on a real desktop/laptop computer. Main advantages are larger screen and large physical keyboard. If you want to process a video, photos or type a 10 page legal contract - you would rather do it on a full sized computer than on a mobile phone or a tablet. So there will always be a market for software for desktop computers.
forcer 14y ago
of course there are tons of companies, even big ones who make serious money from desktop apps. But each of those including ours, is happy that making money this way is not sexy anymore and all you startup guys focus your attention elsewhere so we can keep the market to ourselves :) on a serious note, just look at download portals - like download.com etc. there are tons of very popular software and they all make money, either requiring users to pay or ad-supported.

96 points by umenline 14y ago

is there such thing still developers that make desktop apps and making a living out of it ? that is i guess indie small teams not the big companies like adobe

kindohm 14y ago

I'm an independent contractor working on a Windows desktop app used in the casino industry.

patio11 14y ago

Certainly still an option. There's a long history of folks like that, the market for e.g. Mac apps was if anything helped by the launch of the Mac app store (some devs more than others, long story, ask them for the specifics). I could give you two dozen examples from my social circles but most of them would not appreciate the publicity. That said: can I talk you out of it? I've done both, and from a business perspective doing it as a web app is a MUCH better option. http://www.kalzumeus.com/2009/09/05/desktop-aps-versus-web-apps/ http://www.kalzumeus.com/2009/09/05/desktop-aps-versus-web-a...

umenline 14y ago
link is wrong or something ...
SuitAndThai 14y ago
And it's down, here's a cached link for everyone else: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:yjYTJSoWR3gJ:www.kalzumeus.com/2009/09/05/desktop-aps-versus-web-apps/+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:yjYTJSo...
hokua 14y ago
What is definitely dead are Java Swing apps. I believe desktop BCC was a Swing app. Swing app installation and updates are a major pain. Native apps on an App Store dont suffer from these issues, and their ability to integrate with special OS features make them more compelling vs a web app. Not so with Swing.
- jetti 14y ago
  Swing vs Native isn't the issue. The issue becomes users using old versions of your software and having to support them when bugs pop up, even though it may be fixed in the newer versions. It is hard to get everybody up to the latest version (even if the upgrades are free). It can eat up a lot of time doing support. Whereas, when you make your app a web app, the changes you make are instant (for better or worse) and you don't have to worry about supporting various versions.
  - jaredsohn 14y ago
    >It is hard to get everybody up to the latest version (even if the upgrades are free) Automatic patching helps with this, although it requires a little more work designing a patching system (you might not want everyone hitting your servers at once), and it doesn't affect everyone (some people's computers are offline or require a proxy to be set up for patching.)
    - jetti 14y ago
      That is true, but even that has its caveats. Depending on who your target is, the user may be skeptical of a program "phoning home" on its own every so often.
mej10 14y ago
Do you have any data on how well non-App store applications are doing? Specifically I am looking at the power-user/developer market.

deleted 14y ago

[deleted]

iusable 14y ago
I am certain he meant as an indie dev.
- umenline 14y ago
  indie dev ! (:

moondowner 14y ago

It depends. If you mean desktop apps in the like of Twitter clients, mail apps, media players and etc I'd guess the answer is no. There are a lot already and new ones are not needed. But if you mean desktop apps in the like of 'fat clients' for big companies, Eclipse or NetBeans RCP based apps for example, the answer is yes. There are a lot of companies who have a lot of data which they'll be happy to have a good UI to be able to use it in their own purpose. http://platform.netbeans.org/screenshots.html http://platform.netbeans.org/screenshots.html http://www.eclipse.org/community/rcpcp.php http://www.eclipse.org/community/rcpcp.php

kaitnieks 14y ago

We are (at http://www.blumentals.net http://www.blumentals.net). Windows apps, in fact, and not for big companies but regular people. I don't know what to tell you, the market is far from dead, maybe it will be dead someday, but right now things are fine. The hardest thing about making mass-distributed Windows apps is getting your good app to the customer through a pile of crappy ones.

powertower 14y ago
I'm curious if there's a reason why all of the products on the website are version "2011" instead of "2012"? They seem to be up-to-date, and could have been spun up... I've heard once before that in some circumstances people are more comfortable buying last year's version numbered products than this year's version numbered products. I'm just wondering if that's the case (a), or if it's just that no new major changes have taken place (b).
axx 14y ago
I don't want to offend you or anything, but maybe a redesign of your site would give you some extra boost!
- tonyedgecombe 14y ago
  It looks fine to me. In fact I've become a little suspicious of sites that are highly polished but seem to have little history.
- dgdg 14y ago
  I don't want to offend too, but it really does look more like a pirated software site, that.
- kaitnieks 14y ago
  It's in progress. The new version is at http://blumentals.biz http://blumentals.biz and we're switching product by product.
umenline 14y ago
Hi ! this is what i meant in my question . small apps that folks that ready to pay for , to get things done ! kaitnieks : can you tell about difficulties ? what software you are using ? and how do you handle pirates?

FigBug 14y ago

I do. I split my time between firmware and desktop apps. I work for a small company of about 5 people. Before that I worked at a larger company, but was the sole developer of an Audio Recording app. I also worked on speaker modelling and configuration apps. All the apps I've worked on recently have very small user bases and tend to be part of a larger system.

zacharywentz 14y ago

We're a small knit crew at [Docudesk](http://www.docudesk.com http://www.docudesk.com), we make PDF software, and we're doing some other things in the cloud now as the market does seem to be on the decline.

rbanffy 14y ago

Steve Ballmer? ;-)

terhechte 14y ago

I'm a lone developer hacking away on a couple of Mac apps. I also have a few iPhone apps, but these generate little to no income. The Mac apps are better. Most notable is InstaDesk (http://www.instadesk-app.com http://www.instadesk-app.com) which generates my main income and I can live off it thus living the dream (i.e. right now I'm sitting outside in a small cafe, enjoying the sun, watching people, and fixing a couple of bugs for the upcoming 2.0.2 update; after that I'll head to a green park which features fast wifi). I'd say it's a lot easier if you're working alone and have little costs. I have a small flat, and I don't have any employees. Also, I do the website myself, the customer service, the one or other ad campaign, the graphics, etc. So apart from my small rent and hardware (which is where I do invest, since I do think that good tools are really, really important) I have almost no expenses. Living in a small student town also helps since good and healthy food is really cheap here, too (like 3 eur for a solid and healthy lunch).

Killswitch 14y ago
I've noticed, correct me if I'm wrong, but pirates are more abundant in Windows users than Mac users... I did a quick search and there's barely anything available for download on TPB for Mac (Just the usual big company name stuff), and tons for Windows. Seems Mac users have no problem paying for the software they use, considering that it's not overpriced crap that costs $60. But decently priced like $4.99
- yardie 14y ago
  I believe it is the history of the Mac. Mac users want good software and since the number of Mac developers is equal to the ratio of Mac:Windows users you had fewer choices so users were incentivized to pay developers, or else development dried up. On the other hand since there are so many Windows users and Windows developers it's a perpetual race to the bottom. For example, you have no shortage of Windows text editors that are free. For the Mac your only real option is TextWrangler.
  - deleted 14y ago
    [deleted]

axx 14y ago

I think there are three kinds of desktop app developers that make real money today: * People who make huge profits fast, because they built a desktop client for popular webservices (see terhechte and his InstaDesk) * People creating good software for niches that REALLY NEED that piece of software to get work done. * Companies building large software suits for big companies that spend huge amounts of money in licences and support. I personally think everyone in the middle is also doing well, but not enough to make a living out of it.

umenline 14y ago
do you have examples for the second section ?
- PopaL 14y ago
  CAD and FEM software for example.
- EwanToo 14y ago
  A good example of a developer in a specific, unfashionable, but successful niche is Progressive Solutions [1]. Their target market is far from glamorous, but it's a very successful business (they've actually just been acquired last month). 1 http://www.progressive-solutions.co.uk/products.php http://www.progressive-solutions.co.uk/products.php

NikoR 14y ago

I've been also thinking about this same question for a while. All the hype seems to going for web/mobile apps. But then, I have couple of Windows desktop applications (http://byteptr.com/squirrel/ http://byteptr.com/squirrel/ http://byteptr.com/fort/ http://byteptr.com/fort/) and they seem do fine considering that I don't get much traffic or anything. I'm not making a living out of these however. My point is that with enough advertisement and press coverage I think it's very possible to make a living writing desktop software. Of course the software need to be good too. : )

hokua 14y ago

Im make about $2k/mo off a Mac App

statictype 14y ago
What's the app?
rdubb 14y ago
How did you build it up to that level?
- hokua 14y ago
  Its really all due to the Mac App Store. Having a free lite version helps. My conversion from lite to paid is around 6%

saddino 14y ago

In 2003 I began to supplement my contractor income by writing OS X apps as a sole indie developer and eventually went full time. In the first six years I made enough to live on. In 2008, mostly out of curiosity, I wrote a free iOS app and started a small company to publish it. This company made no revenue in its lifetime but was acquired this year. My return from that acquisition exceeds the revenue I earned from my desktop business (for every year combined). Chances that I return to desktop app development? Zero. To be honest, it is bittersweet. I love the desktop, but that's really not where users are anymore. Skate to where the puck is going to be and all that.

hokua 14y ago
> I love the desktop, but that's really not where users are anymore. Depends on the application and the targeted user. There will always be a demand for apps for the "truck" users. But you are right, the desktop is overkill for the vast majority of people only using computers for email and social media. If they are your target, good luck. For the majority of developers, prices for apps that target these users is a race to the bottom.
yolesaber 14y ago
What was the app?

brolewis 14y ago

Desktop apps still have a place in some B2B settings. For a year I worked for a company that developed software that managed fork lift battery inventories for warehouses. These were warehouses that had little to no internet connectivity on the floor and so having a desktop application was crucial. It was a niche market but highly profitable.

skulquake 14y ago
It always amazes me how a business can be built out of anything, "fork lift battery inventory" You just need to find a pain point.
- brolewis 14y ago
  Surprisingly, its such a pain point that a company would spend $50,000 - 150,000 for a single installation.

jorgeleo 14y ago

I make a nice living (so far) out of making windows desktop apps, but they are very niche oriented. Mostly statistical analysis of millions of rows. All though it is possible to make them in html, it would be really hard to meet the UI, performance, and mobility requirements with web apps.

damian2000 14y ago

Desktop apps are still used for a lot of equipment command and control scenarios. I work on a small team who make a desktop app that needs to communicate with some custom hardware over an RS-232 (serial port) based protocol. For this sort of application, laptops which have a real serial port (or via a port extender) are the only option.

LTheobald 14y ago

There most definitely is still a market for people making desktop applications. Take Sparrow (http://sparrowmailapp.com/ http://sparrowmailapp.com/) for example. They seemed to be doing well for a desktop application - so well they got acquired by Google. An number of other applications I have purchased on my Mac are done by small teams: Alfred, 1Password, TextExpander, Things, Coda, Tweetbot. As other comments have mentioned, it may be easier on the Mac due to a perceived higher quality & richer client base. Independent games are also doing very well. Look at games like Braid & Limbo (true these also were XBLA titles). Games are still desktop applications after all. So yes, I'd say there most definitely is a market for desktop apps & I wouldn't be surprised if the market was the strongest it had been for a while with the rise of the Mac App Store.

nl 14y ago
They seemed to be doing well for a desktop application - so well they got acquired by Google. I think the general consensus was that the correct characterisation of that was that they were doing so badly that an aqui-hire was an attractive exit. Google certainly didn't buy them for the app...

DavidThi808 14y ago

I started off with it being just me - part time. Then full-time me and a salesperson. And year by year we've grown - a lot (we don't release numbers). We did this a sale at a time. No venture funding and not really even any self-funding. Just keeping it profitable and growing from those profits. So yes, it can be done (my company is http://www.windward.net http://www.windward.net). The trick is to create something of value. And then to focus on what you need to do next to grow the company.

jakobe 14y ago

My Mac app grosses around 3k € / month (http://jabakobob.net/mdbviewer/ http://jabakobob.net/mdbviewer/). Might not be much for someone living in SF, but it's more than my day job at an Austrian research institute pays.

GFischer 14y ago
The website looks great :) . Also, I'd love to make 3k € / month ! . I'll probably be in Vienna for a few months next year, are there Hacker Meetups or similar?
- jakobe 14y ago
  I was at a couple of Cocoaheads meetings (http://cocoaheads.at http://cocoaheads.at), nice people there, but I am too busy lately...
adambenayoun 14y ago
Care to share your marketing channels? Are you spending money on Ads?
- jakobe 14y ago
  I assume most people find my app directly on the Mac App Store. There is the "Search App Store..." button that Mac OS displays when you double click an unknown file type. I think that's important for my app, but I have no numbers to back that up. On the website, I get some hits from fileinfo.com. I also posted to a couple of forums where people asked how to open mdb files on a Mac. I tried to be as little spammy as possible, and always disclosed my affiliation with MDB Viewer when writing about it (for example see http://hintsforums.macworld.com/showthread.php?t=27957 http://hintsforums.macworld.com/showthread.php?t=27957 at the bottom of the page) I provide really thorough documentation on my website. I hope that the docs double as search engine landing pages. I tried Google Adwords (I got 100€ credit for free), but I don't know if that actually led to any sales. I didn't continue because it seemed too much of a hassle. I don't do much analytics, so I have no clue how successful the different things I did were. I occasionaly check my website using awstats, and I check app sales with AppViz, and that's about it.

guilloche 14y ago

I used to develope desktop applications for security printing. In such a niche market, it is very hard to gain customers. Now I moved to web application and launched online Torapp guilloche designer (http://www.torapp.info http://www.torapp.info). Hopefully things will be better.

GFischer 14y ago
What's your market? Aren't you replicating the problem? (it's still a very niche market). I hadn't heard of guilloche before now. Also, the website doesn't look professionaly designed - maybe you don't need it to, but it might help.
- guilloche 14y ago
  Yeah, the security printing software is still a very niche market. I need to consider using some of the expertise to something on mobile.

resettarget 14y ago

I assume by desktop you mean either Windows or Mac or any Linux distro. I mostly work on Windows as an engineer, there are some great products from small or one-man company: Emeditor: a text editor | UltraEdit/UltraStudio: a text editor/project IDE | Beyond Compare: a compare utility --> they have Linux version | Source Insight: a source tree oriented code editor and browser | Those are all paid software and I bet the authors are making good lives from their software

b0 14y ago

Of course there are. They just aren't as noisy which is why you don't think they exist. Away from the buzz of the tech cities, the trendy "apps" culture and tech giants, there are lots. In fact, these people are actually the silent (and better paid) majority in the industry. However, there is not much fanfare and most of them produce specialist software for niche industries. I myself produce specialist financial modelling software which is all Windows desktop (C# + WinForms). I spent a few years doing logistics software (C# + WinCE + WinForms) and before that I spent 10 years writing a large desktop based system for distributed logistics and asset management for the defence industry.

justinbaker 14y ago

EMACS FTW... As for your question, when run efficiently, yes.

umenline 14y ago

good example of mac shop don't know much about them but it looks like they do cool apps "only" for mac http://www.belightsoft.com/company/overview.php http://www.belightsoft.com/company/overview.php

webwanderings 14y ago

I wish people would make desktop application which transcends various browsers and cloud. For example, look at the Bookmarks and History in browser. I would wish to keep my bookmarks to myself wherever I go and it should be browser agnostic. Currently, there are tons of web-services out there socializing your bookmarks on the cloud but none would liberate your browser's bookmarks/history for yourself. A local application could remedy such situation.

yashg 14y ago

I do to an extent and that too on Windows. I have this watermarking software I developed 6 years ago and I keep updating it whenever I get time and its on an auto pilot. People buy, download, I get money in bank. I am considering doing it full time making a Mac desktop version and iPad one. Desktop apps are here to stay. People will still do their business on a real desktop/laptop computer. Main advantages are larger screen and large physical keyboard. If you want to process a video, photos or type a 10 page legal contract - you would rather do it on a full sized computer than on a mobile phone or a tablet. So there will always be a market for software for desktop computers.

forcer 14y ago

of course there are tons of companies, even big ones who make serious money from desktop apps. But each of those including ours, is happy that making money this way is not sexy anymore and all you startup guys focus your attention elsewhere so we can keep the market to ourselves :) on a serious note, just look at download portals - like download.com etc. there are tons of very popular software and they all make money, either requiring users to pay or ad-supported.