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Question for HN (loaded one): What do you consider to be the most "expensive" app (in history) in terms of development cost? EDIT: Clarification - mobile app,

Question for HN (loaded one): What do you consider to be the most "expensive" app (in history) in terms of development cost? EDIT: Clarification - mobile app, as stated in the article.

farhadabas 14y ago
Off the top of my head, Color?
- wingerlang 14y ago
  How come?
  - jameswyse 14y ago
    They raised like $41 million and shut the app down a year later. see: http://mashable.com/2012/10/17/color-shuts-down/ http://mashable.com/2012/10/17/color-shuts-down/
zizee 14y ago
Depends on your definition of "App". The article is concentrating on mobile application, which is probably the definition you are using. Regardless, I don't have an opinion on the most expensive mobile app, but your question made me think of a recent bit of news where the US military spent over 1 Billion dollars on an ERP system and the project is being scrapped. Ouch. http://www.dailytech.com/USAF+Concedes+1B+USD+Data+Project+Was+Pretty+Much+Useless/article29198.htm http://www.dailytech.com/USAF+Concedes+1B+USD+Data+Project+W...
jaggederest 14y ago
Probably Google search and it's ads, at this point. Crawlers, multicontinent data centers, etc. etc. Easily billions of dollars.
- fosk 14y ago
  If "app" includes any kind of app and not only mobile, then I would say Microsoft Windows.
dangrossman 14y ago
I'm pretty sure the winner would be the IRS's modernization program, which was to write new software to process tax returns. It began over 16 years ago and has consumed over $12 billion (just for the software development portion). $4 billion was spent on the first attempt at writing this software before they gave up in 1997 with no usable product. That's a $4 billion "app" nobody ever used. http://articles.baltimoresun.com/1997-01-31/news/1997031030_1_modern-computer-systems-irs-computers-paper-tax-returns http://articles.baltimoresun.com/1997-01-31/news/1997031030_... It's been a few years since I read about it so things may have changed, but last read was they spent another $8 billion in the 2000s trying again, this time outsourcing the development to consulting firms with thousands of developers. And around 2005/2006 had yet to produce a system the IRS could use, forcing them to continue processing tax returns with paper and antiquated systems.
- fosk 14y ago
  The estimated payroll costs for Windows Vista are estimated to be 10B. Now consider the costs for every Windows version released since 1985, and include R&D/marketing expenses. http://seattletimes.com/html/businesstechnology/2003460386_btview04.html http://seattletimes.com/html/businesstechnology/2003460386_b...
  - dangrossman 14y ago
    But that's an operating system, not an application. You've got to give credit to the IRS spending more on one application than Microsoft spent on their OS.
    - jrockway 14y ago
      OSes are not particularly complicated. I could imagine that tax laws require a lot more code (and tests) than dragging some windows around and scheduling processes. (Neither are easy, of course.)
    - lurker14 14y ago
      That "one application" was software+hardware tasked with managing millions of hand-written paper forms. The electronic version of tax filing was far cheaper, and launched successfully.
whatusername 14y ago
System/360 (if you can count it as an app) was supposed to be $5 billion in the 1960's. So $34B + in todays dollars. http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2008/04/dayintech_0407 http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2008/04/dayint... (And if you include the cost of further development of z/OS over the years that goes much much higher again)
- rhizome 14y ago
  I wouldn't be surprised if that was one of the priciest projects with the best ROI, though.
  - whatusername 14y ago
    Actually, thinking in terms of largest total return for a project (ROI is infinite if your I is 0).. I can't think of too many projects that have had larger returns. Probably the iPhone? Maybe some Cars (camry? Model T?) Maybe some really big mining/oil operations? What else is in the same league?
    - rhizome 14y ago
      To be sure, there has been marginal investment over the years in maintaining absolute backward compatibility through the zSeries/zOS.
potatolicious 14y ago
You're getting a lot of replies that aren't mobile apps, but just software products in general. In terms of mobile apps my money (hah!) is on one of the many medical apps that are in development - we're talking about apps intended for use by medical professionals in actual medical institutions. Not only are they extremely costly to develop (someone's got to pay the army of consultants, after all), they face incredibly costly certification processes before they can see any actual users.
- 13hours 14y ago
  You're right. We're an app dev company, and we're in the process of developing a medical app for a client. The FDA approval process makes it very time consuming.
  - HeyLaughingBoy 14y ago
    Do you/they have to submit a 510(k) or is there a different mechanism?
scheff 14y ago
I would guess Facebook because they would be changing it on a daily basis to keep it consistent with their web version, and adding dedicated functionality unique to the mobile platform.
GlennS 14y ago
Here's a competitor for that title, the NHS National Program for IT. The plan was to build a patient records system to run in every hospital in the UK. It was billed as the biggest IT project ever. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NHS_Connecting_for_Health http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NHS_Connecting_for_Health
- aneth4 14y ago
  Wow. 20 billion pounds expected with unclear outcome. I have to wonder what the scope of such a project looks like to come within 2 orders of magnitude of that number.
  - polymatter 14y ago
    And its still counting. I have a friend working in IT in the NHS and they are still spending money hand over fist on transforming digital records. Basically, nobody wants to be accused of putting tax money before accuracy of patient records which essentially means blank cheque and unbounded scope.

Question for HN (loaded one): What do you consider to be the most "expensive" app (in history) in terms of development cost? EDIT: Clarification - mobile app, as stated in the article.

farhadabas 14y ago

Off the top of my head, Color?

wingerlang 14y ago
How come?
- jameswyse 14y ago
  They raised like $41 million and shut the app down a year later. see: http://mashable.com/2012/10/17/color-shuts-down/ http://mashable.com/2012/10/17/color-shuts-down/

zizee 14y ago

Depends on your definition of "App". The article is concentrating on mobile application, which is probably the definition you are using. Regardless, I don't have an opinion on the most expensive mobile app, but your question made me think of a recent bit of news where the US military spent over 1 Billion dollars on an ERP system and the project is being scrapped. Ouch. http://www.dailytech.com/USAF+Concedes+1B+USD+Data+Project+Was+Pretty+Much+Useless/article29198.htm http://www.dailytech.com/USAF+Concedes+1B+USD+Data+Project+W...

jaggederest 14y ago

Probably Google search and it's ads, at this point. Crawlers, multicontinent data centers, etc. etc. Easily billions of dollars.

fosk 14y ago
If "app" includes any kind of app and not only mobile, then I would say Microsoft Windows.

dangrossman 14y ago

I'm pretty sure the winner would be the IRS's modernization program, which was to write new software to process tax returns. It began over 16 years ago and has consumed over $12 billion (just for the software development portion). $4 billion was spent on the first attempt at writing this software before they gave up in 1997 with no usable product. That's a $4 billion "app" nobody ever used. http://articles.baltimoresun.com/1997-01-31/news/1997031030_1_modern-computer-systems-irs-computers-paper-tax-returns http://articles.baltimoresun.com/1997-01-31/news/1997031030_... It's been a few years since I read about it so things may have changed, but last read was they spent another $8 billion in the 2000s trying again, this time outsourcing the development to consulting firms with thousands of developers. And around 2005/2006 had yet to produce a system the IRS could use, forcing them to continue processing tax returns with paper and antiquated systems.

fosk 14y ago
The estimated payroll costs for Windows Vista are estimated to be 10B. Now consider the costs for every Windows version released since 1985, and include R&D/marketing expenses. http://seattletimes.com/html/businesstechnology/2003460386_btview04.html http://seattletimes.com/html/businesstechnology/2003460386_b...
- dangrossman 14y ago
  But that's an operating system, not an application. You've got to give credit to the IRS spending more on one application than Microsoft spent on their OS.
  - jrockway 14y ago
    OSes are not particularly complicated. I could imagine that tax laws require a lot more code (and tests) than dragging some windows around and scheduling processes. (Neither are easy, of course.)
  - lurker14 14y ago
    That "one application" was software+hardware tasked with managing millions of hand-written paper forms. The electronic version of tax filing was far cheaper, and launched successfully.

whatusername 14y ago

System/360 (if you can count it as an app) was supposed to be $5 billion in the 1960's. So $34B + in todays dollars. http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2008/04/dayintech_0407 http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2008/04/dayint... (And if you include the cost of further development of z/OS over the years that goes much much higher again)

rhizome 14y ago
I wouldn't be surprised if that was one of the priciest projects with the best ROI, though.
- whatusername 14y ago
  Actually, thinking in terms of largest total return for a project (ROI is infinite if your I is 0).. I can't think of too many projects that have had larger returns. Probably the iPhone? Maybe some Cars (camry? Model T?) Maybe some really big mining/oil operations? What else is in the same league?
  - rhizome 14y ago
    To be sure, there has been marginal investment over the years in maintaining absolute backward compatibility through the zSeries/zOS.

potatolicious 14y ago

You're getting a lot of replies that aren't mobile apps, but just software products in general. In terms of mobile apps my money (hah!) is on one of the many medical apps that are in development - we're talking about apps intended for use by medical professionals in actual medical institutions. Not only are they extremely costly to develop (someone's got to pay the army of consultants, after all), they face incredibly costly certification processes before they can see any actual users.

13hours 14y ago
You're right. We're an app dev company, and we're in the process of developing a medical app for a client. The FDA approval process makes it very time consuming.
- HeyLaughingBoy 14y ago
  Do you/they have to submit a 510(k) or is there a different mechanism?

scheff 14y ago

I would guess Facebook because they would be changing it on a daily basis to keep it consistent with their web version, and adding dedicated functionality unique to the mobile platform.

GlennS 14y ago

Here's a competitor for that title, the NHS National Program for IT. The plan was to build a patient records system to run in every hospital in the UK. It was billed as the biggest IT project ever. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NHS_Connecting_for_Health http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NHS_Connecting_for_Health

aneth4 14y ago
Wow. 20 billion pounds expected with unclear outcome. I have to wonder what the scope of such a project looks like to come within 2 orders of magnitude of that number.
- polymatter 14y ago
  And its still counting. I have a friend working in IT in the NHS and they are still spending money hand over fist on transforming digital records. Basically, nobody wants to be accused of putting tax money before accuracy of patient records which essentially means blank cheque and unbounded scope.