3 ms·

Where do I sign up? Thoughts on iPhone app development, one year later

33 points by RyanGWU82 17y ago

xelfer 17y ago
I'm currently in my final 30 days of my development license contract and I'm still wondering if I should renew. I haven't had the problems a lot of people are complaining about (my apps have been accepted or rejected with a valid reason which I fixed easily). It's been a fun year learning the cocoa language and getting applications out there that lots of people find useful (my most popular app was #1 on the free app store for a week within a week of it going online). I'm just unsure if I should continue. I'm working on a game, but it's hard to find motivation to continue when there's so many others out there getting rejected with no reason after all their hard work. I'm still in the "it hasn't happened to me so who cares?" camp, but I could easily get burnt after spending 3 months of spare time developing.
- kqr2 17y ago
  What was the name of your most popular app?
  - xelfer 17y ago
    Sydney Traffic Cameras: http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=289197688&mt=8 http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftwa...
spaghetti 17y ago
I renewed a little while ago. I'm having a blast developing apps. I've had three in the store... lately I've been taking my time making a game. What's nice is I receive some money from Apple every month from sales of an app that I've thought about for maybe an hour over the past year. Also ad revenue from free apps is great!
- sant0sk1 17y ago
  Could you elaborate (numbers if you got em) on just how great the ad revenues are for free apps?
callmeed 17y ago
I wouldn't call their app rejections baseless. They aren't going to approve apps that compete with the phone's built-in functionality. Period. Yeah, it stinks and yes, GV got a raw deal because Schiller apparently pre-approved the app initially. But now that these precedents have been set, any lone developer who is working on a VOIP/podcasting/digital music sales app is wasting their time IMO. Even if some "big name" developers leave the scene, I don't think it will matter much. The barrier to entry for creating apps isn't that high. As for the "unsustainable pricing structure" he talks about, that's partly due to the above. It's not prohibitively hard to create a simple app–therefore, any simple, successful app will have competition and the price will fall. I think it's also due to the fact most people are create B2C apps. In my opinion there's a good market for niche/vertical-focused B2B apps. The kind you can charge $10+ for and that don't require app store visibility. Just my $.02
- boris 17y ago
  They aren't going to approve apps that compete with the phone's built-in functionality. Period. Yeah, it stinks... It stinks even more when Apple adds new built-in functionality that competes with your existing application and you are notified that your application is no more. In fact, the more successful your application, the greater the chances Apple will decide to make it part of the OS.
  - nudded 17y ago
    What Apple has done it the past with Mac OS X (the desktop OS) is that they go and buy the product from you. Examples: * Coverflow(first standalone app by a developper) was bought by Apple. * The new iTunes visualizer was also first developped and then bought by Apple. We'll see how Apple handles it with the iPhone
    - liscio 17y ago
      Not always the case. For example: Watson (http://www.karelia.com/watson/ http://www.karelia.com/watson/), was killed by Apple's Sherlock. Later, SandVox (http://www.karelia.com/sandvox/ http://www.karelia.com/sandvox/) was later followed up by Apple's iWeb. The list goes on... Indie Mac developers have taken to calling this act, "Sherlocking". See a mainstream usage of the term here: http://blogs.zdnet.com/Apple/?p=1137 http://blogs.zdnet.com/Apple/?p=1137 So, Apple swings both ways. :)

33 points by RyanGWU82 17y ago

I'm currently in my final 30 days of my development license contract and I'm still wondering if I should renew. I haven't had the problems a lot of people are complaining about (my apps have been accepted or rejected with a valid reason which I fixed easily). It's been a fun year learning the cocoa language and getting applications out there that lots of people find useful (my most popular app was #1 on the free app store for a week within a week of it going online). I'm just unsure if I should continue. I'm working on a game, but it's hard to find motivation to continue when there's so many others out there getting rejected with no reason after all their hard work. I'm still in the "it hasn't happened to me so who cares?" camp, but I could easily get burnt after spending 3 months of spare time developing.

kqr2 17y ago
What was the name of your most popular app?
- xelfer 17y ago
  Sydney Traffic Cameras: http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=289197688&mt=8 http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftwa...

spaghetti 17y ago

I renewed a little while ago. I'm having a blast developing apps. I've had three in the store... lately I've been taking my time making a game. What's nice is I receive some money from Apple every month from sales of an app that I've thought about for maybe an hour over the past year. Also ad revenue from free apps is great!

sant0sk1 17y ago
Could you elaborate (numbers if you got em) on just how great the ad revenues are for free apps?

callmeed 17y ago

I wouldn't call their app rejections baseless. They aren't going to approve apps that compete with the phone's built-in functionality. Period. Yeah, it stinks and yes, GV got a raw deal because Schiller apparently pre-approved the app initially. But now that these precedents have been set, any lone developer who is working on a VOIP/podcasting/digital music sales app is wasting their time IMO. Even if some "big name" developers leave the scene, I don't think it will matter much. The barrier to entry for creating apps isn't that high. As for the "unsustainable pricing structure" he talks about, that's partly due to the above. It's not prohibitively hard to create a simple app–therefore, any simple, successful app will have competition and the price will fall. I think it's also due to the fact most people are create B2C apps. In my opinion there's a good market for niche/vertical-focused B2B apps. The kind you can charge $10+ for and that don't require app store visibility. Just my $.02

boris 17y ago
They aren't going to approve apps that compete with the phone's built-in functionality. Period. Yeah, it stinks... It stinks even more when Apple adds new built-in functionality that competes with your existing application and you are notified that your application is no more. In fact, the more successful your application, the greater the chances Apple will decide to make it part of the OS.
- nudded 17y ago
  What Apple has done it the past with Mac OS X (the desktop OS) is that they go and buy the product from you. Examples: * Coverflow(first standalone app by a developper) was bought by Apple. * The new iTunes visualizer was also first developped and then bought by Apple. We'll see how Apple handles it with the iPhone
  - liscio 17y ago
    Not always the case. For example: Watson (http://www.karelia.com/watson/ http://www.karelia.com/watson/), was killed by Apple's Sherlock. Later, SandVox (http://www.karelia.com/sandvox/ http://www.karelia.com/sandvox/) was later followed up by Apple's iWeb. The list goes on... Indie Mac developers have taken to calling this act, "Sherlocking". See a mainstream usage of the term here: http://blogs.zdnet.com/Apple/?p=1137 http://blogs.zdnet.com/Apple/?p=1137 So, Apple swings both ways. :)