4 ms·

RedLaser iPhone App reaches 750K downloads, $1M in revenue

68 points by andrewhyde 17y ago

sailormoon 17y ago
Good for them! A great app, at the right time, on the ideal platform - exactly the kind of thing that should be a raging success. And now this awesome developer's got a whole bunch of money, who knows what great things he's got the resources to do ..
absmith 17y ago
This is very inspirational. We work with the Occipital guys on FoodScanner, and it is cool to see a product rise to the top just by virtue of being kick-ass.
ericb 17y ago
Most of the apps I see are pretty uninspired. This looks interesting, novel, and useful. I keep hearing how tough the app store is, but if you actually "make something people want" is that really true?
- jfarmer 17y ago
  It's a two-fold problem. You have to make something people want, but you also have to inform people that you've made it. Most people rely on the AppStore for the latter; I think there are more interesting models that people haven't exploited yet.
- bjplink 17y ago
  I agree. I think it's important that a lot of the people with lackluster sales or disappointing results should take a step back and be honest with themselves about whether or not their app is actually worth buying. There is plenty of moaning and belly aching online from iPhone developers who are upset their apps don't sell well (such as this semi-famous one: http://gedblog.com/2009/09/28/losing-ireligion http://gedblog.com/2009/09/28/losing-ireligion) but few thoughts from people willing to analyze their mistakes and faults.
  - warfangle 17y ago
    Interesting. A bunch of bellyaching because a game isn't selling well - and I can completely understand /why/ it didn't sell well. Heck, it's free and I still won't install it.
- Locke1689 17y ago
  I see a bunch of people making crappy games. I don't know about the masses, but I have one game on my iPhone. It is Katamari Damacy and it is the free trial (I may end up buying the full version). I like games but usually I think of all the other things I could be doing with my time and choose not to play. On the other hand, I am always searching for useful utilities like the RedLaser app. If there were more utilities and fewer crappy games, perhaps I'd spend more money at the App Store.
  - Splines 17y ago
    Plus, the games section of the app store has very aggressive pricing. Personally, I use price-watching apps to monitor for when games go for free. Some of these games are highly polished, and to compete against them when they're available for free (even for 1 day) must put significant downward pressure on pricing for other games. Unless I'm looking for a specific game experience (e.g., I bought Beneath a Steel Sky), I'm more than willing to wait for free games to come along to satisfy my mobile gaming fix.
antidaily 17y ago
Nice guys. Congrats! Go Blue!
kw_ 17y ago
This one is bittersweet, as we had the idea, the staff, and the time and money to implement it, but chose not to, because we substantially underestimated the size of the market. Where by 'we' I mean 'I'. It's completely my fault that RedLaser was allowed to win this market. I killed the project. It's nice to see that we were at least somewhat correct on the general goodness of the concept, though. Congrats, and nice work, guys.
- pclark 17y ago
  remember its less about the idea and the nitty gritty execution :) sorry all the same.
  - kw_ 17y ago
    Yes. I'm kicking myself for halting the execution, because I made order of magnitude errors in my projections. If I'd simply had the idea (not the idea plus all resources required for successful execution), there'd be no twinge.
    - jfarmer 17y ago
      I had the idea, but didn't have all the resources! I spent two weeks trying to patch something together but couldn't get it to work. If only we had met...! That said, I think RedLaser as it exists now is a "one time thing." It's a product, not a company, and they're going to have to pivot into something more sustainable than "download this app." So $1MM is great, but not as great as $1MM/year. Microsoft manages this by charging for frequent and expensive upgrades, plus OEM deals. That probably won't work for an iPhone app. There are lots of interesting ways they can go, however, so I am a little jealous that they're in such a great position.
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      - vulpes 17y ago
        Whats interesting is the fact that they license their tech to any other app that wants barcode scanning functionality in exchange for 10% cut of the sales (10 cents on the dollar) so the "app" will live past the success of redlaser. Of course Occipital has other things brewing as well :)
daniel-cussen 17y ago
Theory: As the internet becomes a more developed medium of communication, word of mouth will approach being the only way of marketing a product. Quality will be the only way to deserve word of mouth.
ticktock 17y ago
iphone users are so gullible - when you are all said and done with paying for your iphone and your service contract and your 'redlaser' app, you're over 2k in the hole, and for what? a 'mobile cuecat'? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CueCat http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CueCat
- warfangle 17y ago
  Right, because RedLaser totally: -Uses it's own special kind of barcode -Doesn't let people compare prices locally -Is simply a barcode-encoded URL /sarcasm Cuecat was a device that was about a decade too soon. We needed ubiquitous mobile computing (not just mobile phones, you see) before something like this could truly come into its own.
  - ticktock 17y ago
    I saw the special barcode for the cuecat in the wikipedia article but I don't remember it being restricted to only those types of barcodes. I'm pretty sure it worked for any barcode. It also says they were trying to avoid patent infringement. I suppose that patent has expired (cuecat was 10years ago! wow), but now that redlaser is worth //evil-voice One Million Dollars!, they may have to pay the piper. So again - you think it's economical to invest 2k into a device that lets me save 40 cents on Ketchup?
    - jcl 17y ago
      I don't understand your assumption that users are buying iPhones only to use this app and not, say, to also make phone calls and browse the web. In the past, people bought iPhones even when this app was not available, and they paid more. You should be asking instead if it's economical to invest $2 into an app to save 40 cents on ketchup. (And, if you plan to make more than five such purchases, the answer is "yes".)
- DannoHung 17y ago
  Yeah, once you install this app you can't use the internet or the phone or the music playback or any of your other apps. It really freakin stinks!
augustus 17y ago
I might be wrong on this but I will say it anyway. The original idea for this came out of the Google App contest for Android. This was the idea that won the competition. So the idea was available for anyone to execute after that. The red laser team might have come up with the idea independently or just learned about it from the Google Android contest. I am not sure if the contest or the app came out first. Someone here might know.
- augustus 17y ago
  I guess I will answer my own question. The app compareAnywhere won the Android ADC 1 Contest. Here is a link below: http://code.google.com/android/adc/adc_gallery/app.html?id=8 http://code.google.com/android/adc/adc_gallery/app.html?id=8 That was in 2008! You couldn't do bar code scanning on the iPhone until 3GS came out (I think I am right on this). So this was an idea out there since 2008. The red laser team were the first one to execute it on the iPhone 3GS. I also have high regard for the Google team for correctly accessing the value of this idea.
  - vulpes 17y ago
    RedLaser was released on May 15, 2009. It works with original, 3G, and 3gs iPhones (although it is faster on 3gs). It was released for the pure need for that scanning barcodes was very subpar on the iPhone. They were the first (and I think still the only, most others license their tech) app on the iPhone to do barcode recognition straight on the phone (no need to take a picture or send it to a server to be 'read'). Until very recently that wasn't possible with horribly slow Android SDK. Read Occipital's story on their blog http://occipital.com/blog/2009/08/01/2009-at-occipital-from-the-hangar-to-the-crawler http://occipital.com/blog/2009/08/01/2009-at-occipital-from-...
- andreyf 17y ago
  The latest version of RedLaser is much more impressive than what the Android guys were able to execute. It's able to identify barcodes before I stabilize my hand over the image, upside down, or sideways, almost as if I were swiping it. The vibration feedback and rest of the interface are a great UX touch. The app was brilliantly executed - both in UX and in hardcore vision algorithms. This wasn't an easy task - they deserve every penny of that $1m.
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ahi 17y ago
$1 million after being top 5 app for 3 months? Urrgh. There's either 2 or 4 (two founders + two employees?) so $250k in revenue for a year's work isn't exactly huge. It's a big win I'm sure for Occipital--a million dollars is a million dollars--but if that's the pay off for a home run the iPhone is not a market I want to play in.
mzaman_net 17y ago
that's great
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68 points by andrewhyde 17y ago

Good for them! A great app, at the right time, on the ideal platform - exactly the kind of thing that should be a raging success. And now this awesome developer's got a whole bunch of money, who knows what great things he's got the resources to do ..

absmith 17y ago

This is very inspirational. We work with the Occipital guys on FoodScanner, and it is cool to see a product rise to the top just by virtue of being kick-ass.

ericb 17y ago

Most of the apps I see are pretty uninspired. This looks interesting, novel, and useful. I keep hearing how tough the app store is, but if you actually "make something people want" is that really true?

jfarmer 17y ago
It's a two-fold problem. You have to make something people want, but you also have to inform people that you've made it. Most people rely on the AppStore for the latter; I think there are more interesting models that people haven't exploited yet.
bjplink 17y ago
I agree. I think it's important that a lot of the people with lackluster sales or disappointing results should take a step back and be honest with themselves about whether or not their app is actually worth buying. There is plenty of moaning and belly aching online from iPhone developers who are upset their apps don't sell well (such as this semi-famous one: http://gedblog.com/2009/09/28/losing-ireligion http://gedblog.com/2009/09/28/losing-ireligion) but few thoughts from people willing to analyze their mistakes and faults.
- warfangle 17y ago
  Interesting. A bunch of bellyaching because a game isn't selling well - and I can completely understand /why/ it didn't sell well. Heck, it's free and I still won't install it.
Locke1689 17y ago
I see a bunch of people making crappy games. I don't know about the masses, but I have one game on my iPhone. It is Katamari Damacy and it is the free trial (I may end up buying the full version). I like games but usually I think of all the other things I could be doing with my time and choose not to play. On the other hand, I am always searching for useful utilities like the RedLaser app. If there were more utilities and fewer crappy games, perhaps I'd spend more money at the App Store.
- Splines 17y ago
  Plus, the games section of the app store has very aggressive pricing. Personally, I use price-watching apps to monitor for when games go for free. Some of these games are highly polished, and to compete against them when they're available for free (even for 1 day) must put significant downward pressure on pricing for other games. Unless I'm looking for a specific game experience (e.g., I bought Beneath a Steel Sky), I'm more than willing to wait for free games to come along to satisfy my mobile gaming fix.

antidaily 17y ago

Nice guys. Congrats! Go Blue!

kw_ 17y ago

This one is bittersweet, as we had the idea, the staff, and the time and money to implement it, but chose not to, because we substantially underestimated the size of the market. Where by 'we' I mean 'I'. It's completely my fault that RedLaser was allowed to win this market. I killed the project. It's nice to see that we were at least somewhat correct on the general goodness of the concept, though. Congrats, and nice work, guys.

pclark 17y ago
remember its less about the idea and the nitty gritty execution :) sorry all the same.
- kw_ 17y ago
  Yes. I'm kicking myself for halting the execution, because I made order of magnitude errors in my projections. If I'd simply had the idea (not the idea plus all resources required for successful execution), there'd be no twinge.
  - jfarmer 17y ago
    I had the idea, but didn't have all the resources! I spent two weeks trying to patch something together but couldn't get it to work. If only we had met...! That said, I think RedLaser as it exists now is a "one time thing." It's a product, not a company, and they're going to have to pivot into something more sustainable than "download this app." So $1MM is great, but not as great as $1MM/year. Microsoft manages this by charging for frequent and expensive upgrades, plus OEM deals. That probably won't work for an iPhone app. There are lots of interesting ways they can go, however, so I am a little jealous that they're in such a great position.
    - deleted 17y ago
      [deleted]
    - vulpes 17y ago
      Whats interesting is the fact that they license their tech to any other app that wants barcode scanning functionality in exchange for 10% cut of the sales (10 cents on the dollar) so the "app" will live past the success of redlaser. Of course Occipital has other things brewing as well :)

daniel-cussen 17y ago

Theory: As the internet becomes a more developed medium of communication, word of mouth will approach being the only way of marketing a product. Quality will be the only way to deserve word of mouth.

ticktock 17y ago

iphone users are so gullible - when you are all said and done with paying for your iphone and your service contract and your 'redlaser' app, you're over 2k in the hole, and for what? a 'mobile cuecat'? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CueCat http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CueCat

warfangle 17y ago
Right, because RedLaser totally: -Uses it's own special kind of barcode -Doesn't let people compare prices locally -Is simply a barcode-encoded URL /sarcasm Cuecat was a device that was about a decade too soon. We needed ubiquitous mobile computing (not just mobile phones, you see) before something like this could truly come into its own.
- ticktock 17y ago
  I saw the special barcode for the cuecat in the wikipedia article but I don't remember it being restricted to only those types of barcodes. I'm pretty sure it worked for any barcode. It also says they were trying to avoid patent infringement. I suppose that patent has expired (cuecat was 10years ago! wow), but now that redlaser is worth //evil-voice One Million Dollars!, they may have to pay the piper. So again - you think it's economical to invest 2k into a device that lets me save 40 cents on Ketchup?
  - jcl 17y ago
    I don't understand your assumption that users are buying iPhones only to use this app and not, say, to also make phone calls and browse the web. In the past, people bought iPhones even when this app was not available, and they paid more. You should be asking instead if it's economical to invest $2 into an app to save 40 cents on ketchup. (And, if you plan to make more than five such purchases, the answer is "yes".)
DannoHung 17y ago
Yeah, once you install this app you can't use the internet or the phone or the music playback or any of your other apps. It really freakin stinks!

augustus 17y ago

I might be wrong on this but I will say it anyway. The original idea for this came out of the Google App contest for Android. This was the idea that won the competition. So the idea was available for anyone to execute after that. The red laser team might have come up with the idea independently or just learned about it from the Google Android contest. I am not sure if the contest or the app came out first. Someone here might know.

augustus 17y ago
I guess I will answer my own question. The app compareAnywhere won the Android ADC 1 Contest. Here is a link below: http://code.google.com/android/adc/adc_gallery/app.html?id=8 http://code.google.com/android/adc/adc_gallery/app.html?id=8 That was in 2008! You couldn't do bar code scanning on the iPhone until 3GS came out (I think I am right on this). So this was an idea out there since 2008. The red laser team were the first one to execute it on the iPhone 3GS. I also have high regard for the Google team for correctly accessing the value of this idea.
- vulpes 17y ago
  RedLaser was released on May 15, 2009. It works with original, 3G, and 3gs iPhones (although it is faster on 3gs). It was released for the pure need for that scanning barcodes was very subpar on the iPhone. They were the first (and I think still the only, most others license their tech) app on the iPhone to do barcode recognition straight on the phone (no need to take a picture or send it to a server to be 'read'). Until very recently that wasn't possible with horribly slow Android SDK. Read Occipital's story on their blog http://occipital.com/blog/2009/08/01/2009-at-occipital-from-the-hangar-to-the-crawler http://occipital.com/blog/2009/08/01/2009-at-occipital-from-...
andreyf 17y ago
The latest version of RedLaser is much more impressive than what the Android guys were able to execute. It's able to identify barcodes before I stabilize my hand over the image, upside down, or sideways, almost as if I were swiping it. The vibration feedback and rest of the interface are a great UX touch. The app was brilliantly executed - both in UX and in hardcore vision algorithms. This wasn't an easy task - they deserve every penny of that $1m.

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ahi 17y ago

$1 million after being top 5 app for 3 months? Urrgh. There's either 2 or 4 (two founders + two employees?) so $250k in revenue for a year's work isn't exactly huge. It's a big win I'm sure for Occipital--a million dollars is a million dollars--but if that's the pay off for a home run the iPhone is not a market I want to play in.

mzaman_net 17y ago

that's great

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