Category: Business

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Business

How’s that Mac App Store working for you?

Kevin Hoctor: “Besides losing cash flow, I also wanted to be able to compare direct and app store sales. Running both throughout the month of January was very revealing. My direct sales are right on target with my projections for January based on MoneyWell sales in the previous two years. Unit sales from the Apple store are three to four times our direct sales. The two stores seem to be capturing customers independent of each other. Selling my apps through the Mac App Store has almost tripled my overall revenue. I’m not complaining at all.“

Emphasis is mine. I believe tripling sales is a good thing, right? Wish I could do that with RxCalc.

Congratulations Kevin.

Categories
Apple Business Google iOS Mobile

Who wins?

A cute little monkey.tap tap tap: In the end, I think that both Apple’s and Google’s models will thrive and there won’t be a clear-cut winner. They’re ultimately two completely different markets, targeted toward two different kinds of users… and two different kinds of developers.

That’s a good way to look at it. There are those of us completely sold out to iOS and there are those sold out to Android.

We all win.

Categories
Business Mac

On the Mac App Store

Kevin Hoctor: “Why? Because our software is worth the price I charge. I also owe it to my customer base to make sure my company is well-funded and continues to provide excellent software and support in the future. The profit curve is not negatively affected by higher prices until you are significantly out of the range of your competition—and by competition, I mean software that matches your software in quality. I’ve seen too many companies go out of business because they try to compete on price.”

He’s right.

Categories
Business Development iOS

Craig Hockenberry on iOS Development Costs

Will write C/C++ for foodStack Overflow: “I’m one of the developers for Twitterrific and to be honest, I can’t tell you how many hours have gone into the product. I can tell you everyone who upvoted the estimate of 160 hours for development and 40 hours for design is fricken’ high. (I’d use another phrase, but this is my first post on Stack Overflow, so I’m being good.)”

Craig would know, he’s a very experienced Mac and iOS developer. In other words he’s been doing this for years and is one of the good guys. Listen to what he has to say. These aren’t toys, they’re serious applications, and those serious applications take time, and money, to create.

My brother and I spent many hours on a fairly small application, that doesn’t have a complex UI. Can you imagine the amount of time it takes to go outside the default UI, not to mention whatever logic is needed behind the scenes? Yeah, it can be quite daunting, I can assure you.

Go read the piece. Craig should post it to his weblog. It’s very valuable information, from a very valuable developer in the iOS ecosystem.

Categories
Business Microsoft

If you can’t be ’em, sue ’em

AHHHHHH!Wired: “On Friday, Microsoft joined the ring, with a suit leveled at Motorola’s Android-based smart phones, filed in the International Trade Commission and the federal court in the Western District of Washington. The suit charges Motorola with infringing on its patents related to “synchronizing email, calendars and contacts, scheduling meetings, and notifying applications of changes in signal strength and battery power.” (See the statement from Microsoft’s in-house IP lawyer Horacio Gutierrez below.)”

Categories
Business Life

Oracle vs. Google

RoughlyDrafted Magazine: “Oracle’s purchase of Sun was likely done in part to get the Java intellectual property that could be used by Oracle to stab Google in the face. And yes, Oracle isn’t just after money, it’s after blood. In its complaint, Oracle does’t just demand monetary infringement damages, it’s seeking to have any code that is found to infringe upon Oracle’s copyrights “impounded and destroyed.””

If Oracle wins what does this mean for Android?

This will be fun to watch from the cheap seats.

Categories
Business iPhone Life Mobile

Survey says!

TechCrunch: “When AT&T’s monopoly on the iPhone ends in the U.S., it is not going to be pretty. With increasing evidence that Verizon is preparing to offer the iPhone 4 early next year, many people are waiting before buying one or upgrading. Many of those are existing AT&T customers who want the same phone on a better network. According to a new survey by market research firm Morpace, 34 percent of AT&T iPhone owners are waiting for the iPhone to be available on another carrier before upgrading, and a full 47 percent of current AT&T iPhone owners say they would consider switching to Verizon. So almost half of AT&T customers surveyed are not completely satisfied with AT&T’s network.”

If Verizon gets an iPhone, the jury is still out, this could be a really good thing for iPhone customers currently on AT&T. It may mean those that do not bail will have a much better network, especially if a whole bunch of them jump ship for Verizon. You know how polls are, you have to take them with a grain of salt, but this one does make for great “iPhone on Verizon” fodder.

You’d also need to take a look at the number of people that just upgraded to the iPhone 4. I’m fairly certain AT&T’s new, higher priced, penalty for canceling your contract will keep a lot of folks on their network for the next two years.

It’ll also be very interesting to see if the iPhone can make a dent in the Android juggernaut at Verizon. I’m not so confident it will. Android based phones are pretty darned nice and they come in all different shapes and sizes now, one to suit every need. Drop the iPhone in the mix and you may see some very aggressive pricing of Android phones on Verizon. Stir in an average person that wants a smart phone and you may see a lot more Android’s on the street. For some the iPhone has lost its’ luster, especially since you can get an Android phone that comes fairly close. Who knows, with the mystique surrounding the iPhone and Verizon customers clamoring for the device it may be a day one hit. Remember the “I don’t care” video, yeah, that phenomenon.

We’ll all have to wait and see.

Just make sure you get the one with the Bigger GB’s and the WiFi.

Categories
Business iPhone

Whoopsie

9to5Mac: “After being rejected, taptaptap stealthily revealed that the rejected function can be enabled via a simple Mobile Safari URL. Many thought the app wouldn’t last long after this was revealed and tonight, it’s gone.”

This is a real shame. The VolumeSnap feature actually makes the camera usable. It is very apparent to me Steve Jobs has never taken a picture with his iPhone, he probably has an assistant doing it, because he couldn’t possibly be happy with the UX. I believe it makes the process error prone and touch isn’t the best UI for a camera. Pressing a button on the upper right of a camera is. This is one case where pushing the envelope doesn’t really work, it puts the photographer in an awkward position.

But, we do have to play by the store rules if we want to ship product, and as a developer I still believe in the App Store. It our simple app on the same footing as the big boys and provides an instant distribution channel.

That said I still believe Camera+ is a MUCH better camera than the default camera, and VolumeSnap is a much needed feature.

Let’s hope Apple will listen to tap tap tap’s request for a new “feature.” From their rejection blog post.

“Title: Provide a way to allow hardware volume controls to be used for other purposes
Summary: We’d like to be able to use the hardware volume controls to be used for things besides controlling volume. In particular, for our app, Camera+, we’d like to allow the buttons to be used to control the camera shutter for taking photos. We’ve gotten many, many feature requests for this and would like Apple to reconsider its policy of not allowing the hardware controls to be repurposed and provide developers with an official, supported mechanism to do so.

Apple Bug Reporter ID # 8288022”

Categories
Business Life

Book Retailers Dying?

James Robertson: “A decade ago, my entire family looked forward to a trip to Borders or B&N. We’d easily drop a ton of money on books, and spend a happy hour or two browsing the aisles. We just don’t do that anymore. Why? Well, the Amazon store is the primary reason.”

Kim and I used to do this all the time. We’d troop down to our local Borders, walk around, collect a bunch of books, and make a large purchase. We haven’t done it in an eon, and I love book stores. I just love walking around them, looking at what’s new, sippin on a coffee. It’s an event, like going to the movies. Since I picked up a Kindle for Kim last year I can count on one hand the times we’ve been to a physical book store.

The other strange thing, in the same vein, is we’ve stopped visiting Blockbuster Video. I used to go by there at lunch on Tuesday’s to see the new releases. It’s another place I loved to stroll. I haven’t done that for a very long time, probably more than a year. Now it’s all about Netflix.

Things they are a changin’.

Categories
Business

Troll

Wired: “Gibson’s vision is to monetize news content on the backend, by scouring the internet for infringing copies of his client’s articles, then suing and relying on the harsh penalties in the Copyright Act — up to $150,000 for a single infringement — to compel quick settlements. Since Righthaven’s formation in March, the company has filed at least 80 federal lawsuits against website operators and individual bloggers who’ve re-posted articles from the Las Vegas Review-Journal, his first client.”

Clearly the man doesn’t understand the internet and should pull all the content he’s worried about from public view so it doesn’t get read, and linked to.