Searching for iPhone Apps

So while I’m still against building my own iPhone App (too risky with Apple denying good apps), I am a big user of iPhone apps. But I am frustrated with the iTunes interface for finding them. So I built my own. You can see my iPhone Apps directory over at MacMost. I still have some features I want to add (like search). But for now, at least it is easy to see which apps are new — and by new I mean really new, not just “featured” like they are in iTunes.

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Dave Winer on iPhone Development

Here’s a blog post by Dave Winer. The first paragraph says it all. So I’m not the only one who sees iPhone App development as too risky.

In fact, I often thought that the ideal first App for me to develop would be a copy of the Urinal Game. It is a simple App, developed originally in Flash 2, so it has to be simple. I thought it would be a good way to cut my teeth on iPhone App development, and I could distribute it for free to test the market.

But now that Apple has banned the “Pull My Finger” application, I’m not sure they would go for a humorous App like the Urinal Game. I wouldn’t risk it. If Apple denies the application, then all my work would be for nothing because there is really no other way to distribute the App. As a small business, I simple can’t spin my wheels like that. I’ll stick with my Web-based iPhone games, where there isn’t a single gatekeeper.

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Why I’m Saying No To Client Work

The idea of doing work for “clients” predates my career as a programmer. I was doing desktop publishing work for clients back in college. I wasn’t necessarily in business, I was just a poor college student always on the lookout for some cash.

So when I quit my job and started working for myself back in 1996, it was natural for me to look for “contracts.” And I found them, especially after my first book on programming was published.

So I have been doing client work ever since. Sometimes it has been a minor part of my work, sometimes a major part. At two points in the last 12 years I even expanded my company with employees specifically set aside to do only client work.

But during the entire 12 years, I have also been saying: “Soon, I will stop doing client work.”

I guess I’m enough of a creative individual that I really want to be creating my own content, not developing someone else’s. No matter how cool or challenging a contract seems when I first take it on, it always ends up being very uninteresting by the time I’m halfway done. The client, of course, wants their job done and done right. I just want to move on.

There is also a business side to the whole thing. When you do client work, you get paid cash for your time. Trading time for money. But developing my own content can continue to pay off years after the effort. For instance, games I have made for my free online games site GameScene.com back in 1996 are still earning ad revenue today. The books I have written still create royalties. I hope the same is true in the long run for the Mac videos that I’m making.

So, once agian, I’m declaring an end to client work. But I mean it this time. I have one client project that I am working on right now. I have a few clients that come back to me from time-to-time for updates. My plan is to finish everything up and declare independence from client work by the end of the year. Definitely.

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On the Fence About Developing iPhone Apps

Back when Steve Jobs announced that 3rd parties would be allowed to make iPhone Apps, I planned to be right onboard. I brushed up on Objective C and Xcode, and waited to be accepted into the iPhone developer program. A glitch prevented me from getting on to the program until much later than I expected, and that delay allowed for a waning of enthusiasm. So now that I am an official iPhone App developer, I have my doubts about whether or not I should do it.

First, keep in mind that developing any piece of software takes an effort. If I was to make an iPhone App, I would have to work for weeks or months developing it. Like most software, I would probably be 90% done in no time, and then spend a lot of time polishing. This is especially true for applications that are to be sold. If someone is paying money, they will want support. So you want to make that App as easy to learn and use as possible, and, of course bug-free.

So once the development is done, then what?

Well, Apple will have to approve it. So far, Apple seems to be approving most apps, so no worries there. But I will worry. I don’t like having someone else have complete control over whether my App even exists or not. It is scary to think about — spending all that time developing the App only to have to refused, maybe.

Now when iPhone 2.0 was released, and enabled Apps for the first time, I downloaded a lot of them. They were buggy. They crashed a lot. But that was nothing compared to when iPhone 2.0.1 was released. It made almost all of my Apps unstable. Turns out that Apple released 2.0.1 without giving App developers a preview. So the App developers all had to scramble to release updates within hours or days of 2.0.1.

This scares me. If I have to jump into action with every iPhone OS update, then this is hardly recurring revenue. I’ll have to be on top of developing updates all the time. And there is no putting the genie back in the bottle — if 100 people buy the App, I’ll be tied into updating it for those people forever, or at least for a reasonable amount of time.

The numbers scare me too. Apple only takes about 30%, which is great if you are familiar with typical downloadable game revenue sharing models. So a $10 App will net me $7 per sale. So if I sell 10 per day, which is a pretty good rate considering the number of Apps available, that is $25,550 per year. That’s not that great if you consider the development time, support time (for 3,650 people), and updates.

I’m not saying that $25K isn’t good. It is OK, I guess. Maybe at 20 per day it gets a little better. And if you have a full-time job during the day or something, then it is certainly nice.

But it isn’t enough to get me excited. I’ve got plenty of other ways to make money creating software and net content, and I’d have to sideline one or more of those to make the time to develop an iPhone App. There are only so many hours in the day.

So I’m still on the fence. I may try developing a free App just to test the water. A free App would mean less support, and I could relax a bit with updates. Perhaps that’s how I’ll start, if I can find the time.

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New Media Expo Wrap-Up

So I am really glad I went to the New Media Expo this year. It was my third year at the show, so I was worried that there wasn’t much more to accomplish.

I loved the keynotes, especially the first one by Gary Vaynerchuk , from Wine Library TV. His enthusiasm is contagious. He was pretty much preaching to the choir with me, as I am already doing everything he talked about — but the difference is quantity. He does it all so much more and more intensely.

I also got to rub elbows with the likes of Leo Laporte, Amber MacArthur, Veronica Belmont, Anji Bee, Chris Marquardt, Steve Garfield, Felicia Day, Jonathan Coulton, Andy McCaskey, and so many more. Also, the hometown Colorado crew, and my conference-buddy Mike McAllen.

In addition to the “more and more intensely” take-away, I also learned I need to push more to get people to review MacMost at the iTunes store. Push push, hint hint.

Oh, and I want to work to build my audience at Viddler.com. And I got a few ideas about episodes to do, as well as maybe some future interview subjects.

I also feel good that I raised awareness of MacMost with a lot of people. And awareness of me. I’m pretty shy, but I hung out with a lot of cool people, all the time wearing MacMost attire and handing out cards. Hopefully I made some new friends.

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