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How I Made $19,000 on the App Store While Learning to Code

nathanbarry.com

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Re: How I Made $19,000 on the App Store While Learning to Code

#121

Post by lizzard »

Torn wrote: post #10

What made you decide on the $199 price point? Additionally, do you think the $199 price point might it out of reach for a lot of people who would benefit from the app but who have tights budgets?

That was my first thought as well. People with disabilities aren't exactly rolling in cash. I think it's great you're not exploiting desperate people to the same extent the people entrenched in the medical-industrial complex are, but imagine... what if you released it much, much cheaper? How many people would you help then? Or even did it as a kickstarter and open-sourced it and put it out for free. Then people with disabilities and their families could contribute. My other reaction is that you mention talking with speech pathologists. It might be a good idea to get input from people actually using AAC, i.e. people with disabilities.

I totally appreciate your awesome effort and am glad you make a living. I just would suggest if you want to take it further, learn more of the landscape and think about it politically and where you want to make your profits from.

Re: How I Made $19,000 on the App Store While Learning to Code

#122

Post by lizzard »

rythie wrote: post #76

He's actually disrupting the market for the $7000+ device, I wonder how many the $7000+ people sell, presumably he could take most/all of their sales + a load on top who couldn't afford it in the first place. I assume at this point the $7000+ device people think they have some better features that make it worthwhile and are reluctant to do their own iPad app. (Innovators Dilemma).

That market desperately needs to be disrupted. No, they don't think they have some better feature, they think they can charge insurance companies and Medicare whatever they want for their crappy hardware and software, and the people who can't afford it are out of luck. They're like parasites on people who are as a class incredibly disempowered.

There are efforts to open source this kind of project, but they're few and far between.

Re: How I Made $19,000 on the App Store While Learning to Code

#123

Post by qq66 »

jamesbritt wrote: post #73
qq66 wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Spotting commercial opportunities is its own skill. Any experienced programmer could have made the v1 of Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, etc... but figuring out that people need that is nontrivial.

Is that how it works, or do lots of people build lots of things, and when a tiny handful of them go big the creators are retroactivley deemed prescient?

Everyone is convinced that their startup is the next big thing. Some of them end up being right. Part of that was prescience, part of it was the "luck" to be obsessed with the right idea.

Re: How I Made $19,000 on the App Store While Learning to Code

#124

Post by eliben »

This is a really great and inspiring story, IMO. Shows how modern technology can truly change people's lives. Sure, this kicks some speciality device companies out of the market (like I'm sure was done many times now by smartphone & tablet apps), but who cares about that?

Re: How I Made $19,000 on the App Store While Learning to Code

#125

Post by gnyman »

brador wrote: post #55
watmough wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My HP-41C has made maybe $5 so far. ROFL! edit: Just adding the name in case anyone wants to buy it; Calc41C. The source is up on github.com/watmough

You may laugh, but this is exactly the type of story we need to hear more about to balance the super hype around apps. Yeah, you could hit gold, but with a random roll you're much more likely to fire a dud. Anyone else with a crap-app story?

It would be great to actually see these apps you talk about making no money so that we all could look at them and think about what went wrong with them.

Re: How I Made $19,000 on the App Store While Learning to Code

#127

Post by baby »

newobj wrote: post #48
DeusExMachina wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

May I ask you why, being an experienced developer with an autistic child that know the actual state of the industry, you overlooked this opportunity? It's a genuine question, because I do it all the times as well and then, when I realize it to late, I wonder why I didn't think about it in the first place. I would like to know if there is a pattern or something.

In this particular case my child is fairly high functioning and not non-verbal, so I wasn't aware of this particular need. We do use some small pictoral cards with him to help prepare him for transitions, but it's literally like laminated clip art. Don't really need something high tech. In that case presenting him with an ipad would likely just distract him... But I sympathize with your general lament over "why didn'…

What I don't understand is why don't you make exactly the same app to compete with him right now?

Re: How I Made $19,000 on the App Store While Learning to Code

#128

Post by ThomPete »

pkamb wrote: post #82
ThomPete wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I outsourced my app http://finaltouchapp.com Its so simply anyone with a little programming flair could do it. It's never a real problem. People most of the times, don't see what you see. Worry less get more done.

I think I may have told you this before, but your sales website there kicks ass. Very nicely designed. "Theme" it and sell it on ThemeForest or a similar site. You'd make more from that than from your app! I would buy one.

Thanks :) It still need a lot of work though but I will make a theme soon.

Re: How I Made $19,000 on the App Store While Learning to Code

#129

Post by instakill »

watmough wrote: post #45
nathanbarry wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If it makes you feel any better I wrote another simple app and have only made $15 from it.

My HP-41C has made maybe $5 so far. ROFL! edit: Just adding the name in case anyone wants to buy it; Calc41C. The source is up on github.com/watmough

I remember ordering 65 of these calculators from the states (I'm in SA). They worked out to be about $200 each. If the varsity students knew about this app, the benefit for them would've been insane.

Re: How I Made $19,000 on the App Store While Learning to Code

#130

Post by erikb »

This kind of story always reads like a financial fail. He should pay himself a normal programmers salary (something around 50k/year for a beginner might be fine, also he is not a beginner, because he knows a lot about presentation and UX design) and THEN calculate his profits. Probably this App is way in the minus. Also you must consider that he just has around 1k customers and all of them on the same plattform. Also these customers only paid him once and not regularily. That are 4 big risks: low number of customers, no guaranty to get any dollar next month and a high dependence on one plattform and high dependence on the success of this one app. Another risk, I nearly forgot about, is that the core feature of his app, the speach engine, is not even his own. What if Acapela decides they make their own App in this direction.

Concluding everything I think he has a low income, unprofitable, high risk business. Not the position I want to be in, when I quit my dayjob.

edit I just now see that you posted the link yourself, Nathan. Please read all "he"s as "you". ;-)

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