Our first app: One month on the iOS App Store

#1

Post by jwhelan » Thu, Jan 05, 2012, 6:48 PM UTC

Our first app: One month on the iOS App Store
log.burningrobot.com

Re: Our first app: One month on the iOS App Store

#2

Post by slaven » Thu, Jan 05, 2012, 7:15 PM UTC

That is very cool, thanks for sharing!

Are you doing any marketing for it?

Re: Our first app: One month on the iOS App Store

#3

Post by brador » Thu, Jan 05, 2012, 7:18 PM UTC

I love postmortems! Could you give more details on the app...how long did it take to develop? How many people worked on it? Did you outsource parts of it? Any ongoing costs (eg, APIs etc.)? Any interesting side stories?

Also, what would you say is your total estimated cost for making the app from start to finish?

Re: Our first app: One month on the iOS App Store

#4

Post by x1r0 » Thu, Jan 05, 2012, 7:31 PM UTC

brador wrote: post #3

I love postmortems! Could you give more details on the app...how long did it take to develop? How many people worked on it? Did you outsource parts of it? Any ongoing costs (eg, APIs etc.)? Any interesting side stories? Also, what would you say is your total estimated cost for making the app from start to finish?

We're a team of 2. I do all the development. All the work was done in-house... no outsourcing. The app, icon, and website were all us.

It took 3 months to get to version 1.0. We worked on it part time, nights and weekends. There were some big gaps as life and work got in the way. It was my first iOS development experience, and I had only dabbled in Objective-C previously, so most of that time was getting up to speed with the language and framework. I primarily work in Ruby.

There are no real ongoing costs. The website is completely static, so hosting is negligible. We use Google's local search and directions APIs. Both of them are free at our usage levels.

It cost $99 for the Apple developer license. That's all the capital all we invested. The rest of it was just time.

Re: Our first app: One month on the iOS App Store

#5

Post by pthreads » Thu, Jan 05, 2012, 7:36 PM UTC

Thank you for sharing.

Re: Our first app: One month on the iOS App Store

#6

Post by nathanbarry » Thu, Jan 05, 2012, 7:38 PM UTC

Nice. Congrats on getting your live app in the store. It is a great way to get hobby projects out in the open. Plus I get nice sense of completion when the app goes live.

Sometime soon I'll post a sales breakdown for my latest app. For me getting reviews written on sites like MacLife and AppAdvice made all the difference for sales.

Re: Our first app: One month on the iOS App Store

#7

Post by brador » Thu, Jan 05, 2012, 7:39 PM UTC

x1r0 wrote: post #4

brador wrote: post #3

I love postmortems! Could you give more details on the app...how long did it take to develop? How many people worked on it? Did you outsource parts of it? Any ongoing costs (eg, APIs etc.)? Any interesting side stories? Also, what would you say is your total estimated cost for making the app from start to finish?

We're a team of 2. I do all the development. All the work was done in-house... no outsourcing. The app, icon, and website were all us. It took 3 months to get to version 1.0. We worked on it part time, nights and weekends. There were some big gaps as life and work got in the way. It was my first iOS development experience, and I had only dabbled in Objective-C previously, so most of that time was getting up to speed…

Awesome, thanks for the details. You mentioned only dabbling previously, any tips on learning iphone app programming quickly? What tools/things did you use to learn? Any recommendations? Did you use any books/guides?

Finally, did you use a mac pro or imac? and if it's relevant, does the glossy screen cause eye strain when programming for extended periods?

Re: Our first app: One month on the iOS App Store

#8

Post by AznHisoka » Thu, Jan 05, 2012, 7:39 PM UTC

Congrats on releasing.

Question: When you submit an app for approval, can you tell them the exact date you want the app to be officially released in the App Store?

Re: Our first app: One month on the iOS App Store

#9

Post by sainttex » Thu, Jan 05, 2012, 7:45 PM UTC

AznHisoka wrote: post #8

Congrats on releasing. Question: When you submit an app for approval, can you tell them the exact date you want the app to be officially released in the App Store?

They give you an option of putting in a release date, or immediate release after approval.

Re: Our first app: One month on the iOS App Store

#10

Post by joeblossom » Thu, Jan 05, 2012, 7:47 PM UTC

On thing you may consider doing, if you aren't already, is using one of the many libraries available which ask users to rate your app.

In the last release of one of my apps I implemented one of the libraries and I saw the amount of ratings soar. Especially the positive ratings.