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My first attempt at iOS app development

mgx.me

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Re: My first attempt at iOS app development

#2

Post by earthnail »

The author will learn the hard way that their proposed, fair pricing model won’t even pay a solo dev.

Making reasonable money on iOS is hard, like, really hard, and just having a good product is definitely not enough.

Sorry to sound so pessimistic; I just want to emphasise that monetisation and marketing is at least as important on iOS as product development.

Re: My first attempt at iOS app development

#4

Post by tcoff91 »

kaptainscarlet wrote: post #3

With the recent Expo SDK 53 update that introduced a slew of breaking changes, I've been contemplating switching my app to native. I could perhaps vibe code features on both android and iOS and ship features as fast as crossplatform react native devs.

Could you share which issues you had with the upgrade to 53? I just recently migrated my employer’s app to sdk 52. We are still on legacy arch for now. I’d love to know more about what I’m in for when it comes to upgrading to 53.

Re: My first attempt at iOS app development

#5

Post by Spivak »

earthnail wrote: post #2

The author will learn the hard way that their proposed, fair pricing model won’t even pay a solo dev. Making reasonable money on iOS is hard, like, really hard, and just having a good product is definitely not enough. Sorry to sound so pessimistic; I just want to emphasise that monetisation and marketing is at least as important on iOS as product development.

But it might buy you a nice vacation on top of your $dayjob for an app that's probably very low maintenance.

Certainly not bad for three days work.

Re: My first attempt at iOS app development

#6

Post by neepi »

earthnail wrote: post #2

The author will learn the hard way that their proposed, fair pricing model won’t even pay a solo dev. Making reasonable money on iOS is hard, like, really hard, and just having a good product is definitely not enough. Sorry to sound so pessimistic; I just want to emphasise that monetisation and marketing is at least as important on iOS as product development.

I had an idea years ago for an app but came to the same conclusion after some market research and a risk assessment so didn’t bother. I do not regret that decision for a moment.

I either have to put enough time into the idea to do it full time or do a shitty job. I can’t win either way without incurring massive risks so I will continue to part time two jobs and invest the earnings from those wisely instead.

Re: My first attempt at iOS app development

#7

Post by amelius »

Spivak wrote: post #5
earthnail wrote: post #2

The author will learn the hard way that their proposed, fair pricing model won’t even pay a solo dev. Making reasonable money on iOS is hard, like, really hard, and just having a good product is definitely not enough. Sorry to sound so pessimistic; I just want to emphasise that monetisation and marketing is at least as important on iOS as product development.

But it might buy you a nice vacation on top of your $dayjob for an app that's probably very low maintenance. Certainly not bad for three days work.

How do you know what they make? Maybe it's only $100? For three days work, that's terrible.

Re: My first attempt at iOS app development

#10

Post by sebasvisser »

Funny how the same desire got both of us into building more or less the same app:

https://apps.apple.com/nl/app/xyz-photo/id6602894199

Yours looks sleeker though. One thing I learned quickly after having friends use it..other people want different things and catering to more than just myself takes soooo much time.

So I stick to building what I want and releasing it for free.

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