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Stop building apps no one wants

launchsky.com

131–140 of 143 posts

Re: Stop building apps no one wants

#132

Just to bounce ideas/brainstorm. The issue is why would people come to this site to click 'I'd use this' or 'I support this'. (Ideas will flow in no problem, they're a dime a dozen.) So we need to provide feedbackers with incentive. 1. Reward them? Oops…nothing to stop them going around and supporting them everything and game the reward system. 2. Reward them based on their choices (and limit their votes)? Nope…these…

How about you offer some pricing with the idea and then give backers a discount? Might work with a mail list, people sign up to get an opportunity for discounts on potential products they'd like to use. Would skew the audience but that's going to be the case with any incentive.

Re: Stop building apps no one wants

#133
post #68

Stop building movies NO ONE wants to see, books NO ONE wants to read, etc, etc. Nothing will stop this from happening ... especially when the cost of build/deploy In regards to the site ... Asking someone "yeah, I'd use that", vs getting them to download and use (ignoring pay, but that's also key :)) is totally different

"especially when the cost of build/deploy you REALLY think so? I agree with your first few points, but I disagree on that last (quoted) bit entirely. Building/deploying something of real quality (and potential viability) can be very costly. The point of the app is to make that "cost of comprehensive research" negligible in comparison to what it is today. Either you pay a ton to do it right or train yourself forever o…

It's definitely a tool if you want "a" data point "really fast". I won't argue against that. However, I would use it for "just" that and nothing more. I wouldn't use it to drive the entire decision.

Per your point of disagreement, and depending entirely on the type of app, I stand by my point. You're anchoring the disagreement "quality". A down and dirty "test the waters" app is a lot less expensive than a "quality" app (ignoring apps that can't really have a down and dirty, like complex video games or something).

I would agree, that on average, a "quality" app would take longer then a down and dirty "test the water" app. However, so long as you can get a down and dirty out the door so easily, we will see crap in the app stores.

Re: Stop building apps no one wants

#134
post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good ideas are not worthless.

Good ideas are essential - but they have no value by themselves.

I wonder if your statement is equivalent to the famous, "existence is essence" claim? I think a good idea is a plan, and we certainly believe plans are worth something :-)

Re: Stop building apps no one wants

#135
Just a thought. You could charge for submissions to be displayed publicly as a five star rating based on some metric to obscure the exact numbers. This would protect the submitters to a degree from poachers as people can only see with low resolution if the project is desirable. It would also be a source or revenue.

I think this project is a good idea and look forward to seeing it live.

Re: Stop building apps no one wants

#136
I've been giving this some thought (this would be an idea to share on LaunchSky) ... what about a web site where people could go and ask for something to be developed? The ideas get voted and commented on and then developers could go away make it and know it's something that has a market.

It could even evolve into a competition where apps are being developed for the stuff that people want, plus the web site would give exposure to the apps.

Maybe this could be a section of LaunchSky?

Just an idea.

Re: Stop building apps no one wants

#137

I hate that you have to sign up before browsing the site. I'd be much more interested in signing up if I can browse with free will. I'm assuming you can only vote if you sign up? If so, the target sign up market for LaunchSky are devs/entrepreneurs/etc which are usually not the target market of the apps that are using the service.

Yeah, there's no site there. I was fooling around with the CSS trying to get rid of the pesky modal views (sometimes it works), when I got to the page... which was just an image http://launchsky.com/img/bg-app.png. It's a good simulation but I think the author needs to make it a little clearer. I went in and put my email in thinking I was signing up and... nothing. It just refreshed the page I think. Then I went to my email thinking I had to confirm my account and there was no email. So I did it again with the same results. Maybe I'm a noob, but I think perhaps it could be a little more clear.

Re: Stop building apps no one wants

#138

Some feedback. I was curious to read some ideas. Reluctantly, I put my email address in. Then I was asked to spread the word (on what exactly, I'm not sure since I haven't been able to use it yet). Dismissing that message took me back to the screen asking me if I'm interested. So all that "hidden" content may or may not be real. I'll never know. It looked real though. But at this point I'd probably never use the site…

It definitely does help, and sorry that the feeling was "taken". The product isn't there yet, so our goal is the email drop -- so that we have a way to contact a user-base once the product is built. But your concern is definitely heard, and we'll be sure the real product never evokes that kind of emotion out of the users. Promise :).

I think you might need some large font that says "We're not ready QUITE YET, but we'll contact you when we are... ". I thought I was signing up for the site, as it currently stands.

Re: Stop building apps no one wants

#139
post #110

This concept has three competing flaws: 1. The most obvious: how do you prevent your ideas from being stolen? 2. If your idea is vague ("A site where people can post Hipstamatic-like photos, but easily share them!") then you will get a lukewarm response, even if the actual idea (and implementation) is great. 3. If you spend the time fleshing out your idea into something that excites users...then you've committed enou…

That was my first thought. I mean, I'm not one to try to steal someones idea. In fact, I'm pretty repulsed by the idea. So the first thing I thought of is "If I browse this for an hour and see 100 ideas, those are 100 ideas I'm ruling out from making myself". I know I could still do them, but still, I might think of an app that creates foldable printed figures on my own next week but if I saw it on there first I would just feel like I was copying and not do it.
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