One thing that I think might be an interesting gamechanger is Mozilla's HTML5 approach to apps. It would be stupendous if FFxOS enabled a much better mobile app world.
Mobile app startups are failing like it’s 1999 (2012)
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Re: Mobile app startups are failing like it’s 1999 (2012)
#12Since comments on the blog post are closed: What we need to solve this problem depends exclusively on Apple / Google, since they chose to follow the native / app store path. - Change App Store discoverability, removing the emphasis on Top ranks - Decrease delay times between approvals - Provide a way to discover from where your users come from We're also locked to the native approach, which slows down the whole proce…
I agree 999999999999% with the discoverability problem. Seems like if you were first on the app-stores you just made money because there wasn't much around you... but these days they are incredibly saturated (with good stuff and with crap), so we definitely need a new way to discover stuff.
The stores themselves are really the gate-keepers to installs/sales. Right now it's just about paying to get to the top of the chart (with a product that can stay there I guess).
There has got to be another way other than top ranks, and maybe that lies in a community-driven model of some sorts. Who knows ><
Re: Mobile app startups are failing like it’s 1999 (2012)
#13Anyone who reads this and thinks this is what 1999 is like didn't live through it. In 1999 all these apps went IPO and the founders and VCs made a ton of money. Many wish it was like 1999. Edit (please read for amusement value): http://www.sandspring.com/charts/cdj0214ipet.html
Don't forget this bastion of the dot com crash ... f##ked company's hall of fame - http://web.archive.org/web/20011217223423/http://fuckedcompa...
Re: Mobile app startups are failing like it’s 1999 (2012)
#14I agree it's difficult on mobile having to support two platforms with many resolutions. We have iOS and Android apps but our service is 100% web views from launch -> registration -> usage. We did this since we are still in the prototyping process and are not concerned about optimization/conversion rates. It's been very useful for us. UX has been terrible but we've been able to gather valuable feedback, make a couple…
Like this approach
Re: Mobile app startups are failing like it’s 1999 (2012)
#15I was trying to have the conversation about "real mobile companies" today in this HN thread. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5911728 People don't seem to understand that building a company 99 cents at a time isn't going to work. Real companies have overhead. Sure someone in the Ukraine might be doing great with $1000/month in revenue but that's not going to cut it for most people.
I don't think moving the goalposts from $30k/month to $1k/month out of thin air makes your argument more convincing. "building a company 99 cents at a time isn't going to work" Except when it does. You could say the same thing about any price point. From your earlier thread: "It doesn't sound like the economics are there to build the next EA, id Software, etc." Is Rovio not many times bigger than id software?
How much of their revenue comes from the initial purchase, versus in-app purchases? 0.99 is great if you can do it over and over again, and get the customer LTV much higher.
Re: Mobile app startups are failing like it’s 1999 (2012)
#16I was trying to have the conversation about "real mobile companies" today in this HN thread. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5911728 People don't seem to understand that building a company 99 cents at a time isn't going to work. Real companies have overhead. Sure someone in the Ukraine might be doing great with $1000/month in revenue but that's not going to cut it for most people.
I'm not sure if that is good or bad for people like me who just want to be a one man "company", build stuff on their own without all the overhead and friction. If I can pick up a few $1000/months long tail crumbs that are being ignored by the big players, I'll be happy.
Of course if the mobile economics are so bad that the big players will invent vacuum cleaners to suck up all those crumbs, I'm toast...
Re: Mobile app startups are failing like it’s 1999 (2012)
#17It's a false premise that App Store approval = 6 month deployment cycle. Sure you can move faster on the web, but not that much faster.
Re: Mobile app startups are failing like it’s 1999 (2012)
#18The author of this article is obviously someone who doesn't see the bigger picture of mobile apps.
The problem is inexperienced developers who drop out (programmers) think they can 1. Write an Instagram clone or some one hit wonder app and expect it to help them build a business without any science behind what they do, obviously those will tank, its a not an app that supports a company, its shown time and time again that it is the web back end that supports a company and all those services. btw I am not a web developer, I am an native developer.
Re: Mobile app startups are failing like it’s 1999 (2012)
#19What do people really expect though.. I don't understand how all of these people can just say i'm building an iPhone app! then try and start a company based around this basis. Come up with an original business model and maybe you can get somewhere. Instagram was an app, but the app was just the medium for the service. Think of an app as your store front, what really counts is the products you sell on a daily basis.
I'm building a calculator app! We're going to be the next Microsoft!
best of luck! :D
Re: Mobile app startups are failing like it’s 1999 (2012)
#20I was trying to have the conversation about "real mobile companies" today in this HN thread. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5911728 People don't seem to understand that building a company 99 cents at a time isn't going to work. Real companies have overhead. Sure someone in the Ukraine might be doing great with $1000/month in revenue but that's not going to cut it for most people.
I'm not sure if that is good or bad for people like me who just want to be a one man "company", build stuff on their own without all the overhead and friction. If I can pick up a few $1000/months long tail crumbs that are being ignored by the big players, I'll be happy. Of course if the mobile economics are so bad that the big players will invent vacuum cleaners to suck up all those crumbs, I'm toast...
Large companies will never ever manage to fill all niches. It's just not in their nature.
A small business that makes enough for one or two people to survive is a perfectly valid goal, but it's not a "startup" as defined by pg and others.