Earlier quoted context omitted.
Reading the article, its clear that won't ever happen. The data sources are expensive.
I've been thinking recently about crowdsourcing our own dataset of airplane data. When you get on a plane, tap a button that says 'we're delayed 5 mins'. When you land, tap a button that says you've landed. In fact, you probably don't even need users to tap those buttons. The better way would be to use the accelerometer and barometer to automatically detect takeoff and landing. Airplane data sources are ALWAYS wrong…
Just Landed Is Shutting Down
131–140 of 144 posts
Re: Just Landed Is Shutting Down
#132> With well over 2 million apps by now (officially 1.5M as of July 2015), the iTunes App Store is an incredibly crowded place where it’s almost impossible to get noticed. Despite the persistent myth of the app developer millionaire, it’s extremely hard to make a profit—let alone a living—as an iOS app developer. The Google Play Store is a similar story, except with the added bonus of rampant piracy and a zillion devices…
Re: Just Landed Is Shutting Down
#133E.g. Google for CX5992: https://www.google.com/search?q=cx5992
Re: Just Landed Is Shutting Down
#134Earlier quoted context omitted.
Edit: I am utterly wrong about my first point, the export controls don't kick in til 1,200mph or 59,000 feet; Both much faster and higher than standard commercial jetliners. [1] GPS on your phone can't, by US law, work when you're in a plane. It is required that consumer GPS devices stop sending data when it is traveling over a certain speed, to prevent them from being repurposed as guidance systems for cruise missil…
Out of curiosity, do the GPS chips stop working above a given speed or it's the smartphone sw that must stop reading from them to pass import controls? And what about GPS chips manufactured outside the US, put in phones sold outside the US by non american companies (I'd say the vast majority of the market), are they still subject to that limitation?
Re: Just Landed Is Shutting Down
#135Earlier quoted context omitted.
No kidding, this was the weirdest shutdown statement I've read in a while, "we found users who derive commercial benefit from using us... so we're shutting down"
Failure to monetize such as hypertargeted/local ads/deals or freemium features. Winners tend to turn challenge into profit opportunities rather than give up and disappoint many people when they had something sizable which could be sold to someone whom can fix it or fix it themselves. Too often, when people whom are uncomfortable with uncertainty and don't know what success looks like, they give up and throw away oppo…
Re: Just Landed Is Shutting Down
#136Our company shut down because other people didn't innovate enough, not our fault.
"An app like Just Landed relies on access to high quality flight data to function correctly. "
We created an app based on data that doesn't exist. Not our fault, somebody else failed to create that data.
"Traffic and mapping data in particular, much of which used to be free, has become quite expensive, and is now tightly controlled by big companies under oppressive Terms of Service."
Other companies refuse to give us free services, and want to keep their valuable data restricted under oppressive terms of service. Not our fault, how could we expect that people wouldn't give us free stuff?
"These power users consume 100–500 times as much flight data per year as casual users, and so the cost of supporting will soon begin to overwhelm revenue from new app sales."
We failed to price the app correctly, since we're charging a one-time fee for a continuous service, but hey, not our fault again, who would have thought that people who buy our app would use it?
"Essentially, there’s a massive oversupply of apps, and the app markets are now saturated and suffering from neglect and short-term thinking by the companies who operate them."
There's too much competition! Seriously, it's all the competitor's fault, lowering prices as if there's no tomorrow. How can we be expected to make money with such cutthroat, dog eats dog competition?
Seriously, what a completely lame excuse. [Edit: that was unnecessarily harsh, my apologies]
Sorry for my rant, I guess I'm in a bad mood today.
Re: Just Landed Is Shutting Down
#137"The first thing that makes running Just Landed difficult in the long-term is a serious lack of innovation in the flight data industry." Our company shut down because other people didn't innovate enough, not our fault. "An app like Just Landed relies on access to high quality flight data to function correctly. " We created an app based on data that doesn't exist. Not our fault, somebody else failed to create that dat…
A little harsh. 'Not our fault' and 'beyond our control' are not the same.
I read the reasoning to be a more pragmatic appraisal of the predicament they found themselves in - "Just Landed, ... has been on the wrong side of these trends"
Re: Just Landed Is Shutting Down
#138"The first thing that makes running Just Landed difficult in the long-term is a serious lack of innovation in the flight data industry." Our company shut down because other people didn't innovate enough, not our fault. "An app like Just Landed relies on access to high quality flight data to function correctly. " We created an app based on data that doesn't exist. Not our fault, somebody else failed to create that dat…
"what a completely lame excuse" A little harsh. 'Not our fault' and 'beyond our control' are not the same. I read the reasoning to be a more pragmatic appraisal of the predicament they found themselves in - "Just Landed, ... has been on the wrong side of these trends"
But on the other hand, the key failure point for the app is pretty obvious: its revenue is a one time fee, and the costs are a function of how much people use the app. Based on the post, they clearly mispriced the app, since it depended on new sales to fund existing customers.
This isn't very different from a pyramid scheme (without the intention to fraud, naturally): you need to keep growing indefinitely to stay afloat, clearly impossible. When sales flattened (which they did) the company would go bust (which it did).
Another way to look at this is treating a sale as an annuity. If I sell an app for $10, expecting users to use it for 10 years with a 10% WACC, this would be equivalent to receiving a $0.13 subscription fee from each customer over the 10 years.
Therefore, if your variable cost per customer is higher than $0.13/year, you're in serious trouble. Even if it's lower, you might still not break even.
Re: Just Landed Is Shutting Down
#139From the article: While the app was initially used primarily by individuals who made a few airport pickups per year, today Just Landed is increasingly used by professional limousine and taxi drivers, airline professionals, and travel companies. So they were seeing increasing use by commercial users. Sounds like a ripe opportunity to start charging for such access.
No kidding, this was the weirdest shutdown statement I've read in a while, "we found users who derive commercial benefit from using us... so we're shutting down"
Re: Just Landed Is Shutting Down
#140Earlier quoted context omitted.
Failure to monetize such as hypertargeted/local ads/deals or freemium features. Winners tend to turn challenge into profit opportunities rather than give up and disappoint many people when they had something sizable which could be sold to someone whom can fix it or fix it themselves. Too often, when people whom are uncomfortable with uncertainty and don't know what success looks like, they give up and throw away oppo…
What an entitled smug attitude. No wonder you posted it under a throwaway.