From idea to AppStore in 2 weeks • Hacker News Board

Re: From idea to AppStore in 2 weeks

#21

Post by nicholassmith » Thu, Mar 07, 2013, 2:46 PM UTC

robomartin wrote: post #13

> earning me enough pennies to buy some Dominos pizza. To a large extent this has been the real problem in the iOS app domain for a while. Apps are far more likely to make you enough to buy a small pizza than even approach earning you a reasonable salary. Part of it, I think, are the mechanics of the App Store itself. Search has been broken for years. When compared to searching on the 'net the difference is stark. Th…

I think there's a lot of factors at work, the search is terrible but there's plenty of app recommendation services now, one of the big issues seems to be that there's now a mindset of "£1.79? That's really pricy" and they'll move on pretty quickly. That's a big barrier and it's not going away anytime soon really, but alternatives like IAP are now getting push back and mobile advertising doesn't seem to be a solid cash stream yet.

Re: From idea to AppStore in 2 weeks

#22

Post by gebe » Thu, Mar 07, 2013, 2:46 PM UTC

AlexeyBrin wrote: post #18

If you know and enjoy coding in Ruby, you intend to target only iOS, and you don't know Objective-C, C or C++ than RubyMotion is a good investment. On the other hand, if you want to target iOS and Android you'd better learn Objective-C and Java. An interesting alternative is to use HTML5 and JavaScript if you already have a good background as a web developer.

Or, if we disregard costs, C# and use Xamarin's (http://xamarin.com/) products.

Re: From idea to AppStore in 2 weeks

#23

Post by AlexeyBrin » Thu, Mar 07, 2013, 2:47 PM UTC

gebe wrote: post #22

AlexeyBrin wrote: post #18

If you know and enjoy coding in Ruby, you intend to target only iOS, and you don't know Objective-C, C or C++ than RubyMotion is a good investment. On the other hand, if you want to target iOS and Android you'd better learn Objective-C and Java. An interesting alternative is to use HTML5 and JavaScript if you already have a good background as a web developer.

Or, if we disregard costs, C# and use Xamarin's ( http://xamarin.com/ ) products.

Same goes for C# and Xamarin, if you already know C# and enjoy coding in C# ...

If you don't know C# I see little reason to buy a Xamarin license (I know you can get started for free which is great).

Re: From idea to AppStore in 2 weeks

#24

Post by sgottit » Thu, Mar 07, 2013, 2:48 PM UTC

drd wrote: post #17

sgottit wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks! I knew that there were a lot of similar apps on the AppStore but I went with my conviction that less is more. Nearly all the apps are multifunctional and include journey planners, maps, alerts etc etc. As a Londoner, I know my way around, the only thing I want to know is if the tube is even working – this is how Lines was born. I've tried to make the app's simplicity it's main selling point and hope I've achi…

Actually, it is a very useful function. It has usefulness and simplicity. Would you mind to give ROI analysis for your project? This will be helpful to the audience here.

Thanks. As of writing Lines has sold a few thousand copies, so it's made a good ROI. After costs have been paid (servers, iOS dev license etc) I'll be giving some profits to chairty.

Re: From idea to AppStore in 2 weeks

#25

Post by atacrawl » Thu, Mar 07, 2013, 2:48 PM UTC

thetrumanshow wrote: post #14

Kurtz79 wrote: post #8

I'm really curious about that. There are about half dozen similar applications on the Appstore, for free. I tried a few, and most of them did the job they were suppose to do fairly well. How did you convince people to choose yours as opposed to the other ones that already existed ? Clearly the Metro article is what pushed people (that possibly didn't know that those apps existed) to actually get and download your app…

Never underestimate the value of giving an idea a fresh coat of paint. Implementations age. They stop getting updates. They are missing little things that new incumbents will add by default. They become boring if they're not constantly being reinvented. And they stop being supported by their makers. Things that people build and give away for free, if its not a true point of pride, will eventually show their age as th…

This is very true. Despite iOS coming with a pretty decent weather app, I've purchased three other weather apps looking for something even better. (FWIW, I'm happy with Check the Weather -- http://checktheweather.co/)

Re: From idea to AppStore in 2 weeks

#26

Post by evilduck » Thu, Mar 07, 2013, 2:52 PM UTC

AlexeyBrin wrote: post #18

If you know and enjoy coding in Ruby, you intend to target only iOS, and you don't know Objective-C, C or C++ than RubyMotion is a good investment. On the other hand, if you want to target iOS and Android you'd better learn Objective-C and Java. An interesting alternative is to use HTML5 and JavaScript if you already have a good background as a web developer.

http://ruboto.org/ also exists, so you can stay in Ruby if you like.

Re: From idea to AppStore in 2 weeks

#27

Post by bobthedino » Thu, Mar 07, 2013, 2:52 PM UTC

Hi, great looking app, well done! I'm wondering if you ended up caching the Tube status information on your own web server, or if you are directly accessing Transport for London's site?

Re: From idea to AppStore in 2 weeks

#28

Post by gebe » Thu, Mar 07, 2013, 2:55 PM UTC

AlexeyBrin wrote: post #23

gebe wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or, if we disregard costs, C# and use Xamarin's ( http://xamarin.com/ ) products.

Same goes for C# and Xamarin, if you already know C# and enjoy coding in C# ... If you don't know C# I see little reason to buy a Xamarin license (I know you can get started for free which is great).

Code sharing between platforms could make it a worthwhile investment of time and money. But it's quite costly if you are just starting out.

Re: From idea to AppStore in 2 weeks

#29

Post by vignesh_vs_in » Thu, Mar 07, 2013, 3:13 PM UTC

Incidentally my first iOS app is also a London tube statuses app. But i never made any money out of it, (i deemed it unworthy of 1$).

Although i was learning Obj C for some time, i developed my tube map app in 2 weeks of starting with cocoa framework.

Its time to start looking at marketing 101 lessons :).

Re: From idea to AppStore in 2 weeks

#30

Post by timparker » Thu, Mar 07, 2013, 3:21 PM UTC

robomartin wrote: post #13

> earning me enough pennies to buy some Dominos pizza. To a large extent this has been the real problem in the iOS app domain for a while. Apps are far more likely to make you enough to buy a small pizza than even approach earning you a reasonable salary. Part of it, I think, are the mechanics of the App Store itself. Search has been broken for years. When compared to searching on the 'net the difference is stark. Th…

That's just a fun term, safe to say it was a fair bit more than pennies for a pizza. $200 ruby motion was definitely paid off from this app.