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My first attempt at iOS app development

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Re: My first attempt at iOS app development

#31

Post by F7F7F7 »

x0x0 wrote: post #19
bredren wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The author mentions code signing as a tricky ecosystem thing. Well, wait until the app has to get new assets to be resubmitted with bug fixes for new versions of iOS. And if they don’t keep updating it, it will stop working and the buy it for life idea commits the dev to maintenance that isn’t paid for either upfront or through subscription. There are folks who make and give away a lot but some learn their lesson qui…

Or just developing in Apple's crappy ecosystem. eg Apple publishes a new ios rev; debugging on it requires upgrading xcode; and that requires updating your OS. . Good thing you don't mind wasting a full day or more reinstalling every other devtool you may happen to use. Or xcode just doesn't connect to your ios device because reasons. (The reason is apple writes shoddy slapdash software because monopoly.) So now you'…

This sounds like Python development....and React.....and Svelte....and oh, remember Angular 2 to 3? Or people who invest time in Clojure? Were you a fan of the MEAN stack a decade ago? Build something on it? How's that app doing?

What you're describing is not unique to Apple. It's a regular occurrence for anyone who's not writing for a enterprise SAAS company with a largely legacy codebase and a dozen DevOps guys mostly obscuring that stuff from you.

Re: My first attempt at iOS app development

#33

Post by dylan604 »

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.

Isn't this why most apps are a front end for a data hoovering process so that they can monetize that as well as using ads?

Re: My first attempt at iOS app development

#34

Post by dylan604 »

neepi wrote: post #6
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.

Did the idea really require being an app? Could it have been a website/webapp instead?

Re: My first attempt at iOS app development

#35

Post by zeeeebo »

ryandrake wrote: post #15

Coming from embedded development, where it's mostly crappy SOC vendors providing a barely-working SDK and toolchain they cobbled together from an ancient version of gcc, moving to iOS development / Xcode was in most aspects a breath of fresh air. It does have its annoyances, though. Code signing, provisioning profiles, entitlements, AppStore wizardry... And the developer program fee is a bummer: It means you can't su…

There's also the frustration where an Xcode can target iOS versions lower than the iPhone simulator's minimum. I was targeting iOS 12 for a while but it was a pain having to get UTM and an older version of Xcode just to debug/test it.

Re: My first attempt at iOS app development

#36

Post by cyberax »

tcoff91 wrote: post #4
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.

The switch to the new rendering architecture is really massive, a lot of libraries have subtle bugs that are not yet fixed.

Re: My first attempt at iOS app development

#37

Post by tonyhart7 »

F7F7F7 wrote: post #31
x0x0 wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or just developing in Apple's crappy ecosystem. eg Apple publishes a new ios rev; debugging on it requires upgrading xcode; and that requires updating your OS. . Good thing you don't mind wasting a full day or more reinstalling every other devtool you may happen to use. Or xcode just doesn't connect to your ios device because reasons. (The reason is apple writes shoddy slapdash software because monopoly.) So now you'…

This sounds like Python development....and React.....and Svelte....and oh, remember Angular 2 to 3? Or people who invest time in Clojure? Were you a fan of the MEAN stack a decade ago? Build something on it? How's that app doing? What you're describing is not unique to Apple. It's a regular occurrence for anyone who's not writing for a enterprise SAAS company with a largely legacy codebase and a dozen DevOps guys mos…

well atleast those react,angular apps still works

ios app on apple store??? not so much

Re: My first attempt at iOS app development

#38

Post by 4hg4ufxhy »

sokoloff wrote: post #26
jll29 wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So Apple gets $99/year PLUS 30% app revenue share? So at a $2.99 "fair" price point as mentioned in the post, how many copies does he have to sell to break even (assuming 4 days of development priced at $2,500/day contractor rate)? (1 * .99) * .70 - (4 * 2500 + 99) The answer is => 14,574 downloads would give him $0.78 profit, before taxes. (In that time, he would have earned more than $13,000 for Apple.)

I thought it was 15% for devs selling under $1M per year. It also seems like a super-weird analysis angle to both pay yourself a ( very generous) full day rate AND then expect upside on top of that and conclude that making just the $10K for 4 days’ work is somehow a loss for the solo entrepreneur.

I think he is implying that that is neutral, not a loss. It is opportunity cost.

Re: My first attempt at iOS app development

#39

Post by sokoloff »

4hg4ufxhy wrote: post #38
sokoloff wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I thought it was 15% for devs selling under $1M per year. It also seems like a super-weird analysis angle to both pay yourself a ( very generous) full day rate AND then expect upside on top of that and conclude that making just the $10K for 4 days’ work is somehow a loss for the solo entrepreneur.

I think he is implying that that is neutral, not a loss. It is opportunity cost.

Is the opportunity cost of someone who has never programmed an iOS app before $2500/day as an iOS dev?

Maybe in some analyses, but that’s not where I’d estimate it. If they’re turning down other $300/hr work, sure, but that’s not how I read the account.

Re: My first attempt at iOS app development

#40

Post by adastra22 »

dylan604 wrote: post #34
neepi wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Did the idea really require being an app? Could it have been a website/webapp instead?

How do you do photo deduplication on a website?
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