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From idea to AppStore in 2 weeks

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Re: From idea to AppStore in 2 weeks

#31

Post by gebe »

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…

Not only on iOS. The "App Store" model as it is implemented today on most platforms is bloated and corrupted, it's just a mess. It _could_ be a tad better on Android since Google allows 3rd party app stores (could open up for specialization etc, like Steam for Android or similar) but in reality you still must be on Google Play (which is a hell hole) to succeed.

Re: From idea to AppStore in 2 weeks

#32

Post by podperson »

A year or two back three of us (one only very part-time, and two of us inexperienced) developed an iOS app that did two way translation (speech - text - text - speech) using two three different services from two different vendors, from scratch in less than a week. In Objective-C. (It didn't get submitted to the App Store, it was demoed to potential investors and then disappeared, presumably owing to the existence of similar apps.)

Not a terribly ambitious app, but no less ambitious than the app described.

Ruby Motion looks interesting, but I don't really see how it would make a big difference to shipping something like this in a very short time frame.

Re: From idea to AppStore in 2 weeks

#33

Post by adamors »

evilduck wrote: post #26
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.

This looks really cool, curious if anyone uses this in production.

Re: From idea to AppStore in 2 weeks

#34

Post by nwh »

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…

There's partly also a trust issue. If I go to buy an app on the App Store, there's a very good chance that the $5 is complete rubbish, is buggy or lied in it's description. There's no way of getting a trial, and getting your money back is harder than pulling teeth.

It's extraordinarily easy to get burned.

Re: From idea to AppStore in 2 weeks

#36

Post by brador »

sgottit wrote: post #19
AlexeyBrin wrote: post #16

I'm curious if the author was able to earn the initial investment in the tools: 200$ RubyMotion + 100$ iOS Developer .

Yes – as of writing I've sold enough units to pay for the costs a few times over as well as server costs for the custom API I built. Some profits will be reserved for London based charities.

What stack are you using for the API server? Any chance of a quick article on that?

Re: From idea to AppStore in 2 weeks

#38

Post by andymoe »

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…

Three years ago my friend published his first app in the App Store. He taught himself Objetive-C and had never programmed a day in his life before. He first app made a few bucks a day so you know what he did? He build another app. And another. And another. You know what he is doing today? House hunting in San Francisco and taking frequent vacations to Hawaii. By the way he did this working four days a week. So the problem is not really the App store it's that peoples initial exception don't intersect with their willingness to put in the time needed to build a business.

Re: From idea to AppStore in 2 weeks

#40

Post by jgranby »

sgottit wrote: post #10
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…

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…

Congratulations. From an idea to an App Store app in 2 weeks is very impressive, but it's 10x more impressive given that you were learning along the way.

Simple question, though: what's the story behind the Metro article? Your story is interesting enough that it makes for good reading anyway, but I was wondering (and absolutely no offense intended -- there's nothing wrong with it imo) if you had a contact/friend/similar who helped you get the article? Again, congratulations, I hope your app continues to sell well.

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