We launched an app with $500k annual revenue, and then Apple copied it
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Re: We launched an app with $500k annual revenue, and then Apple copied it
#2This is the story of almost every other indie App developer with a good app idea/implementation , either you will be bought or destroyed.
(or rake in millions when you can to sustain for few more months)
Re: We launched an app with $500k annual revenue, and then Apple copied it
#3On the flipside, this app looks like it was kind of a hack to get working. "Tunnel all of your traffic through our VPN to get tracking of social media use." It doesn't surprise me that Apple would want to offer first-party support.
Re: We launched an app with $500k annual revenue, and then Apple copied it
#4As an end user, am I happy that Apple took your idea and built it in the OS, stripped of ads, premium features, tracking and analytics, etc? Yes, yes I am.
Re: We launched an app with $500k annual revenue, and then Apple copied it
#5This story has been repeated time and again. There is even a term, 'getting Sherlocked'.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sherlock_(software)#Sherlocked...
Re: We launched an app with $500k annual revenue, and then Apple copied it
#6[deleted]
Re: We launched an app with $500k annual revenue, and then Apple copied it
#7As an end user, am I happy that Apple took your idea and built it in the OS, stripped of ads, premium features, tracking and analytics, etc? Yes, yes I am.
You sound like a pleasant person.
Re: We launched an app with $500k annual revenue, and then Apple copied it
#8As an end user, am I happy that Apple took your idea and built it in the OS, stripped of ads, premium features, tracking and analytics, etc? Yes, yes I am.
Honestly so am I, this sounds like a privacy nightmare. Sending all traffic through their servers specifically for the purpose of tracking what you're doing.
Isn't this one of the things Apple was upset at Facebook over (including the fact that they went around the App Store) since they don't allow this sort of tracking?
So maybe them building the feature is not the only reason they removed your app?
Re: We launched an app with $500k annual revenue, and then Apple copied it
#9On the flipside, this app looks like it was kind of a hack to get working. "Tunnel all of your traffic through our VPN to get tracking of social media use." It doesn't surprise me that Apple would want to offer first-party support.
Agreed, I came to say something similar. I'm typically rather sympathetic to stories like this, but this implementation seems very much like a sledgehammer approach that Apple correcting was very much in the best interest of their users.
Re: We launched an app with $500k annual revenue, and then Apple copied it
#10On the flipside, this app looks like it was kind of a hack to get working. "Tunnel all of your traffic through our VPN to get tracking of social media use." It doesn't surprise me that Apple would want to offer first-party support.
Agree with the sentiment here. Whilst I have all the deepest sympathies for the guy, it does seem like a hack to tunnel it through a VPN to get it working. One could argue, the right approach would be if Apple opened up the hooks to measuring app usage for any 3rd party app, but I don’t think that will happen any time soon.