IPad App Idea - You are free to take it | Hacker News Reader

IPad App Idea - You are free to take it

marcgayle.com

24 pointsmarcamillion19 comments

No comment on this idea, but I'd love to see more of this (vs Ask HN or Tell HN about my startup).

If you're not going to implement something tell the community. Let us vote it up if we think it's good.

The trick is to start with a bang, say giving away 500 – 1,000 iPads in the first 48 hours.

Hi, the 1990s called, they want their dot-com bubble back :-)

I'm going to assume you couldn't charge to play, otherwise you'd certainly run afoul of gambling laws, so it'd have to be funded by advertising revenue, right? Perhaps show a full-on thirty-second video ad before you get to play?

If the economics of that work out, then why should it be an iPad-only affair? Why not do it web-based so everyone can participate (and also avoid whatever issues Apple might have with it being in their app store?)

Now I'm not sure the economics of it could ever work since the amount an advertiser will pay is pretty small meaning the prizes are either too small to bother with or too rare to have a significant chance of winning regardless of how popular the site gets, but hey, if you can figure out a way to do it...

Yea, I thought of this (I'm sure others have, too) a few months ago and dismissed it after a few back of the envelope calculations made it clear the business model just wasn't there.

Could have the interstitial ad after the scratch but before the result is shown? People would be paying more attention then. Work in a survey question even.

Hmm, well I looked up the cost of video advertising and if this three-year-old article is to be believed:

http://adage.com/webvideoreport/article.php?article_id=12851...

then the prices are somewhat higher than I thought -- anywhere from $15 to $100 CPM, or between 1.5 and 10 cents per ad view. I suppose if you were selling at the high end of this range you could fund some reasonable prizes -- how about a one in ten thousand chance of winning an iPad and a one in ten chance of winning a voucher redeemable for a chocolate bar at your local 7/11? At the low end of the range the value proposition becomes a lot iffier, though.

The legalities around running lotteries and/or contests might come into play here... do your research if you feel like venturing down this path.

I like the idea but can't help thinking someone somewhere will use an actual coin to scratch...

I think app store prohibits gambling games, so you couldn't actually give stuff away.

Good idea tho.

I think the App Store also prohibits "giveaway" apps (see the comment on the blog).

Couldn't the issue mentioned by the comment be addressed pretty easily? Just have a blog or twitter client that announces the giveaways as well; "Giving away: A shiny foo! To enter, use our iPad app!"

My understanding of the App Store policies is that they prohibit applications where you pay to buy a ticket and then give a prize away.

I am a bit surprised that this policy hasn't been amended to add "…unless you sell the tickets with in-app purchasing." But, I suppose that gambling falls under the same "family-friendly" restriction that porn apps do.

  3.3.17 Your Application may include promotional sweepstake
 or contest functionality provided that You are the sole 
 sponsor of the promotion and that You and Your Application 
 comply with any applicable laws.

Why don't state lotteries do this? no more paper waste

maybe build a product and go pitch it to them.

Are the iPad people really the type of demographic that buys state lotto tickets?

FYI: Seems someone has launched almost the same thing just recently:

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/lotto-tickets/id360953651?mt=...

Feels like a better Touch app, especially because anyone who has the disposable income for an ipad probably isn't a huge fan of lotteries.

That's a cool idea

This sounds too much like GiveawayOfTheDay.com. They don't charge, so all they can give away is pure crap software.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com