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Comment by pseudometa | Hacker News Reader

I love this. The whole "I made 30 apps this year..." posts are rediculous. Anyone can make lots of crapy apps. Creating a well designed app with valuable functionality and propper marketing/support web pages takes time and skill.

Kudos.

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The whole "I made 30 apps this year..." posts are rediculous. Anyone can make lots of crapy apps

You're being very mean towards a fellow human being who is likely still an active HN participant and might read your comment.

It's also mistaken. ~99.9% of people can't.

He doesn't need to be mean, but we as a community should probably be more excited about quality over quantity. Software that has an impact should be the goal.

We as a community should probably be more excited about doing vs. talking (about doing and then not doing for no reason).

So 8 People in a year made an app in an area where there are 100 apps doing about the same? That is innovation?

Some how this impresses people compared to single guy doing 30 apps in a year?

My Bet is Single Guy with 30 apps will make real money over next year.

Interesting point to bring up. In the case of this specific app, it was designed and built by a company that designs and builds mobile apps for clients (a development shop). The app is used a marketing tool to showcase their (nice) abilities. In the case of the "I made 30 apps this year...", it was a 15 year old person that was trying to learn how to make money by selling apps. The age is relevant, because it is likely that his/hers resources are limited (and thus may have little to work with).

It does take time and skill to develop good apps. In this case, the company that provides that as a service is showcasing it through the app itself. In the case of the 15 year old, he/she is learning how to do so him/herself. I fail to see the issue surrounding this. They are both doing well.

Now, the OP took recent thread titles from HN and spinned it to its own benefit. That is good a good way to get attention on HN.

>> "The age is relevant, because it is likely that his/hers resources are limited (and thus may have little to work with)."

I disagree with this point. When developing (relatively simple) apps the biggest resource is time - something a teenager has A LOT of. As someone who started developing apps when I was 17 I know that I was able to develop 5x the number of apps then that I can now. Simply because I had more time. Also because I was living with my parents as most people at that age are and money isn't really an issue it doesn't matter if apps fail, you can keep building. You don't need to spend time on paying projects or evaluate the risk of developing a new project of your own.

I know plenty of teenagers who, in 2014, cannot afford a computer. Some of those who have computers do not have internet access at home or at a nearby place. A lot of them have access to mobile phones, but those are not yet an option in terms of programming. This from personally helping kids and teenagers learn about computers.

You and I were lucky. And for that I'm grateful.

>The whole "I made 30 apps this year..." posts are rediculous.

I'm pretty sure those were young kids. Sure, I've seen people complaining about those types of posts in the past but I think being negative about someone's desire to learn and (perhaps) eventually build something that solves real problems is a caustic attitude.

Picasso was doing 3 paintings/drawings per day at some point in his career. We saw Edison's to-do list as well.

Executing an idea and following through to completion is hard enough. I think anyone who has made an app whether it is 1 quality app or 30 mediocre apps should pat themselves on the back for breaking through a barrier that not many people actually go through.

Agreed. But I will be curious to see who is making more money in a year.

One of the makers here. I'm curious as well :) Hopefully and ideally, everyone who puts in the work makes the money.

Seriously though, we actually do hope to make enough to pay off some of the bills. The revenue model is freemium, most users will not need to pay, and there is a one time IAP for users who end up using/needing the app enough.

Essentially, our philosophy is that we want to prove that we are providing value to people before we expect or want revenue from users. We might put more revenue options in the future, but it would be based on the same philosophy of providing actual value.

We're still beginners at this, so thanks for all the comments, good comments make us smile, and criticisms are even better so we can make the app better throughout the year.

Indeed. Thirty multiplied by zero is still zero.

Haha, yes. Most apps on the app store don't make any money at all, but if making 30 helps you identify a profitable niche you can target then you'll come out ahead of the polished but perhaps poorly targeted app.

Hopefully people continue to release their stats.

Me too, i realy see much value in this app.

I hope there was plenty of prototypes over the course of the year. A year seems dangerously long to work on an app without testing it with users / the market.

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