The iPhone Development Story: One Year Later | Hacker News Reader

The iPhone Development Story: One Year Later

mikeash.com

17 pointsZeroGravitas14 comments

Steve Rubell once ran the coolest nightclub in New York City. No one blamed him for being arbitrary and capricious in selecting who gets in. That's part of what made Studio 54 so cool. There were a zillion other, less cool, places you could go if you didn't like it.

Likewise, the iPhone is perhaps the coolest end-user platform in the history of, like, ever. If Apple wants to be arbitrary and capricious in selecting which apps are available for their platform that's a) their own business and b) probably a factor in increasing the iPhone's appeal to developers and users, not decreasing it.

>probably a factor in increasing the iPhone's appeal to developers and users, not decreasing it.

To users, maybe - other than boneheaded moves like making dictionaries R-rated.

To developers, I highly doubt it. So many developers flock to it because it has tens of millions of users, not because it's a pleasure to work with - maybe it is compared to Blackberry or Symbian (I've never used them), but definitely not compared to Android (and, I'm assuming, the Pre).

The iPhone isn't the coolest end-user platform because Apple has turned the submission process into a complete nightmare. It's the coolest end-user platform because it's sleek and shiny and sexy - it was sexy before the App Store launched.

You can't compare the minor annoyance of being turned away from a nightclub to wasting weeks or months on an app that is never approved.

My advice? Pick another platform to program for. The Mac is pretty nice. If you absolutely must develop for a mobile platform, try Android.

I've never had a Mac until last year, and I've been programming in Java for 10 years. Java is my least favorite language, but I think it is one of the easiest for most people. To me, Objective C is easy, but then again C was my first language. So it just depends on what you are comfortable with, really.

You probably won't make any money at it, but on the other hand, you probably won't make any money at iPhone development either

The first thing I did was program a rather involved iPhone application pertaining to my startup. I released it for free, updated it, no problems. The second thing I did was make a really simple application and sell it for $0.99 -- and it is making money without me having to do anything further. Before I released my first app, I would hear all of these "You probably won't make any money" stories and wasn't sure what to think. What I did was: have fun. If you aren't going to enjoy programming and you expect mad earnings, then yeah, throw in the towel.

How long did it take you to ramp up the Objective-C (from Java) learning curve? Memory management, Cocoa

> rather involved iPhone application pertaining to my startup

I'd love to see this app (if you're willing to divulge)

> What I did was: have fun

Great or misguided expectations lead to disappointment. I like how your expectations had nothing to do with the App Store gold rush.

As I said, C was my first language. As for Cocoa, it wasn't that bad considering by the time I really got into it there were plenty of examples out there (chances are, if you have a question about Cocoa for iPhone, it has been answered by now).

Well, the app is out there, but it is useless unless you are in the City of Pittsburgh. My approach to the startup is unconventional: I'm laying down pieces which will be played later on. It feels like chess. Not a chance a VC would ever fund us because of that. Yet it is no doubt as likely or more likely we will fail among startups.

Thanks. Do it because you love it.

Hmm... 7f inc?

"Park" is clever: nice use of the technology at hand.

The point of that app is simplicity. It's not innovative in the least, just simplifying what may be complex to people.

At first I thought you were being facetious, but then I saw your app. It would be interesting if you compared sales of 1.1 and 1.2 since they are so dramatically different aesthetically.

AlbumMixer is a pure itch-scratching app: I wanted album shuffle badly enough to pay Apple for dev program membership. Now I'm letting the market pay some of that back to me, if it wants to. I might never write another iPhone app, unless I happen to come up with a cool idea that's well-suited to the medium.

Getting back to 1.2, it won't be possible to differentiate the UI changes from the significant feature changes: the filters were the single feature that users of 1.0 requested, and I couldn't see shoehorning them into the single-view UI. I would expect the new feature to have a larger effect than the new UI, but I can't see a way to test that theory.

I'm interested, have you broken even on the paid app, turned a profit or just gathered a couple of extra dollars per month?

It depends on what you mean by broken even. I bought a Mac Air for $1900, spent xx hours learning the Cocoa framework, spent 10 hours writing the app. At this rate, it makes $75 / month post-royalty, and it probably will never need to be updated.

He describes the iPhone as "a cool phone to have" but "crippled by the small number of quality third-party applications available". What is he talking about? It has more third party applications than any other phone by far. I have an Android phone and I wish there was half the variety of apps as there are on the iPhone.

you're missing the modifier which is they key to his sentence.

The iPhone certainly has the highest number of quality third party apps. That the App Store is flooded with absolute crap does not change this.

Remember, this is just one guy's melodramatic opinion. He seems to complain TOO MUCH. He complains about the debugger and I've had no problems with it. He complains how OS upgrades on the Mac and iPhone have caused him problems and I've had no problems. Then there are the many reader comments that state opposite experiences to his. And then he suggests developing on Android which, I've heard, sounds like a nightmare to develop for according to another blog ;). Add to that how zealous he is to respond to each little criticism and I think he's hysterical.

Yeah, I've had my problems writing my iPhone application but it's getting easier and I'm in a much better place after only two months than if I'd read his blog and given up iPhone development before I even tried.

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