pagliara

No, the author is right. Quartz and Core Animation are built on top of OpenGL.

I work from home as an indie iOS developer, and I can agree with most of these points.

I can relate to the feeling that you "can't escape". But after reading the Four Hour Work Week, I'm starting to think about how I can automate more parts of my own businesses. I think it's possible to run a successful business without feeling the need to constantly tend to it. That's an important goal for me now.

Lack of social interaction is definitely a drag sometimes. So much so that I'm thinking about checking out some co-working spaces to mingle with other self-employed individuals.

So there's definitely downsides to being indie, but nothing that can't be remedied. And being your own boss far outweighs any of these negatives.

I think Android users are just less likely to spend money on apps/content vs iOS users.

You can't expect to make much money on the Mac App Store with an app priced at $2 in a niche category. You'll never get the volume of downloads necessary to be profitable, unlike on iOS, whose market is many times larger than the Mac.

My Mac App Store experience has been rather different. I have several applications in the store ranging from $5-$20, and daily revenue is usually in the $100-$200 range. The Mac App Store has brought much greater exposure and increased sales.

To generate income on the Mac App Store, you really need to be aiming for products that can be sold in the $20 range if your product is in one of the smaller categories.

Apple has crafted a development environment that is more conducive to producing high-quality polished apps with relatively little effort. The iOS SDK is a refined version of the Mac Cocoa SDK, which they have been developing for 10 years. They were able to keep the best qualities of standard Cocoa while further refining the framework for a mobile device. The end result is an SDK that not only has attracted tons of developers, but is also really enjoyable to work with.

I agree. Looks more like a flashy demo than anything remotely resembling a usable graphic art application. While interesting, I see no value in the 3D layers feature.

The idea was worth the try, but I'm not surprised it was rejected.

As an iOS developer myself, I respect Apple's power to police the app store as they see fit. It's their platform and they have every right to set the precedent on what content is allowable. Approving your app would spawn numerous clones and obviously Apple doesn't agree with your utilization of in-app purchases.

Not YC-backed and no TechCrunch article, but WyzAnt (http://www.wyzant.com) is a similar service that's been around for 6 years already. Another recent one is Teachoo (http://www.teachoo.com). Tutorspree isn't the first and probably won't be the last start up in this space.