4. App developers are like bands
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In episode 4, Kevin and Rick discuss how iPhone developers are like bands, they field questions about promotion and starting a business, and they talk more about gaming the app store.
Links mentioned during this episode
Craig Hockenberry on how developers are like bands
Steve Jobs has transformed 4 industries!
Search for business names in Missouri
iStock – stock photo, video, and sound
Eddit – Professional icons for your iPhone app UI
Glyphish – more icons for great iPhone apps
The music for this podcast, used by permission, is by Pretty Lights (intro) and Avi Ghosh (outro). The transition music is from Nine Inch Nail’s Ghosts I-IV album, a Creative Commons 3 licensed work.
Hi Guys,
Thanks for another great podcast. I’m really enjoying listening to how you are going about setting up and promoting your business and you views on the development and the industry as a whole.
This last episode really touched on quite a few parallels with my own experiences (except there is only one of me and I’m not as successful!)
I had a similar delay in setting up as a business developer, except in my case, I converted from an individual to a business. After being told it would take 2 weeks, it ended up taking about 3 months. I think Apple must have had some data issues with their developer portal talking to iTunes.
I’m also a big fan of iStockPhoto. I’ve used a few of their images in some apps and also modified a few vector images to use as icons. In particular my Quick Brown Fox app. Unfortunately, as a paid app that one was a complete disaster, although its going quite well as a freebee. http://www.robsmobileapps.com/quick-brown-fox-now-free I noticed the cover of Time Magazine from Oct 26 in Australia http://time-px.rtrk.com.au/time/magazine/pacific/0,9263,503091026,00.html was actually an image from iStockPhoto, so we’re obviously in good company.
I mostly agree with your comments on making the UI match in with Apples standards, however the numeric keypad is definitely not one of the best looking controls in the SDK. If you are going to the effort of creating a custom keypad (which isn’t really that much work), then, personally I think you can come up with something way better looking.
Its funny hearing you guys talk about an earlier version of Gratuitous. It sound very much like the second app I built but never finished. It was (yet another) tip calculator but had the ability to group people, allocate different amounts to people and even split bills across multiple tables! Completely over the top and unusable. I may revisit it one day but its going to need some serious use-ability improvements.
One small request. I normally listen to your podcast on my iPod with headphones. Personally, I think the music is too load compared to your voices, especially the mid-segment bits. I normally end up turning down the volume during the music.
Look forward to the next podcast.
Cheers
Rob
Rob
11 Nov 09 at 5:38 pm
@Rob
I’m glad to hear that you’re enjoying the podcast. We figured other developers who find their experiences parallel ours so I’m glad to hear you validate that.
We’ll check the levels on the music tracks on subsequent podcasts. Sorry about that!
Good luck with your apps!
kevin
12 Nov 09 at 8:52 pm