Fraser Speirs Cocoa and Photos

iPhone Apps Have to Pay Their Way

We Mac developers all love to program. We love to design, build and create cool stuff for you. We like to hear what you think and try to make you even happier next time. That’s what being a Mac developer is all about and we do that partly because we love to. We also do it because it’s good business sense and, at some point, Mac devs have to eat too. I mean, did you think that Wil Shipley’s shirts come from Tesco?

So there’s love and there’s business. And now there’s a new business in town: the business of making iPhone apps. Slightly lost in the brouhaha surrounding the SDK announcement was the fact that Apple has also, in effect, announced an iPod SDK due to the fact that the iPod touch runs OS X.

I’ll repeat that, in case you’re still not getting it: the most popular portable music device in the world, the one everyone has, the default choice, the cultural icon, the device which Apple sells millions of each quarter, the device which has previously been closed off to all but Capcom PopCap, EA and Nike now has an SDK.

Granted, not every iPod sold is an iPod touch and the installed base of OS X capable devices is still less than two million worldwide. I’m willing to speculate, though, that the OS X platform is the future of every iPod with a screen. They renamed the traditional iPod “classic” and the word “classic” has connotations in the Apple lexicon. You know what I’m talking about here.

How long before there are as many iPods in the installed base as there are Macs? Last quarter, Apple sold 1.76 million Macs and 9.8 million iPods. Nearly ten million iPods in three months. Again, not all OS X iPods but you see where this is going. As well as an exciting new technology to work with, the iPhone/iPod SDK is going to be a goldmine for Mac OS X developers.

There are several different business avenues we could go down with iPhone apps, but I can see a few straight away:

• Standalone iPhone app with no equivalent desktop app.
• iPhone version of your desktop app, sold as a separate product.
• iPhone version sold in a bundle with the desktop app.
• iPhone version bundled for free with the desktop app.

The only scenario I hope I don’t see, except as a special offer, is the last one. Possibly the worst business decision we could make as Mac developers is to devalue iPhone applications to the same level as Dashboard widgets.

Unless Apple has a great technology story that we have no inkling of, it’s clear that iPhone apps will take significant development efforts to make. This isn’t just a recompile - at the very least, a new UI to your app will need to be designed, built and tested. That costs time both in developer learning and also in user support. There will have to be a business case for building iPhone apps, even iPhone satellite versions of existing desktop applications.

I would hope that Mac developers look at the iPhone as the truly new platform that it is, rather than as an adjunct to Mac OS X. Just because it has some elements of Cocoa doesn’t mean it’s Mac OS X Lite.

Now, I don’t believe that iPhone apps will necessarily command the same prices as desktop applications. One of the interesting pieces of psychology I encountered when pricing FlickrExport was that people perceive less value in something that’s “just a plugin” than something that’s a “whole app” - never mind that FlickrExport is more featureful and more powerful than the Flickr Uploadr app. Perhaps iPhone apps will be perceived in a similar way, but I think we as developers can make a case for the iPhone and its apps to be regarded in their own right if we market correctly.

I’m not saying that no iPhone app should ever be free, and I’m not trying to start a cartel here, but lets take the time between now and February to think about how this new market opportunity fits into our business models.

[Update: Yeah, PopCap, not Capcom.]

Hi Frasier,
Good post, as usual. If you’re into creating new iPhone apps I’d be interested in talking to you regarding supplying design work - icons etc. for the UI. In fact for any of the apps you produce. I’m a sole-trader freelancer, history of trad graphics design and illustration. If you’re interested let me know. I also have an iPhone, wonderful device it is too, can’t wait for ‘real’ apps on it.
I’ve been following your tweets (now there’s a sentence I’d never thought I’d write!), trying to wring more usefulness out of the myriad social web stuff, interesting times indeed.

Cheers.

I can see a lot of value in $5 smart-database type applications. You know the kind, DeliciousLibrary-Lite, Diet Trackers, Golf Score trackers, etc, etc. The list goes on.

The palm pilot was flooded with apps like that. And that was a good thing. I can see this happening on the iPhone too. (It already is with webapps). I can see a lot of “My First iPhone Apps” being put out there though, what I would call ignoreware. However the iPhone _really_ gives the developer to stand out from the herd. Even basic vertical database apps can really look nice (and with WIFI/EDGE access can tap into richer sources of data - e.g. DL w/amazon).

That’s just one type of (obvious) app for the iPhone/iPod. There are plenty of others.

Jonathan, I totally agree. I don’t think iPhone apps have to be expensive - this is all about marketplace perception.

In the desktop-app-plus-iPhone-app scenario, I guess it would kinda suck if desktop customers without iPhones (or vice versa: most iPod users are on Windows; the same may prove true for iPhone) had to pay for software they weren’t going to use.

Fraser,

Have you played with Pushr on your iPhone by any chance? As the FlickrExport plugin author, I would love to get your comments on my code…

Yeah I don’t see expensive apps going down well on the iPhone.

Looking back at the PalmPilot - there were a lot of commercial apps doing what you can basically do in Mobile Safari on the iPhone. Translators, Michelin Guides, mapping, etc. I’d be surprised if those kinds of apps will thrive on the iPhone.

A damn good ebook reader would be the #1 app for me though.

One important thing to remember about desktop app + iphone app is that MOST iphone users will be running Windows…

Yuck.

@jonathan’s last comment: not for long

I’d love to see a true iPod DJ app — one that takes advantage of the touch screen to mimic two platters where the user can scratch and/or play two songs at once. that would be hot.

I think that this is an important question, however I don’t think its a question that we can answer (at least not definitively) until Apple’s stance is made clear.

If there is going to be some monetary barrier of entry for developers to be allowed to publish iPhone apps, that certainly would be a factor in the decision.

I think its a mistake to expect users to start buying a bunch of separate iPhone apps, on top of their desktop counterparts. Unless something is a truly independent piece of software, it seems, for lack of a better word, greedy.

If anything, a good iPhone app is reason to upgrade versions, or choose one product over another. But Delicious Library “lite” as a standalone product? No thanks. If Wil Shipley felt like I needed to give him 10 bucks just so I could scan my barcodes right on the phone, I’d say screw you, take pictures, and then just hold the phone’s screen up to my mac. I’m not saying thats all DL on the phone would be, or that everyone would use my workaround, and I’m not picking on Wil (Sorry Wil, its just an easy example). In fact, I suspect the Delicious Library iPhone app could be more useful than the desktop version.

My point is, unless an app is compelling on the phone by itself, without the need for a Desktop counterpart, I wouldn’t be willing to pay for it, just to make the app I already bought slightly more useful. Imagine if Delcious Library (sorry again Wil) charged users a plug-in fee to make the camera feature work, because a lot of mac users’s don’t have cameras. Either you have an iPhone app, or you have an app that can use the iPhone well, and I don’t want to have to start buying application features.

“A damn good ebook reader would be the #1 app for me though.”

Am I allowed to point out there already is one? Well, maybe not “damn good,” at least not yet, but…

- A good solid voice-note recorder. One that records to MP3s or WAVs, lets you sort stuff into folders, and has an easy way to get the files onto your desktop machine. I (and many others) would pay handsomely for this.

- A robust text notes app. Once Leopard’s Notes-in-Mail implementation debuts, we’ll have to see if Apple beefs up the iPhone Notes app to allow syncing, categories / folders, etc. And, of course, whether they finally allow fonts other than Marker Felt.

“I’ll repeat that, in case you’re still not getting it: the most popular portable music device in the world, the one everyone has, the default choice, the cultural icon, the device which Apple sells millions of each quarter, the device which has previously been closed off to all but Capcom, EA and Nike now has an SDK.”

Gruber, usually level-headed and objective, quoted the above passage and was just as wrong in doing so as you were in saying what you have.

The most popular media player in the world, the one that everybody has, the default choice as you say, *does not now* nor will ever have an SDK the likes of which we’re about to see for the iPhone family line. The iPod Touch will in February, yes, but I’m going to go out on a limb here and venture that the iPod Touch isn’t even in the same family line as the true iPod (the one you espouse will soon get in on the SDK goodness), but rather is essentially an iPhone sans certain “phone” components. Any reasonably astute reader would be able to verify this by simply playing with the two devices, and subsequently comparing the experience with any (true) iPod made by Apple in the past or presently. A closer hardware inspection of current iPods, iPhones, and the iPod Touch would undoubtedly support my conjecture even further.

You don’t see the “Classic” and the Nano getting part of the SDK action, and for very good reason: Apple is going to keep that platform as notoriously closed as they always have.

Take a photo of a barcode -> Google / Amazon / local zipcode comparison shopping thingie on an iPhone would be very powerful indeed. I already saved six bucks today by using Gas Buddy mobile (nice, but I keep writing these folks and asking them to incorporate a ‘viewport’ meta tag so the type on a mobile site would be, you know, pre-zoomed for my use)…used it right from the driveway of a gas station that just seemed too pricy…so I drove a half-mile to save.

First and allmost I need a decent caluclator on the iphone or touch. The acutal calculator doesn’t even had a percentage key - not to mention High end HP 12c premium functions like Delta percentage - programming or rpn functionality.

I would even pay 50 USD if someone put a HP12C or 17B on the iphone.

I don’t get the Capcom reference. Has there been any anouncement or rumour?

Ah, you mean Popcap, right? The Bejeweled guys.

Because most iphone users will run windows I don’t see bundled apps really taking off. Most apps will be stand alone. I would pay $5 to $10 for a decent small app but I don’t see apps in the Delicious library class being sold for $10. They seem to me to be worth more. But I’m not sure if I would pay more for any iPhone app }:-}

@ Ahoten

You missed the point ENTIRELY: as Frasier stated, if the “Classic” connotation doesn’t mean anything to you (OS 9 anyone?), then iPods going forward (whether of the Nano, “full size”, or touch variety) will be driven by OS X, thus the SDK will be applicable.

Installed base is nice, but let’s think ahead…

I sincerely hope Plantronics ports VolumeLogic to iPhone/iPod Touch. Stat.

@Dimitrios, nope, I came to make that exact same point, from that same Daring Fireball pullquote.

The iPod Touch is an unproven product. Most I talk to agree that right now the best job it is doing is making the iPhone a more attractive product as the “for just a little more…” upgrade. Maybe in a few years this will change. Apple still sold more minis/sells more nanos than any other of the iPods — keep that in mind, because it’s THAT mass audience products like Nike+ want to tap, and that audience is still SDK-less.

@Lee Fallin: You’re quite right. If Apple is going to take money from developers beyond the normal costs of ADC membership, it will change the economics. We’ll see.

@Ross: Your point is well made, but my entire article was trying to argue that an iPhone app with the same name as a Mac dekstop app should not be considered merely a ‘feature’ of that desktop app. In part, I say that because I believe that the iPhone and iPod touch are computers in their own right and not simply peripherals for Macs.

I agree that iPhone apps should be compelling without a desktop counterpart, but I don’t see why, for example, OmniFocus on the phone can’t enhance and be enhanced by OmniFocus on your desktop.

@Ahoten: You’re right that the pre-touch iPods are not in the same family. They’re a completely different hardware and OS platform and I do not expect to ever get an SDK for those devices. What I am venturing is that the touch UI will become the next generation platform for every iPod above the Shuffle. As I said: “I’m willing to speculate, though, that the OS X platform is the future of every iPod with a screen.”

Yes, my apps will never run on any Nano currently in existence. I expect, however, that they will run on a future NanoTouch.

@Noah: Yes, the iPod touch is an unproven product, but Apple is making such a massive investment in the mobile OS X platform that it will be made to succed by hook or by crook. It’s not obvious - to me at least - that the nano can never be based on mobile OS X.

I think all you guys that don’t understand the point. Apple is shifting it’s strategy from “click wheel” classic style ipods to OSX based touch screen ipods. Since currently ipods do have a huge market share, this pattern is expected to continue with the touch screen ipods/iphone. Meaning that as people want to replace their Phone,Personal Media Player, laptop with something new, an OSX based ipod will be high on the list of replacements. If you can now make software that runs on these, you will have an opportunity to write software for a potentially huge costumer base. My only hope is that Xcode is required to block all the windows shareware crap makers from playing. If M$, being the worlds largest software company, was smart they would be the first in line for the sdk and start porting office, but we all know they ain’t so they won’t.

“I agree that iPhone apps should be compelling without a desktop counterpart, but I don’t see why, for example, OmniFocus on the phone can’t enhance and be enhanced by OmniFocus on your desktop.”

I think it can. I just don’t think it’s likely to be worth paying more for it to do so.

@delta, there’s a very nice scientific calculator app on the iPhone. Look at “http://scicalc.belfry.com/”. This downloads as a bookmarklet — the entire code gets put in a data: url — so that you can run it at anytime, offline.

@Jonathan Wight, there are a lot of ebooks available as plain PDF’s, which can be read as email attachments (or just make a mailbox folder full of them). The PDF reader in Mail now lets you turn the iPhone sideways.

I’m totally digging the iPhone app goodness.

However, no matter how insanely awesome the iPhone apps are, I could never imagine spending more than 20$ for one.
The advantage for the developers is that there should be an absolutely massive customer base.
I think its more likely that a good realistic price would be around 5-9$

I guess it depends on the market. Business apps would probably expect to be a bit more expensive.

Personally, I’m not exactly sure what I expect the iPhone market to be like.I guess the best bet would be to look at the current state of palm and pocketpc markets.

But I think apple has some tricks up their sleeves. I think they’re going to handle the purchasing and serials and stuff like that. That would be very handy.

Someone please write a Book Reader with animated page turns. I am dying to read books on the IPhone while I am commuting to work.

@Norm, sorry the iPhone does not include a working ereader.

Mailing myself a PDF is not a solution. Because:

1) Not all ebooks are PDFs (I have a lot of books in the proprietary Mobipocket format)
2) Attachments aren’t cached on the iPhone, so would need to refetch the file each time (actualy might be wrong here).
3) It wont remember where I left off.
4) No bookmarking, dictionary, etc

I’d probably want an ebook reader to use the volume up/down controls to act as page up/page down too.

Slight de-rail on Frasier’s thread. Anyway - point being, there is market for 3rd party software on the iPhone/iPod Touch.

Re: ebook reader for iPhone…. I’m sure Zach was referring to Books.app.

http://code.google.com/p/iphoneebooks/

Greetings Fraser + Co,

I enjoy your discussions.
Apologies for arriving to this discussion late, but I only recently came up for air and found your this post by way of catching up with DaringFireball.

I, like David McDonald, am a designer/developer intrigued with the SDK options approaching and eager for hands-on working with a developer keen to push this little iPhone-thang into new realms.
I am video-centric by nature/history and currently working on several layouts for a non-linear media editor that would be useful for portable authoring. What started as a magazine cover illustration quickly became a minor UI obsession that I’d like to find a useful outlet for… If anybody out there is looking for some pixel polishing and UI/UX product mastery I am eager to engage - for fun, but mostly profit.

As an aside, while I was working in Amsterdam my brother and I popped over to Edinburgh to be outfitted with the family tartan {with three branches to choose from it became a nice aesthetic choice} for my approaching Renaissance wedding. I spent several days roaming the same streets by day and closing Grass Market pubs with lovely lasses as prelude to my bachelor party {sorry, the Dutch girls were actually more fun, er wild, um uninhibited}. I found Scottish history fascinating and didn’t realize how much cultural weight they have had on America. I highly recommend such a trip.
I’d move to Scotland in a flash should a proper job open up.

Caio, dah-links,
-Jonathan-