That's a wrong way to look at it. Cheap customers? Think again. Million and billion dollar companies are not going to post their projects on 99designs. I would say it's mostly for mom n pop type small startup businesses. Even if the big guys do use that service, I still don't see any issue with it.
I have used 99designs and I didn't like it. My personal opinion, based on my little experience, is it is costly for the services offered. For the record, I have used ODesk, Elance and Freelancer too. When I use these outsourcing sites (including 99designs), I look at both cost and service. Quality, trust, dedication, promptness and professionalism are all part of service. Yes cost is a very important factor. When you have your own business and you need service, like me, you would be looking at these factors carefully too. You look at the service, compare and then you decide on price. It's a capitalistic free economy where no one can dictate a price. Price is dictated by the demands and what the consumers are willing to pay.
I will give you a real life example, my example. I needed some graphic designs for my iphone app. I posted the requirements on all 4 sites I mentioned. I received over 200 bids. Bid ranged from $1,800 to $5 (Yes $5!). I carefully verified all of their work/portfolios, exchanged emails and reviewed their responses (learned a lot from this experience, template responses or try to oversell with superlative words, etc.). Out of all, one designer from Argentina caught my attention. She kept telling how much she wanted to design my graphics. She didn't want anything upfront, in fact, she even said she didn't even want any money if I am not satisfied with her work. She gave me a framework on when and how she would submit her work to me for review and if I didn't like the work she would totally redo it. 6 screens with over 40 icons in 3 different resolutions and she was very happy with $238.
Cheap or bargain shoppers, yes, these sites are mostly for them but there isn't any site where shoppers will say something like... "yea, I am willing to pay $10,000 for 6 screens with over 40 icons in 3 different resolutions for my iPhone app." That doesn't make sense. We have always been creative in this country and we need to be even more creative now. Find ways to deliver quick and more with more options to consumers. If we complain about the labor or other costs, we fail to understand the free market and global economy. It also means we lost the race.
I forgot to gave you some of my marketing ideas. I am executing these for my iPhone app but you can apply the same for your Android app too. Review the list part 1 and 2. Let me know what you think
this is for all of you guys. when you mention you have an app in the market, mention the name or at least give your blog link or app link. in a way it would be your free marketing and for readers it would be a reference to see what type of app is getting what kind of downloads.
agree on the games. In his case, he can narrow his target area and focus maybe on smaller target market. putting a game app out and placing it in that category and competing against big guns is like a suicide mission. You can bleed money on marketing but nothing will happen unless you have another Angry Bird like idea. I would recommend him trying different categories. Not all of them are so competitive. Also he shouldn't invest so much of his time on this one game. Every product has lifecycle and his app is no different. He should have a target of downloads/money too and once achieved, move on to the next app/game. Average iPhone app makes $750 per year and I am sure that number is somewhat similar for Android too.
very good post. enjoyed reading about your experience. I also think you should write more on 1) learning Android development (maybe tutorials for the novice) & 2) more on marketing. Like you, I am new to mobile app development/business. Learned Android development first but then got into iOS. For now, sticking mostly with iPhone. It’s way different but the idea is “fish where the fishes are”. I like Android but to me at this point, it’s good for consumer but kind of harsh for developers. People ask for refunds on Android apps and they can continue to use the app moving it to the SD card. Glad you are trying out different things on marketing. I am doing the same and my first app is no out yet :-) Apple still reviewing it. You are correct on graphics. I think that is mighty important. I am sharing my journey of app development, marketing and overall experience through my blog too. Check it and share your thought. Good luck!
I wouldn't say it's "dying". It has been bad but it's time to get more efficient and maybe that's what the city is trying to do. Also, not all of Detroit is that bad
this is stupid as hell! there are so many other freakN priorities than sending a letter like that to Apple or anyone. What's next? Are these senetors also going to write to radar or laser detector makers/companies too saying you guys shouldn't be making those devices? I don't drink and I don't condone drink and drive either. Here are the things the senetor should think of
1) If a person is so impaired to drive, he will be even more impaired to operate and understand an app on a tiny freakn device.
2) Maybe the police shouldn't setup any checkpoint. Instead the check should happen in random places on the street.
3) Think of legislation or creating better safety standards for Cars, so the manufacturers are forced device cars that can detect impairment of the driver and not start at all. This option can create more jobs, inovations, etc.
ok good to hear they already have presence. As for no cable network would carry them is different thing. Sounds more like a business process, decision or selling strategy that is probably not as stellar as we would like to see from Al Jazira. If they have a good market, good news (which I am not disagreeing) and good strategy and sales folks, I don't see any reason why they won't be able to go thru any network. Do they give any reason or claim or blame why they are not being carried by any cable/dish network? America is free market economy. It is foolish to blame anyone or anything for someone's failure. Maybe their strategy is wrong. Maybe their market research is wrong. Maybe they are assuming a lot or maybe their assumption is wrong.
I wouldn't get into the technicality of "a land" or "the land". We all get emotional and stuff and there is nothing wrong with that but behind all that if you think quietly you will know it is "the land" of free thinking and tolerant people. I am a Muslim and I can say it from my heart that I am a better Muslim (compared to where and how I was 20 or so years ago) because I live in this country. I can practice my religion the way I want. There is no freakN social pressure. Yes I am sure there are people who don't like me because of my religion or other things. That's not the mainstream America. Those type of people exist anywhere on earth. Can you or I control that? No. So I don't worry about it. My job is to "try" to do the best in life. Seriously, I have been to many different countries and lived and grew with so many different nationals. I still say there is no place on earth I would raise my kids and call it home beside this country, the US.
My friend, you have to read the history of the world and then when you learn the American history you would be wowed by the creation of this country and it's systems. You would appreciate it more. Even an average American, in my opinion, don't fully appreciate meaning of freedom and how this country was formed. Founding of this country was a huge huge turning point for human civilization. That's a fact. Don't try to portray America with what you see on Fox or what Fox or other news org try to tell you. America is lot bigger and richer than that.
Congratulation! Share your story in your blog or something. I will be curious and follow your progress. Couple years ago, I almost started like you but then gave up. I am in IT and wanted to get away from it. I started doing research and made a lot progress. The idea was to start a kiosk business at the local mall and then expand. Start up cost was low but it was still too risky. In the process I convinced a retired pilot to start a similar thing and he became very successful but I bailed out :-). My biggest challenge was getting some honest and stable people to work for me. I didn't want to quit my job and wife was and still is busy with kids. The second challenge was getting stuff (and the right/good/real stuff) imported from China. Lost some hard earned money but of course learned some good tricks. There are tons good ideas for kiosk business. At some point in the future, I will probably look into this again. With all the limitations I have, I thought of doing something on the side within IT. I think it's better. So I started a mobile app development business. The first app is built and submitted to Apple yesterday. The same app I am also making it for Android market and will submit soon. I learned the process so now the plan is to outsource everything and I will just manage the high level stuff. I sharing everything thru my blog http://tukulogics.com/blog/ . I even plan to share my income report too, just so everyone knows the end to end process. You can also follow me on twitter @saidulislam
I am not a fan of Fox but I understand what you are saying. It would be nice to have a fresh way of checking the news or view it from different perspective. Current way of presenting from any news organization is awkward. Politicians are polarizing the nation and news organizations are feed to the fire. That's why I stopped watching the news channels. I find this peaceful and healthy. Sometimes I think we are going freakN backward as a country. It's an insult to our founding fathers and the American way.
Demand is too strong of a word here. America is the land of free thinking and tolerance. People here, for the most part, appreciate and respect the differences in opinions. If Al Jazeera wants to establish presence here, no one would tell them to get out. In reality, this would be the best place for any news organization.
Not so soon. I hear PS3 is looking into going with Android. So email, browsing and TV integration will change. Sony is already doing the PSP with Android.
I just ordered mine. I am not so thrilled about it. I ordered it mainly because I want to develop some apps for it. I did play with it few time at the local BestBuy and at friend's. I don't see anything special in it besides being a newer bigger iPod.
Graphics? Yes it's better (in fact better than all other tablets) but were you really able to see the difference. What about the average folks? Do you think they will be able to see the difference. I am picky but not that picky.
Duo Core? Big deal. Many other tablets are featuring the same. The one I played with at Best Buy had all the popular apps loaded. Angry Bird was not so smooth with swipe action. Home screen swipe was fine. Still not so buttery to me.
Thinner? Yes but it's not as impressive as Kindle or Nook. If it was that thinner I would be like oh yea.
2 cameras? Isn't this about time? Apple is behind on this. Most of the Android tablets had them from day one.
Having said all that, it is still a nice toy. It definitely changed our mobile experience. Netbooks look so dead or even Laptops look so outdated compared to the tablets these days. I don't see it as a game machine. Instead, it will be another entertaining in it's space. We will browse sites, take notes, look up howtos, share stories, photos, videos, listen to audio books and read books to our kids like never before. Android or something similar will lead the market space eventually unless Apple becomes open. However, iPad will still be seen as the trend setter for a while.
It's not an AT&T thing... all big guys would want it, especially the market share. I am not liking the news of AT&T buying T-Mobile. There so many things fed up about it. AT&T data usage is not "truly" unlimited. AT&T's customer service sucks big time. When I missed to read the detail of my bill one month, the support rep told me I need to grow up and pay attention to my bill every month. True, I accept it but that also means AT&T cannot be trusted to accurately report on our billing, auto withdrawal, etc. They are bunch of a*holes. They do this to us while we have other carriers and other options. Imagine how they would treat us if they were the only guys.
I wouldn't say Java is full or wrappers but the java ecosystem/community is full of them. Everybody has freakN something with a little twist. It's too much!
Agree on the Quartz though. Oracle uses it for all the scheduling within it's all the applications. It has some jdbc connection leakage that Oracle wouldn't fix and it will require restart of your app almost every week.
my friend, I am not anti Google or anti Go. 1 year in tech is like 10 years in real life. I am glad you mention "systems development" but Google is marketing or at least the Go lang site is marketing it as a mainstream application development language. The repeated thing I hear and see is Go is fast and simple, which I don't disagree. If it is so simple and fast why is this not even listed in any of the rankings at http://langpop.com/
Before java was even officially released colleges were teaching Java classes. I remember it, cause I took the class and I still have the book that says covers beta. That's how popular java was. We were wowed by animations (feels funny to think about it now) and how easy it was to write screen savers, moving robots and shooting games. This is not the 90s. Look at the success of Android development (different topic). It came from freakN no where wowed everybody. Made stupid HTC (who knew about it before Android) a huge competitor of Apple. We are wowed not by what a programming language can do (this is what we are getting from Google) but by it's demo implementation. Again, look at Android, App Inventor and google has tons of such examples. Go marketing team (if there is one) failed miserably in my opinion.