You typically don't feel the pain of not having tests until your app starts to get big and/or starts to have lots of developers. That simple assert :success could catch a regression because you were using meta search while on rails 3 and now it doesn't work on rails 4. You also don't feel the pain of end-to-end testing until you rely on them too much and they are fickle, and hard to maintain.
>> You can confirm this by looking closely at other apps in your class to see if there really is a scenario where you could get eg 4 digits of downloads in one day.
I am not sure how you could confirm this since Apple doesn't publish the number of downloads that an App gets in a day for a particular app or set of apps.
>> I also think it's a weakness that it's not available outside iOS as it would be very hard for any company to standardise around you vs something all their drivers can use.
It is also available on Android.
>> It may also be a drawback that drivers have to pay for you themselves, or are companies able to pay subscriptions for them?
Yeah, I am planning on making more of an offering for companies, however, in initial research it has been very difficult to 1) Find companies that need to do mileage tracking and 2) Find the right person to talk to and (3) actually sell them on a package.
Millions of people need to track their mileage for all kinds of reasons. It is one of the biggest tax deduction that is taken, so I don't really see it as niche (unless you mean something else).
I want to build a lasting business, that is why I charge $9 a year. I want to build something that will be around for a long time. I beat out a large majority of apps that are cheaper that do the same thing.
I agree that distribution is key. I think the point was more that Apps are not making near the money I would have thought they were making. To be ranked in the top 20 in "Top Grossing" for Finance, I would have expected that number to be much higher. That means that the far majority of Apps in that category aren't making much. In other words, I have distribution down much better than others.
The bubble I was referring to is really the bubble of way-to-many apps on the App Store. This bubble is driven by too many people having the expectation of creating an App, and having it "Go Big". As that expectation "pops", there will be far less people getting into the App game.
Yes, it is probably not the most correct term. However, I think when people realize the cost of making an App and then realize that chances are they aren't going to make millions, less will want to invest in app development, thus popping the "lets make an app" bubble.
Just wanted to share with everyone TrackMydrive. It is my 2 year old side project. It is a simple GPS mileage tracker for business mileage.
Back story:
A friend of mine worked for Key Bank and he was complaining about spending hours each week filling out his expense report. We discussed how he was recording his mileage and decided there could be a better way. We initially thought of just having a simple website that would allow to enter in locations. However, now that everyone had a fancy new smartphone (with a built in GPS), that it would be easier to just track the mileage using the GPS in the smartphone, and thus TrackMyDrive was born.
Technical Notes:
Website built using Ruby on Rails.
iPhone app built using RubyMotion
(I love ruby if you couldn't tell).
Business Lessons:
1. It always takes longer than you think
You might be looking at my project and wonder why the heck it took two years to get to where I am. I do the same thing when looking at other websites. What you don't see is the countless hours of debugging, testing, designing, and building. What you don't see is thousands of customer emails. What you don't see is trying out lots of different marketing techniques and channels. This gets worse when you are only putting in 5-10 hours a week.
2. It's freaking hard to get noticed.
Why do you think I am posting here? The app store is crowded with thousands of apps, it is really, really hard (and expense) to get noticed, this gets worse when you are only making a few bucks an app. I think many people think there product will “just go viral” (good luck on that one).
3. Keep at it.
I have wanted to give up. I have wanted to go do something else. I am glad I have stuck with it. I think people “pivot” too often just because things get tuff. Building a business is tuff. You can end up pivoting your entire life and never end up building anything. Many compare themselves with Facebook or some other Cinderella story. A good business normally takes 4-5 years (or even 10).
4. Enjoy the journey.
Oh how I wish I had more time and money. I wish I could hire more and get all the amazing features I want in my app. However, I am not there yet, but I think it is important to enjoy the journey. Many successful companies look back at the early ears with fondness. Enjoy interacting with your customers, enjoy being small, enjoy being in control of your own business.
5. Connect with customers.
People go through all sorts of loops to try to get positive reviews (including reminding you ten times a day). Why not instead focus on excellent customer service? I have gotten tons of positive reviews by going the extra mile with customers and then even asking if they wouldn’t mind writing a review of their experience.
What’s next?
Stick with it. I have big plans (that is why I have a big day planner) :) It will be slow, but I am excited to be on the journey.
I have been using Opal with the Vienna front-end framework and have really enjoyed it. Opal allows me to write ruby on the front-end and the back-end.
Many times I have tried to get excited about javascript, but just can't do it. In the end, I love ruby and can't force myself to love javascript.
Opal has been surprisingly stable and it allows me to run ruby anywhere you can run javascript. Vienna is still very alpha, but still gets the job done. The author says they are working on things such as two way data binding (the part I love about Angular)
In the end I hope that Opal becomes the standard for Rails, but even if it doesn't, I plan on using it for all my next projects.
Couldn't agree more. We have seen this recently with the Facebook app switching to native. I think as time goes on, and as phones get more powerful, it will mean less of a difference, but for now it is better to stick with native. We decided this for our iPhone/Droid apps at http://trackmydrive.com and couldn't be happier!
I think you hit the nail on the head with this post. Over the past few weeks I have been doing similar research. I have come to the conclusion that there isn't a really great option.
Out of all the frameworks, I am most impressed with Sencha Touch's performance. It was the only one that felt "native" to me.
What I didn't like about Sencha is it doesn't let me use backbone.js, it also looks really difficult to customize the UI if you don't use their "widgets".