Ask HN: Have you made money from desktop apps? Please share what info you can.
4 comments
thanks for your reply.
okay, if you were me, how would you have refined the question? interested to know:)
okay, if you were me, how would you have refined the question? interested to know:)
we need more context.
Desktop software, yes, but for which platform? Aimed at consumers? Business? Enterprise? Government?
Are you asking "before" you've written something, or "after"? Are you looking for a market to explore, or a market for something you have?
Is the market broad-based, or narrow?
Is it expensive (say > $1000) or cheap? (say < $50). Are you looking for a subscription or an out-right sale?
Are the competitors in your market? Is this a new market? Are you "cutting edge" (think crypto, ai etc) or boring (think accounting etc)?
Is it data for one person, or shared by multiple people, or a business?
Soooo many questions....
Are you asking "before" you've written something, or "after"? Are you looking for a market to explore, or a market for something you have?
Is the market broad-based, or narrow?
Is it expensive (say > $1000) or cheap? (say < $50). Are you looking for a subscription or an out-right sale?
Are the competitors in your market? Is this a new market? Are you "cutting edge" (think crypto, ai etc) or boring (think accounting etc)?
Is it data for one person, or shared by multiple people, or a business?
Soooo many questions....
Chatgpt API wrapper tailored for the company, all in vb.net. 7 months and counting.
So far I'm very happy with it, but it is not a stable product because of the nature of the API
you could share info on the domain the app is for, the tech, the issues and challenges, the customers, the learnings, the sales and profit or loss, or anything else.
Thanks in advance.
Unfortunately though your question is too vague for me to respond to in detail.
In general, I'd say that selling software for any platform is much harder than writing the software. I recommend finding customers before coding.
Second, I'd recommend being laser focused. Decide what the program will do. Stick to that. Don't get trapped in the "if it just did x I would buy it" messaging.
Too often I see programs that are difficult to explain, and have weird interfaces because the developer didn't say no to himself as feature creep happened.