Fair enough :) Bad example with the Google share price and point taken with value / # of shares. You are correct with #3. I know Apple is worth is significantly higher than Google, I just think that gap will close (Google will raise, Apple will lower) over a long period of time - as in years. Could be totally wrong, it's just something I could see happening.
I just don't want to trade one set of problems for another. Some of the Mountain Lion annoyances are small and fixable (Gatekeeper) but they add up to be just plain annoying. I haven't messed with it much but their limitation on subfolders is just annoying. I'm sure it's aimed at simplifying things for average users but power or heavy users need something that can conform to their style of work.
Lion to Mountain Lion. I'm not that far behind and I think it's fair to expect a product which has been available for quite some time and shipped with my brand new laptop should be more stable and lived up to hype. That being said, perhaps the problem was believing all the Apple hype that is spread - I had my expectations set too high.
I meant with my experience with the MacBook Air. It's fair enough to say that every major product (software or hardware) has issues that need fixed but I had hoped with Lion it already would have been.
IMO, Apple has lost it's touch just as they almost won me over along with thousands of Android fan boys with the iPhone 5. I bought the latest 13" MacBook Air the day it came out. I was impressed by the form factor but that's about it. The stability and smoothness everyone used to rave about just isn't there. I refuse to upgrade to their latest OS.
That's not to say Apple is disappearing anytime soon, but I think they have lost their touch. I believe it will be a slow but steady decline in value, down to a more Google-like share price.
I suppose I should clarify - my paying (target) customers would be the restaurants/bars but their patrons would be the ones using it. So, I'd consider anyone who goes out to eat to be the users.
I do recognize there are two perspectives: 1. what the paying customers wants (restaurants/bars) 2. what the users want (patrons of restaurants/bars)
I agree and that's the reason for my hesitation. Yes, I have ideas that would make it better than theirs. They just have a lot of time and money in their favor already.
That being said, I know personalized and better support is worth a lot.
Is it OK to flat out say that the plan is to be bought out by competitors because the products are similar?
I do believe in the end I'd have a better product but they have months or possibly years on me when it comes to design and money. How hard is that uphill battle? When is there TOO much competition?
From what I can tell of Stripe, you can take payment for anything. You'd have to find your own button (http://images.lmgtfy.com/?q=donate) and create a payment page. Stripe is basically just an API for a payment gateway.
The target customer are mid to large restaurants and bars. So, it could be a local idea but long term would be national. Seeing the same device/software at whatever restaurant you go to might be important and make it harder for me to have a piece of the pie.
My biggest concern is how important is it to differentiate myself? The competitors have had a working and refined product for months or years so chances are they'd have a better product. They charge monthly with no upfront hardware costs and have small trial contracts with Applebees, Chilis, etc.
I realize there's 100 companies that make toilet paper and most survive, I'm just not sure if that is an appropriate analogy.
And, as someone mentioned in the comments, make sure you document functionality it should have. If you blindly say "I want an app that tracks your workouts" it leaves much ambiguity. You must say "I want an app that tracks runs, pushups and situps (times and amount), ability to sync between devices, graphs progress and lets you share it on Facebook" otherwise you'll end up with a screen with a text box.
Remember that in the future you will have to pay someone (same person or different) to revise code, add functionality, etc so having someone less experienced/cheaper WILL cost you more in the long run.