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The Goldrush That Is iPad App Development
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I have been thinking about writing an article on this subject since the release of the iPad but stayed away from the subject as the iPad had been talked to death by blogs all over the world. I guess I just wanted to speculate that we are about to enter another huge gold rush around app creation for the new bigger iPad similar to what we saw with the iPhone app store. The reason I choose to write about this today is that I woke up to a few people telling us that they had spotted the Lookandtaste icon in the windows of Apple stores across the world (Lookandtaste is my other company where we teach people how to cook through video and we built an iPhone app that has 100s of cooking videos). We decided to build an iPhone app with cooking videos as we thought it would be a great way to get people cooking in the kitchen and I guess you could consider it a successful app. It sells all over the world on a daily basis from Malaysia to Australia and was named as one of Apple’s 30 best apps by Apple themselves last year. The app has been up and down and makes a decent 4 figure monthly sum and has helped a small Irish company punch above it’s weight. So how does all this fit in with the new iPad?
The Gold Rush
There are over 140,000 apps in the app store and that number grows at an alarming pace. I have spoken in the past about just how hard it is to market and iPhone app and making enough noise to stand out from the other 139,999 amazing apps is very tough. That doesn’t stop most people though and everybody from small programmers to large brands and huge gaming companies are competing in the space. The biggest problem is that like any gold rush the rewards are massive. Come up with the simple killer idea for an app that makes it big and you can literally sit back and watch the cash roll in. We are going to see thousands of people trying to make apps for the bigger screens thinking they will make their fortune but just like any gold rush the people who actually turn a profit will be few and far between.
Why I won’t Be Making An iPad App
You would think that with our logos hanging in Apple stores all over the world and the backing of Apple for the last 2 years we would be developing an app right now for the iPad (especially given that the bigger screen and portable nature of the device would be ideally suited to our offering). I can tell you though having been through the process I don’t really want to do it again. There are many reasons but they are mainly financial. There simply isn’t the return on investment needed to justify the outlay in building apps for the iPad in my opinion. Sure you could be lucky and get that app that really flies but that is not a gamble worth taking and there is just too much competition. Also add in to the mix that we can’t be sure if the platform will actually take off (I would imagine it would). It is lovely from an ego and branding perspective to have your logo in Apple stores around the world but in terms of sales I wouldn’t really expect it to do a whole lot.
Nice To Have?
The big problem is that iPad apps will become a box to tick on agency briefs all over the world just as an iPhone app is at the moment. Sure there are cases where they work but there are also lots of examples of companies and brands spending tens of thousands of Euros on apps that only get seen by a handful of people. You have to ask yourself the hard question if it is a nice to have feature or if it will actually give you something to your business in return. for the most part I think it will be a nice to have and I can see plenty of marketing execs talking the iPad apps up as we speak and trying to sell them to clients to make themselves look cool. The cold hard reality is that it will be well over a year before there are even a decent amount of these iPads in a country like Ireland and it will be cool and hip marketing type people who have then and not the ordinary Joe Bloggs out on the street.
This Space Belongs To The Big Guys
The apps that will be massive on this device will be huge services like Facebook, YouTube and established game platforms and franchises. There was a small window where some of us independent companies could get on the ladder and get a small piece of the pie but those days are gone. There will be some individual success stories along the way which will help fan the flames of the gold rush but I am personally staying well away from the whole gold rush and leaving it to the big boys to fight out.
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What you said is probably true, but what’s the point telling? That you give up without a fight and try to explain it doesn’t really sound like worth publishing. Also you said that you pulled it off with an iPhone app, so don’t you think this is your advantage? Why wouldn’t iPad version be a success? Just don’t see the point for this post.
Well i guess the main reason is that it will already exist as an app on the bigger version in the same way as it currently is on the iPhone. I guess what I am trying to say is that I would not start one from scratch and I certainly wouldn”t be starting one from scratch. We did make some money from ours but there are better ways of making money I guess
While in the long-run I think the app store processes will change. They have to. I also think that initially, the iPad will be a goldmine. Anyone with an existing app, or an idea for a new one, should be working on iPad apps right now.
Why?
Because the early adopters of the iPad will buy everything with “iPad Version” written on it, to test drive their new toy.
Just like the people who made the first app store apps… these fart noise machines and what not made load sof money. Useless now, of course, but the initial investment and time to develop a simple 79c app returned dividends and allowed the developers to go on and work on better apps later on. I know of one person who got into the Android store early and made bucket loads of cash on small, simple & cheap apps that do very little – like a fart noise machine or voice changer. The money was then re-invested to make a “serious” iPhone app which has gone on to do very well.
Yeah Kevin good points. I suppose if I was a developer with enough knowledge I would probably throw a couple of things together and take a punt on something simple like you say. It would have to be simple though and not require and big investment apart from my own time. Amazing how the best selling apps are always the simplest little things.I guess I am mostly talking about brands and businesses in this article as I have seen so much money wasted by brands who have agencies advising them to spend 20k on an app that is a “must have” cool item when really it is just an expensive flop. I am off to make my iBurp app not on your advice
Well there are a lot of businesses who don’t “get it”. An app developed for the iPhone or iPad will never make anything near 20K. It might over the long haul but for the most part you’ll never reach that goal with an app that costs 79c, with a third going to Apple.
Brands usually make terrible apps. Very few work out well. Partially because people don’t want to spend money on a “brand” when, in all likelyhood, it’ll be a cobbled together mess of an app where other developers will do the same thing, cheaper and far better. Utilising the devices power and UI features.
Look at all the terrible clock alarm apps out there. The one that trumps them all is a simple but genius idea that uses the gyro to tell what cycle of sleep you’re in and produce a graph based on it. It has sold a huge amount. That developer can now go off and develop something else using that money to supplement the lack of income he/she’ll have while working on the next big thing.
I personally will port my app, Unfragment (http://bit.ly/7kNR4J), to iPad for its launch in March. In general, unless your app involves a lot of custom texture like Ancient Frog, it really doesn’t take much effort to optimize an existing iPhone app for iPad.
Yeah I think you would a be a fool if you had an existing app and did not try and port it over in some form or another after all most of the hard work has already been done
I think a lot of what you say is true Niall. The app space for the iPad belongs to the big guns, the big mag publishers and the big gaming publishers. I have a feeling iPad sales will disappoint Apple. It’s a ‘Boy who cried wolf’ scenario. Many people think if they buy the iPad this year there’ll be a better, faster, cheaper model out next year. Apple’s marketing history with the iPod may be coming back to haunt it?
One thing that I didn’t want to do Stephen was make any predicitons about the sales of the iPad as it is so hard with Apple. I am not overly impressed with it but I will still be buying one (strange logic there) and I can remember people not being overly impressed with the iPod at the start. Hopefully it will get a whole new generation using the internet and using it in a different way. The one thing going in Apple’s favor is that apps are in a lot of cases working better than websites these days (Facebook being prime example!)
I think that the iPad bring a lot of new social apps with its geo tracking.
Very interesting article. I can’t imagine the iPad will be more successful that the iPhone simply because its not as needed as a mobile phone with computer capabilities is. Its inbetween an iPhone and Macbook, I have both, so why but one? But I definitely agree with the app gold rush coming up. Check out PhoneFreelancer dot com if you have an iPad idea and need to find a developer. You can submit your app idea free and get tons of quotes, completely free.
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