MODERN APPLICATION DEVELOPMENT

We’ve just submitted Clocks, our multi time zone alarm clock to the app store. Fingers are now firmly crossed!

Clocks basically grew out of the work we we’re doing for the job timer app. Basically, once you’ve gone to the trouble of creating a nice looking updating LCD display, it seemed a shame not to use it.

I’d already considered creating a Rosebrae version of the bedside clock that’s popular on the app store, but it was the specific need to have multiple time zones available at a glance that gave me the idea.

With family in at least 3 widely differing time zones now, I wanted something to help me keep track of their time, and I thought a fusion of that with a bedside clock app might be an idea. Certainly it’s an app that I use everyday and every night.

Clocks has just been released to the App Store. No problems with review, thankfully, but I’m busily now putting all the marketing in place. Iphone development certainly has stretched my skill set ;-)

App Store link is here

Selling iPhone apps is a tough business, and is no doubt a problem even for talented developers. With 100,000+ apps (or whatever it is now, frankly it’s becoming meaningless) trying to make your product stand out has never been more difficult.

Any sane development company have to ask themselves if it’s still worthwhile.

So why should the indie developer persevere? It’s hard to get noticed, hard to come up with anything original, the competition is insane and only it’s going to get worse.

Is iPhone development going to become like the music business or Hollywood, where for every success there’s hordes of frustrated but talented individuals who didn’t catch a break?

This is why – from a Morgan Stanley report on internet trends.

(via Appy – do go read the entire post, it’s a nice summary and a good read.)

2 Key points from the report

1) Mobile Internet Usage Is and Will Be Bigger than Most Think.
2) Apple Mobile Share Should Surprise on Upside Near-Term.

And to this, I’d like to add this post about how the ipod touch is creating the iphone users of tomorrow.

Make no mistake, the pie is getting larger. Much larger.

And while the App Store is still a hit based business, the sweet spot where a small development company can make a decent income is moving steadily down the rankings.

And that’s got to be good for everybody.