iPhone « Felipe Andrade – Mobile Developer

8Jan/091

Predictions for the following years #2: The Services War

The downturn may mean that investors may want to get the return of the investment faster than ever. It can be a serious impact to companies investing only to build communities and that are not converting communities to real money yet.

Companies like Nokia through huge investment are becoming web services providers but there are some remaining things to take care.

In my point of view convergent services and products are the key factor of success for the following years, services that can be used on embedded, cellphones, netbooks, notebooks, anywhere through APIs... but obviously how to monetize from communities and services is the a must to any company.

Web and Mobile advertising promises to grow a lot in 2009 and also in the following years. Google can teach us this interesting lesson from one of Google's mantra, "focus on user". Give to users what they want. Give to users APIs, Maps, Search, SO, SDKs and let them choose what to do with that.

Another interesting history is from the number one plumber in a town of about 40,000. He built $50.00 gift cards on heavy paper stock all of them with code numbers. The next thing He did was go door to door and meet people one at a time. As of right now He is the number one plumber in his town.

So what's the motivation to provide free services? Attract consumers! Take a look at few characteristics at Google Maps and Android together:

1. Developers can create web and mobile applications based on Google Maps at no extra cost
2. Developers have APIs, Docs, Samples at no cost
3. Developers can monetize building applications for just $25 USD a year

You can think: "-They are crazy. They don't have a business model". You are wrong. They have a very solid business model. Give to developers what they want and wait to attract them.

Filed under: Android, Google, Internet Geral, Nokia, i2 tecnologia, iPhone, iPhone SDK 1 Comment

17Jul/082

iPhone Dev Brasil

Wooww... long time far away... first of all, fellow readers... excuse me... it was for a good reason.

I'm very glad to be working in some commercial projects involving iPhone and it's the only reason to be not posting news... As soon as possible I will reveal and share some open source applications for iPhone! Cheers!

Filed under: Flash, i2 tecnologia, iPhone 2 Comments

10Mar/080

$100 venture million fund for iPhone developers

I have read an excellent post from Michael Mace. He gave us an in depth vision about the iPhone SDK and how apple is changing the smartphone market for software developers. Follow below some important notes from Michael's post. It's also important visit his blog and read the comments.
--Mobile applications are hard for users to find and install, so Apple is building the applications store into every device. Apps are installed automatically when you buy them, and you can also be notified of upgrades when they're available.

--Third party applications stores take far too much of a developer's revenue -- 60% or more. So the Apple store takes 30%. That's a bit high (20% would be better), but everyone else has been so greedy that Apple looks like a charity.

--Getting applications certified for use on mobiles is expensive and time-consuming, so Apple has streamlined the process dramatically. Developers pay $99 a year, and apparently get automatic certification of all their apps. We need to learn more about how the app approval process will work, but if it's not burdensome this service alone justifies Apple's 30% cut of revenue. Apple takes responsibility for ensuring that iPhones remain secure and do not abuse the network, something that no one else has been willing to do.

--Developers want to get access to the features of the phone, so Apple has exposed a very rich API set including access to the accelerometer and other special features of the iPhone. This is not a sandbox; it looks like it's access to pretty much the whole OS.

--And oh by the way, Kleiner Perkins is creating a $100 venture million fund for iPhone developers. Makes Google's $10m contest for Android developers look like a popgun.

Filed under: Apple, Flash, iPhone, iPhone SDK No Comments