Hot answers tagged application
12
You are perhaps looking at this the wrong way. Of course you don't have to translate your app. Heck, you don't have to have an app in the first place.
You built your app so you could make money, correct? The question then becomes: "If you translate your app, will you make more money than if you don't?" Further will the additional revenues be greater than ...
11
The PDF requires login information, so I couldn't look at it.
But I think you've made a lot of the same mistakes I have as a bespoke developer:
Neither party has worked in this kind of relationship before. So neither of you can say, "this is how things are normally done". In such cases, miscommunications and misunderstandings are to be expected.
You've ...
9
Andrew Rollins, of TechStars alumnus Localytics wrote a great series of tips recently.
Andrew Hyde, TechStars' community director, covers many of the basics in his post. The one startup he specifically mentions, Foodzie, wrote their own post of advice, which to me really highlights how they stood out.
And Healy Jones, a TechStars adviser from this summer, ...
7
Do you want to emphasize your app's name or your company's name? What about *name*app.com? What shows up in Google results when you search for name? With enough press and reviews, can you overcome whatever the results are to be at the top?
Historically, trademark applications have run me about $1,000 with legal time and fees and taken about 15-18 months ...
6
You claim to offer many services, but clearly you don't really have expertise or access to all of those services.
Maybe it would be best to decide which of those pieces -- design, dev, marketing -- you have something special to offer. For example, reselling consulting hours from developers you're unable to vet isn't a business, whereas a new way to market ...
6
To begin with, there is no sure way of testing how strong demand is for a new product. If we had figured that out, then there would be no risk whatsoever in starting your own business.
Why do you need smartphone app reviewers? They may focus on the technical aspects of your application or on small details.
At this point, I think that what you need to do ...
6
I live in Germany. All people here have english at school. But this does not necessary mean they can read/speak english. Actually my feeling is that most people here are not comfortable with english: my guess is 95% of all handcrafters do not speak it.
My father in law is a doctor and has a good education. He does not speak english because he never uses it. ...
6
Stealth mode is, in all but a tiny minority of cases, pointless.
If you don't talk to your users, how will you understand their needs, and whether they are prepared to use (and pay for) your solution?
If your idea is so easy to copy, it will be copied within hours or launching.
If you had the idea, other people have probably had the idea.
Even if your idea ...
5
There are two kinds of developers: those that have trouble marketing, and those that find marketing easy.
Those that find marketing easy don't need your service.
Those that have trouble marketing can't afford your service.
So, it's a Catch-22. If I were you I would spend a couple of days looking for an application that you think you could really make a ...
5
Another thing to think about is showing a "path of capability". Lots of people have neat ideas, but can't get the ball rolling. Thomas Edison was dead-on when he said that genius was 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration.
Make progress happen on your idea. If you're a coder, code! If you're not a coder, sketch and design. Talk to real live prospective ...
5
Another tip I'd give you is to reach out to past TechStars founders. They're generally super helpful in providing ideas. They've also been known to provide a "heads up, these guys seem really smart" when they run into an interesting team. And don't over-focus on the application itself. you've got to have good stuff to go along with it, like continued ...
5
We were part of a program that evaluated Sitefinity and DNN, and ultimately selected Sitefinity. This particular project was to replace an existing business system with a new system that met the business application needs of the prior system plus added content management, customer-specific portal capabilities and other traditional CMS features. This meant ...
4
I have contacted some local consulting
firms but they expect me to know
exactly what I want from them.
You are very lucky, many consulting companies wouldn't expect you to know what you want. Many would just start billing you hourly while you flip flop all over the place.
Unlike the others, I get the impression you are not trying to become a ...
4
An email client with GMail's capabilities, but as a standalone desktop app.
I have a blog post describing specific areas where I believe GMail shines over current desktop clients at:
http://blog.virtualsanity.com/2009/06/email-clients.html
4
Crossing the chasm - your advices for single guy moving a product from free alpha to paid beta stage
Your 0.9 version is the beta. The 1.0 will be the first release. You don't typically charge for betas at this scale. If there will be code changes between .9 and 1.0 release a .95 that is code complete for 1.0.
It is unfortunate that you already are displaying a price of $15 as I'm assuming you did not do any market research or customer survey. You might ...
4
I'm afraid your questions show that you have never looked into patents before. You're in for a huge shock.
First, let me give you the bottom line: to apply for a patent will cost you about $15,000 and take at least 3 years of legal battle.
Now to answer your questions:
You don't patent an application in general. Within the app you wrote, you need to find ...
4
Find a strong partner with software development expertise. If you can't convince a comptetent IT person to invest their expertise in your site, your idea probably isn't that good. They will be able to get started on the code and add team members as needed. There will be an ongoing combination of employees, consultants, contractors, and other firms during the ...
4
The only way to know is to file for the patent yourself, and even then it's possible that there is a conflicting patent that could be taken to court.
Really, you shouldn't worry too much about it at this stage (NOTE: NOT A LAWYER). If your app is super successful, and you are making a lot of money, the sharks will smell blood in the water. At that point you ...
4
I am not a lawyer but I can't imagine you have any recourse here. If you want to protect the name you need to trademark it. If you want to protect the idea you need to patent it.
If you have done neither of these I can't imagine you have any legal standing.
I would rename and launch your product. You have noticed that not launching yet has cost you... ...
3
Why wait?
If it is ready, then launch it.
Assuming you are ready, the sooner you launch, the sooner you get feedback and you can start making the neccessary changes. Also, it takes a while to build up traffic, so you will gain some valuable insight into what people want and how best to market your website.
You may be feeling a little apprehensive about ...
3
I think web apps are mostly centered around connecting people with each other and with content. You will probably not see an online DVD burner application (unless it again links people with content they do not have, such as a burn-to-order DVD service for example). There are some efforts to build word processors and such online, but they are really low ...
3
I have no clue about Android markets, but let me make some reasonable guesses.
First, concerning promotion: It's no rocket science to find appropriate place to promote your app. Just use Google, Bing, or blog search engines. For example 'Android AND app AND review' should give you some results for appropriate places to ask for a review. Another option would ...
3
Do some searches on StackOverflow.com. The site is very Q&A oriented, but it's got a lot of very basic information there too. Particularly look at the tags 'best-practices', or 'beginner', plus any related to the specific technologies you want to know.
Wikipedia can also be a useful source of general information. I've learned a lot about fairly ...
3
If you need opinion of other people, then you have to ask them.
I doubt that your idea of asking bloggers is good, because:
a) people reviewing iPhone apps review apps, not ideas for apps, so they'll be unlikely to write about your idea
b) you won't get high-quality feedback from blog comments
Some alternatives:
a) describe the idea to real people, ask ...
3
1. Likely your app will be rejected:
Purchasing and currencies
11.1 Apps that unlock or enable additional features or functionality
with mechanisms other than the App
Store, except as approved in section
11.13, will be rejected
11.2 Apps utilizing a system other than the In App Purchase API (IAP) to
purchase content, functionality, ...
3
Your idea could have a lot of competition, or it might be in a niche domain. From the fact you are asking this, it seems, you are playing with a more or less common idea/product with slight modifications/value additions like a lot of other ideas in the market. And in such cases, time to market for your product can become crucial to its success.
If doing ...
2
As a consultant, it can be frustrating to try to get ideas from the heads of people, so I can write what they want, since they only think they know what they want.
What you may want to do is to storyboard your idea, first.
So, write out step by step how you expect someone to use your application, if they just go straight through.
Then, as you fleshed that ...
2
If you find the right consulting firm, they'll be able to walk you through what they need and what you need to provide. That's not going to be cheap for you. You're basically asking them to build you a product from scratch with minimal guidance, for what is probably an inconsequential portion of any proceeds should you succeed.
If you haven't already read ...
2
What is the site you are building.
The best CMS to choose is really dependent on what your site requires.
DNN is a solid general performer and has a lot of commercial extensions available - but I've personally really not enjoyed extending it recently - just find it too unwieldy to get look and feel right everywhere.
Umbraco comes with a lot of ...
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