Under the Radar

00:00:00 ◼   ► Hi, so it is about 830 in the morning on December 21st.

00:00:07 ◼   ► This is going to be something a little bit different than we usually do.

00:00:11 ◼   ► Today I am launching a new app.

00:00:15 ◼   ► It's an app called Workouts++, though at this point the world doesn't know that.

00:00:20 ◼   ► Just a few friends in beta testers know that.

00:00:22 ◼   ► And I thought it would be interesting to have a little running diary throughout the day

00:00:28 ◼   ► of what it feels like and what I'm doing on the launch day.

00:00:33 ◼   ► At this point I'm in the terror phase, I think it's terror and self-doubt phase of this,

00:00:40 ◼   ► where in about half an hour or so I'm expecting to do the actual launching part.

00:00:45 ◼   ► The app is kind of approved and ready to go, pending developer release in iTunes Connect.

00:00:48 ◼   ► So in about half an hour, I've said, about 9 a.m. Eastern is the time that I'd planned

00:00:54 ◼   ► to do my initial launch.

00:00:59 ◼   ► It is a little bit terrifying, obviously, to put that out in the world.

00:01:02 ◼   ► To not really know how it's going to be received, to not really know if people are going to

00:01:09 ◼   ► like it.

00:01:10 ◼   ► And while my initial feedback and response has been fairly positive, you just never know.

00:01:15 ◼   ► And I've done this enough times to know that this feeling is normal and natural, to be

00:01:19 ◼   ► kind of terrified and doubting yourself, like, "This is a good idea, is everyone going to

00:01:22 ◼   ► hate it?"

00:01:23 ◼   ► This is just normal and this is part of it.

00:01:26 ◼   ► That's where I am.

00:01:27 ◼   ► I've got everything I need for the launch ready at this point, in terms of I have a

00:01:32 ◼   ► blog post written, I have a couple of, this year I actually did, for this launch I did

00:01:37 ◼   ► a couple of YouTube videos, kind of walked through the app, and those are all ready.

00:01:40 ◼   ► And so this is in just like the waiting phase, where I'm just kind of waiting for 9 o'clock

00:01:46 ◼   ► to roll around and getting more and more anxious as we go.

00:01:49 ◼   ► But anyway, like I said, this is going to be an interesting, I'm not sure if this will

00:01:52 ◼   ► work, where this will go, but I just thought it would be interesting to record a couple

00:01:55 ◼   ► of little snippets, just throughout the day checking in, saying how things are going and

00:01:59 ◼   ► how I'm feeling.

00:02:00 ◼   ► And hopefully that's useful.

00:02:02 ◼   ► Alright, so now it is about 8.45, and I'm going through the process of setting up what

00:02:08 ◼   ► I kind of call, like, mission control for a launch.

00:02:11 ◼   ► So I've got Twitter over here, I've got my help desk system over here, there's like arranging

00:02:17 ◼   ► windows all over my screen.

00:02:20 ◼   ► Usually if I had a server component I'd have all the server log, but there's no server

00:02:23 ◼   ► component for Workouts++, so there's nothing there.

00:02:25 ◼   ► I've got a terminal window where I will be launching my blog post from, I've got the

00:02:29 ◼   ► App Store open, I've got the affiliate program console up, like the little thing you can

00:02:36 ◼   ► put affiliate links in your iTunes links.

00:02:38 ◼   ► I have that up because it has a real-time data feature.

00:02:42 ◼   ► It doesn't show you purchases in real-time, but it shows you links actually getting into

00:02:46 ◼   ► the App Store in real-time, so I have that up, which is just kind of like, it's probably

00:02:50 ◼   ► bad for my sanity, but good for my curiosity.

00:02:54 ◼   ► So I have that up and running, and I just kind of have all these windows set up just

00:02:57 ◼   ► so that I can kind of sit there.

00:03:00 ◼   ► And also, I just recently just wrote down a checklist, because inevitably as I get more

00:03:05 ◼   ► and more kind of anxious and excited about this, I'm going to forget steps that I want

00:03:09 ◼   ► to do, you know, things that I want to, places I want to put things, or steps, things that

00:03:13 ◼   ► I need to make sure are like turned on now that the app is turned on.

00:03:16 ◼   ► And so I have a little to-do list now just written down on a piece of paper in front

00:03:19 ◼   ► of me, and as I think of things, I write it down so I don't have to remember it in the

00:03:23 ◼   ► moment.

00:03:24 ◼   ► All right, it's 851, and I realized something that I should probably mention too that's

00:03:30 ◼   ► a bit silly, but something that I do nevertheless.

00:03:33 ◼   ► I'm wearing my, like, I don't know if I'd call it my shipping uniform, but I have a

00:03:37 ◼   ► particular like pair of set of clothes that I like to wear on days that I've shipped things.

00:03:41 ◼   ► Not because I'm particularly superstitious, like that's not really for that reason, it's

00:03:45 ◼   ► just like I have such positive associations with this outfit that I feel happier if I

00:03:50 ◼   ► wear it, and so it makes, you know, on a day when it's a bit more stressful.

00:03:54 ◼   ► It's nice.

00:03:55 ◼   ► And so it's my, I have what I call my Captain America Daring Fireball shirt, which is the

00:03:58 ◼   ► gray one with just the star in the middle, with no words.

00:04:02 ◼   ► And on top of that, I have my 2010 WWDC, I should call it like the light cloth jacket

00:04:09 ◼   ► that came with that, and that sort of uniform is, I have a lot of positive associations

00:04:14 ◼   ► with it.

00:04:15 ◼   ► I've worn it on various occasions that have worked out well for me and that I have kind

00:04:19 ◼   ► of nice feelings with, so it's like, this is kind of funny when I'm getting dressed

00:04:22 ◼   ► this morning that I feel like I'm like some kind of major league pitcher or someone who

00:04:26 ◼   ► has a particular thing that they need to do.

00:04:27 ◼   ► It's like, you know, I'd be fine if I didn't launch in my shipping outfit, but it is something

00:04:32 ◼   ► that I wear nevertheless.

00:04:33 ◼   ► All right, about eight minutes to go.

00:04:35 ◼   ► All right, it's 8.53 now.

00:04:38 ◼   ► I probably shouldn't care as much about this as I do, but I've just been spending the

00:04:43 ◼   ► last few minutes just writing and rewriting the tweet that I'm going to send to like kind

00:04:48 ◼   ► of announce it.

00:04:51 ◼   ► It's amazingly how difficult writing like 120 characters description is, where you want

00:04:56 ◼   ► it to be short and punchy and attention grabbing but concise.

00:05:00 ◼   ► Like right now I have just, I'm delighted to introduce Workouts++, a fully customizable

00:05:04 ◼   ► workout app for the Apple Watch, which I think is what I want, and then just a link to the

00:05:08 ◼   ► app in the store, because if I do go make it too wordy or complicated, then it's harder

00:05:13 ◼   ► for people to scan.

00:05:14 ◼   ► And really, all I want people to do is click on that link.

00:05:15 ◼   ► So I want to keep it like short and punchy, and then have them like, here, go and look

00:05:19 ◼   ► at this if they want it.

00:05:21 ◼   ► But you know, never as much so much thought been put into just 120 characters.

00:05:26 ◼   ► All right, it is 8.59.

00:05:31 ◼   ► I'm watching a clock tick the seconds towards nine o'clock.

00:05:36 ◼   ► The funny thing about launching an app is that it's actually kind of anticlimactic because

00:05:40 ◼   ► like you hit the button to release it out into the world.

00:05:43 ◼   ► And then it doesn't actually go out into the world right away.

00:05:45 ◼   ► There's always this lag and caching delay that happens in the App Store.

00:05:51 ◼   ► And so you kind of hit go.

00:05:54 ◼   ► And then you just kind of sit around for hopefully a few minutes, you know, sometimes it can

00:05:58 ◼   ► be a couple hours, which is a nightmare.

00:06:01 ◼   ► But hopefully, it'll just be a few hours or like a few minutes, like 15, 20 minutes or

00:06:06 ◼   ► something like that.

00:06:07 ◼   ► But see, here we go.

00:06:08 ◼   ► It is now 8.59.

00:06:09 ◼   ► So 10, 9, 8, 7, gosh, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.

00:06:11 ◼   ► And it's nine o'clock.

00:06:13 ◼   ► So the app is now on its way to being released and out in the world.

00:06:31 ◼   ► Wow.

00:06:32 ◼   ► All right.

00:06:35 ◼   ► So we'll check back in whenever the app actually seems to have propagated in the App Store.

00:06:41 ◼   ► So I'm just going to be sitting there constantly refreshing the App Store, trying the link

00:06:46 ◼   ► that I got from iTunes Connect and just keep trying it until it works, I guess.

00:06:51 ◼   ► Nine o' nine a.m. and I'm just sitting here reading the word "item not available."

00:06:57 ◼   ► The item you've requested is not currently available in the US App Store over and over

00:07:01 ◼   ► and over again.

00:07:02 ◼   ► I just keep hitting refresh, waiting for it to propagate, which I knew would happen, but

00:07:09 ◼   ► is frustrating and annoying, nevertheless.

00:07:14 ◼   ► It's one of these tricky things where I think, like, should I have, you know, like, hit the

00:07:18 ◼   ► button to release like a while ago, but then you have other issues because then it's like

00:07:23 ◼   ► out in the world, but you're not really like responsive and on top of it.

00:07:28 ◼   ► So I think this is probably the best way to do it.

00:07:29 ◼   ► And hopefully it just doesn't take too long.

00:07:31 ◼   ► But I will say reading that, you know, your item is not available over and over and over

00:07:35 ◼   ► again is a little bit frustrating.

00:07:38 ◼   ► Oh, the "not available" has been replaced with a loading label with a spinner that doesn't

00:07:48 ◼   ► end.

00:07:49 ◼   ► So that seems like progress.

00:07:51 ◼   ► Okay, 9 13 a.m.

00:07:55 ◼   ► It is now loading correctly on the iPhone, but not in iTunes.

00:07:59 ◼   ► So we are getting closer, probably any minute now.

00:08:03 ◼   ► All right, 9 17 a.m. and the moment has come.

00:08:09 ◼   ► I'm about to publish my blog posts, send out my tweets and sit back and see what happens.

00:08:17 ◼   ► It's a real thing now, I guess.

00:08:19 ◼   ► It's like crossing the Rubicon can come back, which is good and bad.

00:08:23 ◼   ► Good in the sense that it will finally be out there.

00:08:25 ◼   ► When you work on something for so long, you get so in your head about it and go back and

00:08:31 ◼   ► forth about if it's good, if it's bad, what people will think.

00:08:34 ◼   ► You know, now you're actually getting to the point that it is what it is.

00:08:37 ◼   ► It'll either be good or it won't be.

00:08:39 ◼   ► And we'll find out in a moment.

00:08:40 ◼   ► So here I am.

00:08:41 ◼   ► I'm sending out the tweets, publishing the blog posts.

00:08:47 ◼   ► And we're away.

00:08:51 ◼   ► Wow.

00:08:52 ◼   ► All right.

00:08:54 ◼   ► Let's see what happens.

00:08:57 ◼   ► Okay.

00:08:58 ◼   ► 9 24 a.m.

00:09:00 ◼   ► Initial reactions are a bit I don't even know what to say.

00:09:05 ◼   ► It's like it's always so weird when you get like you start getting questions back, which

00:09:09 ◼   ► is great.

00:09:10 ◼   ► Like, you know, people interested in the app, trying it out.

00:09:13 ◼   ► It's like overall, I'd say generally positive for the first 10 minutes.

00:09:17 ◼   ► Obviously, 10 minutes doesn't really make a nap.

00:09:21 ◼   ► But it's definitely just kind of a wait and see, I guess.

00:09:26 ◼   ► You know, in general, I think it's an app like this.

00:09:28 ◼   ► So I work out.

00:09:29 ◼   ► Plus it's all about like this highly customizable workout app.

00:09:32 ◼   ► So it's like, if you need it, or you know, if you're the kind of person who would use

00:09:35 ◼   ► it, you'll know it.

00:09:36 ◼   ► And if not, it's like, of no use to you, which is definitely something that I think I'm seeing.

00:09:42 ◼   ► 9 32.

00:09:44 ◼   ► Um, yeah, it's just out in the world, I guess.

00:09:50 ◼   ► I had my first review published about it on Mac stories, which is always a bit of an honor.

00:09:59 ◼   ► I mean, it's the best way to say it.

00:10:00 ◼   ► It's like it's just crazy to read someone, you know, sort of give a thoughtful rundown

00:10:06 ◼   ► of your app, how they use it, how they might have it like it.

00:10:11 ◼   ► In this case, it was a very positive review, which is super cool to hear.

00:10:16 ◼   ► I will say I always read those reviews that with in the back of my mind, there's a little

00:10:20 ◼   ► bit of apprehension, just because you just it's like, you never want to if they miss

00:10:26 ◼   ► something or they don't like it, like there's always that kind of funny thing.

00:10:29 ◼   ► But um, in this case, it was it was lovely.

00:10:32 ◼   ► And John, before he wrote it, it was very kind.

00:10:38 ◼   ► But it is always kind of funny to read.

00:10:39 ◼   ► Now I just kind of sit back and wait.

00:10:41 ◼   ► We would think about putting an app out into the world is that there's honestly not much

00:10:46 ◼   ► to be done in the near term is less, you know, suddenly you're flooded with bug reports or

00:10:50 ◼   ► problems or issues, but so far, so good.

00:10:56 ◼   ► Now also starts the period where I'll start refreshing the top charts kind of compulsively,

00:11:04 ◼   ► even though they tend to take a long, long time to actually update.

00:11:08 ◼   ► So like not showing up there for even like a day doesn't really mean anything in terms

00:11:14 ◼   ► of your first day sales.

00:11:16 ◼   ► But especially given that the app is kind of expensive, I mean, expensive, but I guess

00:11:21 ◼   ► depends on what you mean.

00:11:22 ◼   ► It's $4 now it'll be $5 after January 2, but there's a good chance it won't rank too high

00:11:28 ◼   ► in that kind of way because it's not a it's not gonna have quite the same volume.

00:11:32 ◼   ► But I'll nevertheless, I'll just sit there refreshing those pages over and over again,

00:11:36 ◼   ► hoping to see it show up.

00:11:39 ◼   ► Okay, it is now 10 o'clock.

00:11:42 ◼   ► So about an hour since the app hit the App Store.

00:11:47 ◼   ► Things are good.

00:11:51 ◼   ► About what I would have expected maybe hope for, if I'm honest, I kind of wish there'd

00:11:54 ◼   ► be a little bit more interest in the app.

00:11:57 ◼   ► But I mean, who knows?

00:11:58 ◼   ► It's also there's so many confounding variables.

00:12:00 ◼   ► It's like the week before Christmas, people are probably on vacation more, which is, you

00:12:05 ◼   ► know, fine.

00:12:06 ◼   ► It's I launched at this time of year, just because obviously, it's a good thing for New

00:12:09 ◼   ► Year's resolutions and that type of thing.

00:12:11 ◼   ► But it's definitely a slower time.

00:12:13 ◼   ► So there's not quite as much attention, perhaps, which is a weird thing to say, like, it's

00:12:19 ◼   ► a bit presumptuous to be like, Oh, I don't deserve all this attention.

00:12:22 ◼   ► But nevertheless, you know, that's certainly how I you always hope for a lot.

00:12:27 ◼   ► But the response has been positive.

00:12:29 ◼   ► It's been kind of fun going back and forth with people on Twitter about, you know, what

00:12:35 ◼   ► their hopes are for the apps and expectations.

00:12:37 ◼   ► I just had somebody who said that they might be using it soon to when they go and run a

00:12:42 ◼   ► marathon, which I've QA'd the app quite a lot.

00:12:47 ◼   ► And I've had some pretty long running workouts to test it out.

00:12:51 ◼   ► That is a little bit terrifying to me.

00:12:52 ◼   ► So someone using my app while they go out and run a marathon, just in case something

00:12:58 ◼   ► did happen to go wrong.

00:13:00 ◼   ► But you know, certainly encouraging, nevertheless, that they like the concept that much that

00:13:04 ◼   ► that's what they would do.

00:13:06 ◼   ► Okay, so it's about 1030.

00:13:08 ◼   ► And things are settling down.

00:13:10 ◼   ► I'm asked, just on Twitter, if there were any questions people had about what it's like

00:13:15 ◼   ► to launch a app that I thought might be interesting to address on, you know, in this little, I

00:13:21 ◼   ► guess, audio diary.

00:13:22 ◼   ► Um, I had someone ask, how do I time things given how unreliable app store propagation

00:13:28 ◼   ► can be?

00:13:30 ◼   ► And you just kind of guess.

00:13:32 ◼   ► In my experience is usually pretty good.

00:13:35 ◼   ► And you just kind of hope for the best.

00:13:36 ◼   ► I found that it's better to manually release an app at a particular time.

00:13:40 ◼   ► So in this case, I released at nine o'clock.

00:13:43 ◼   ► That's generally better than releasing it earlier.

00:13:46 ◼   ► And then like the night before, which has some benefits, then you just kind of have

00:13:50 ◼   ► this out in the world when you're not really able to be responsive to customers or problems

00:13:57 ◼   ► or issues or promotion.

00:13:59 ◼   ► And so in general, I prefer to not put it out too much before.

00:14:03 ◼   ► I've definitely done something where rather than like this morning, I did it at nine o'clock.

00:14:06 ◼   ► I've definitely done it at like seven in the morning, right in the morning, East Coast

00:14:10 ◼   ► time, then you have a bit more control over it.

00:14:12 ◼   ► But you just kind of hope for the best honestly.

00:14:15 ◼   ► And sometimes it works.

00:14:16 ◼   ► Sometimes it doesn't.

00:14:17 ◼   ► I had someone ask about a kind of initial wave of feedback you get, which is interesting.

00:14:25 ◼   ► Like it's definitely this blessing and this curse where you kind of, you A, you find out

00:14:29 ◼   ► the gaps in your app.

00:14:31 ◼   ► You know, so obviously the things and really even moreover, the gaps in your communication

00:14:35 ◼   ► about your app.

00:14:36 ◼   ► So like the biggest feedback that you get, if someone asks you if your app has a feature

00:14:41 ◼   ► that it does have, then in some ways you've clearly like somewhere in your marketing,

00:14:45 ◼   ► you haven't been clear about how the app works or features.

00:14:49 ◼   ► And so it's good to get that feedback so you can update your marketing.

00:14:54 ◼   ► Otherwise you just wait to hear from people because you get this reaction about, you know,

00:14:58 ◼   ► it's like you can no matter how much you think about an app ahead of time, it's definitely

00:15:03 ◼   ► always coming at it from your perspective and your view.

00:15:06 ◼   ► And you start to get other people's perspective of like things they would like.

00:15:08 ◼   ► I mean, my favorite feedback I always is I love the app.

00:15:11 ◼   ► I wish it did X because that is coming from a place of like, they're, you know, they're

00:15:17 ◼   ► using it in a way that, you know, they like it.

00:15:20 ◼   ► They like it this much of it.

00:15:21 ◼   ► And then they wish it did this other thing, though the reality is that kind of feedback,

00:15:26 ◼   ► especially for an app like a workouts app is really the quality version of that is really

00:15:30 ◼   ► going to be coming in the next like week or so after people actually use it for workouts.

00:15:33 ◼   ► Because I think the workout app is like those people have hopefully downloaded it and you

00:15:38 ◼   ► know, they're not really going to know if it works for them until they've gone out and

00:15:40 ◼   ► done it a few times.

00:15:43 ◼   ► Let's see other questions.

00:15:47 ◼   ► How am I coordinating with the press?

00:15:48 ◼   ► If I'm honest, I mean, I have a couple of people who I know in the press who I have

00:15:54 ◼   ► reached out to this time of year, like I was saying a little bit ago, it's a really tricky

00:15:59 ◼   ► time, I think because people are so tied up with a lot of end of year stuff.

00:16:03 ◼   ► And so it from a press perspective, has not been a particularly full, like full court

00:16:09 ◼   ► press in that way.

00:16:10 ◼   ► Like it's very much more of just like a, I've reached out to a few people I know, I'm making

00:16:14 ◼   ► sure that I'm very available.

00:16:15 ◼   ► Like if someone emails me or tweets me or reached it out to me in any way, I like I'm

00:16:18 ◼   ► trying to be very responsive.

00:16:19 ◼   ► But I'm not really be doing anything more than that.

00:16:23 ◼   ► I had someone ask if it so I wrote this app in Swift, if I expect to continue doing that

00:16:30 ◼   ► going forward, I do, I expect to write all my new apps in Swift from here on out.

00:16:38 ◼   ► Getting into the reasons why is off would be a whole other would be a whole episode

00:16:40 ◼   ► unto itself.

00:16:42 ◼   ► But I expect to do it mostly like the short version is, this is clearly where Apple is

00:16:46 ◼   ► going and if this is where I'm going to set up my tent and make my living, then I need

00:16:50 ◼   ► to just like get on board with that.

00:16:52 ◼   ► Whether it's my preference or my ideal or not, that doesn't, it's kind of completely

00:16:55 ◼   ► irrelevant.

00:16:56 ◼   ► And ultimately I just need to get on the bus because otherwise I'll get left behind.

00:17:01 ◼   ► All right.

00:17:02 ◼   ► It is now 1105, so a couple hours after launch and I'm going to walk away from my computer.

00:17:12 ◼   ► It is a kind of a funny thing when you just, I don't even know how to describe the feeling

00:17:17 ◼   ► of just this.

00:17:18 ◼   ► It's just like nervous energy, like bubbling around, like just sort of like you keep checking

00:17:24 ◼   ► things even though there's nothing really changing.

00:17:26 ◼   ► Like okay, I can see right now there've been 519 clicks on one of the links that I put

00:17:35 ◼   ► out there.

00:17:36 ◼   ► Okay, that's great.

00:17:37 ◼   ► I can reload it and see there are 558, there's more people, but like that doesn't mean anything.

00:17:44 ◼   ► It's kind of meaningless.

00:17:45 ◼   ► And so I'm just sitting here refreshing things that don't really matter or change.

00:17:50 ◼   ► And so this is usually the part of the morning where I will be like, okay, I need to get

00:17:54 ◼   ► up and walk around.

00:17:55 ◼   ► I guess maybe what I really should do since I made a workout app, maybe I should go for

00:17:59 ◼   ► a walk and start a workout running while I do it.

00:18:03 ◼   ► All right, now it's about one o'clock and things are just settling down probably I'd

00:18:10 ◼   ► say.

00:18:11 ◼   ► I'm sort of, it was hard to actually take a break from watching and monitoring everything.

00:18:18 ◼   ► One trick I do usually try to do, I went and had lunch with my family upstairs.

00:18:23 ◼   ► I work from home and so it's something I can do every now and then, but especially on a

00:18:27 ◼   ► launch day, it's nice to take a step back from the computer and kind of force myself

00:18:31 ◼   ► to not just watch numbers changing.

00:18:35 ◼   ► So that was good.

00:18:37 ◼   ► Now it's just sort of settling in, getting a lot of feedback in the way you expect.

00:18:42 ◼   ► And one thing I will say that I've definitely learned is to try to be very careful about

00:18:48 ◼   ► what you say on lunch day, because it's easy to kind of be like, someone asks the feature

00:18:51 ◼   ► is like, yes, of course, that, that, that, that too, of course.

00:18:54 ◼   ► And instead to try and just be a bit more thoughtful.

00:18:56 ◼   ► Like obviously some of the things people are asking for are things that I was expecting

00:18:59 ◼   ► to do anyway.

00:19:01 ◼   ► And so it's not a problem to say like, yep, that's on the roadmap on something that I'm

00:19:05 ◼   ► working on something I'm thinking of doing.

00:19:08 ◼   ► But it is, you know, definitely don't get too carried away is probably some good advice.

00:19:12 ◼   ► But yeah, from here on things, I'll probably settle down a bit.

00:19:15 ◼   ► I'll probably check in once or twice more in the day, but you know, now things are out

00:19:20 ◼   ► and it's just sort of in the world.

00:19:22 ◼   ► I still keep checking the app store and haven't showed up in any of the charts, which is fine,

00:19:25 ◼   ► I guess.

00:19:26 ◼   ► It's always a bit discouraging because it's like, you never really, it's like the reason

00:19:30 ◼   ► I want to show up in the charts is mostly just like, is anybody actually buying it?

00:19:34 ◼   ► Because you never really know until you show up in the charts, but all indications point

00:19:39 ◼   ► to that that is something that is happening.

00:19:41 ◼   ► So I'm not too worried, but I will definitely feel better once I see, even if it's, you

00:19:45 ◼   ► know, 150th, like all the way at the bottom of the chart, but it's just kind of that last

00:19:51 ◼   ► confirmation step.

00:19:52 ◼   ► All right, it is now 2.45 and I finally started showing up in the charts.

00:20:02 ◼   ► The app appeared first at 53 in the top paid chart for the health and fitness category,

00:20:09 ◼   ► which is completely meaningless and utterly useless because obviously that means nothing

00:20:15 ◼   ► to me.

00:20:16 ◼   ► I have no idea what that means sales wise.

00:20:18 ◼   ► And because as best I can tell, like sales are kind of this sliding, moving average scales

00:20:24 ◼   ► situation thing.

00:20:25 ◼   ► It doesn't really mean anything at all, but it means one thing.

00:20:30 ◼   ► And one thing that makes me very glad, it means that at least one person has bought

00:20:34 ◼   ► the app because you wouldn't rank at all if that is not the case.

00:20:37 ◼   ► Well, obviously I kind of knew that someone had bought the app.

00:20:39 ◼   ► There is something assuring about that and nice.

00:20:44 ◼   ► And so it's kind of cool.

00:20:45 ◼   ► At 53, hopefully it inches its way up at this point and kind of peaks a little bit higher

00:20:52 ◼   ► than that hopefully, but we'll see.

00:20:55 ◼   ► I don't really know where to go with an app like this.

00:20:59 ◼   ► It's paid up front, which I did largely because I figure if you have an Apple Watch in order

00:21:05 ◼   ► for this app to be useful to you, like you're a narrower group.

00:21:09 ◼   ► And then if you don't want to use the built-in workout app, like you're even narrower still.

00:21:14 ◼   ► And so my addressable market is just so much narrower that in order for it to make any

00:21:18 ◼   ► sense financially, I need to do, you know, sort of have a reasonably high price.

00:21:25 ◼   ► And so I went with paid up front, which certainly slows things down a little bit.

00:21:28 ◼   ► But encouraging to see certainly that it's up and it's ranking and now I can just kind

00:21:34 ◼   ► of keep an eye on things and see where they go from here.

00:21:37 ◼   ► All right.

00:21:38 ◼   ► Now I think it is time has come to wind down this audio diary of today and close out with

00:21:47 ◼   ► my last few kind of closing thoughts.

00:21:48 ◼   ► Now that the app is out, it's successful.

00:21:51 ◼   ► There weren't any crazy bugs or issues or things.

00:21:55 ◼   ► And so overall it was a pretty good day.

00:21:57 ◼   ► Before I kind of wrap up with my closing thoughts in summary, I would like to thank this week's

00:22:03 ◼   ► Under the Radar sponsor, which is Pingdom, who is one of those great sponsors who is

00:22:11 ◼   ► a service I both have used and love for many years.

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00:22:30 ◼   ► I use them and have for many years.

00:22:32 ◼   ► It's a very straightforward process.

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00:22:37 ◼   ► It lets you know when it's up or down, which of course you can do a lot more complicated

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00:22:46 ◼   ► I coincidentally even used them last week to try and work out when AirPods were going

00:22:52 ◼   ► to be available.

00:22:53 ◼   ► I just pointed Pingdom at the store page for AirPods and said, you know, this page should

00:22:59 ◼   ► contain the word "unavailable."

00:23:00 ◼   ► And as soon as the word "unavailable" disappeared, I got a notification from Pingdom saying that

00:23:05 ◼   ► it was time for me to go and order my AirPods, which is obviously not the usual commercial

00:23:10 ◼   ► application for something like this, but it works great.

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00:23:29 ◼   ► Okay, so closing thoughts about today.

00:23:34 ◼   ► It's a weird thing to say, but overall, I would say that I'm glad that the launch went

00:23:41 ◼   ► well and was successful.

00:23:42 ◼   ► It did what it...it went as well as could be expected from a technical perspective.

00:23:47 ◼   ► The response has all been fairly positive.

00:23:49 ◼   ► You never know if you're going to get a lot of negativity on launch day, and thankfully

00:23:53 ◼   ► I haven't had any of that.

00:23:54 ◼   ► If I'm totally and brutally honest with myself, I do think I'm slightly disappointed just

00:24:01 ◼   ► in terms of the volume of response.

00:24:04 ◼   ► It's a weird thing to say.

00:24:05 ◼   ► The app is, I'm sure, it's doing well, but I think in the run-up to launching an app,

00:24:13 ◼   ► you put so much time and energy and effort into it that you always kind of...you can

00:24:18 ◼   ► start getting ahead of yourself and start having these kind of wild expectations or

00:24:22 ◼   ► dreams about something.

00:24:24 ◼   ► And it's going to be hard for those to be realized in a practical way, especially in

00:24:29 ◼   ► the modern app store and with kind of the constraints on it and the time of year and

00:24:33 ◼   ► all kinds of things.

00:24:34 ◼   ► I mean, there's always going to be a lot of excuses or explanations that I could come

00:24:37 ◼   ► up with for why it went as it did.

00:24:39 ◼   ► And obviously, this is a bit early too.

00:24:41 ◼   ► It's just the first few hours.

00:24:42 ◼   ► I mean, the app has only been out in the world for a couple of hours, but you kind of want

00:24:46 ◼   ► that first launch to feel good.

00:24:49 ◼   ► And like I said, I'm not disappointed in so far as it went nowhere, but you always

00:24:54 ◼   ► kind of in the back of your mind maybe have this hope of it just kind of running away

00:24:59 ◼   ► from you and being bigger than you expect.

00:25:02 ◼   ► It's like...and I wouldn't say like I'm underwhelmed by the response, but maybe I'm just like exactly

00:25:07 ◼   ► whelmed.

00:25:08 ◼   ► Like this was...and I'm not over or under what I was expecting.

00:25:12 ◼   ► It was just sort of right there, which is in its own weird way disappointing, but not

00:25:16 ◼   ► disappointed if that makes any sense.

00:25:19 ◼   ► But yeah, so we'll see where we go from here.

00:25:21 ◼   ► Now begins the actual process of collecting all this feedback, taking it in and analyzing

00:25:27 ◼   ► it, working out what makes sense to make changes in the applications, going back and working

00:25:31 ◼   ► on all of my other applications that have been kind of in a bit of more of a holding

00:25:35 ◼   ► pattern as I focus so much on Workouts++, though for Monastar, I won't start that until

00:25:40 ◼   ► tomorrow just because I'm a bit fried after today.

00:25:45 ◼   ► It's just a lot of emotional and sort of anxious energy that goes through you that I doubt

00:25:50 ◼   ► it would be any good at actually developing.

00:25:54 ◼   ► But yeah, this is what a launch day looks like.

00:25:57 ◼   ► Hopefully that was useful or interesting to you.

00:25:59 ◼   ► Obviously this is a very different episode than we normally do on Under the Radar.

00:26:03 ◼   ► Marco is not even here, but I thought it would be something that would be interesting to

00:26:08 ◼   ► do and to talk about and to try something new.

00:26:11 ◼   ► Both as a creator, I can say that it's always fun to do something new and different just

00:26:14 ◼   ► because it allows me to kind of get outside of what I normally do and try something.

00:26:22 ◼   ► Hopefully as an audience you find that useful as well.

00:26:24 ◼   ► But otherwise, you know, probably be back to when we normally schedule programming next

00:26:28 ◼   ► week.

00:26:30 ◼   ► But now we have Workouts++ out in the world.

00:26:34 ◼   ► If you listen all the way to this and you want to check out the app, I'll definitely

00:26:36 ◼   ► have a link to it in the show notes.

00:26:38 ◼   ► It's a workout tracker for the Apple Watch that I'm quite fond of, as you may have guessed.

00:26:44 ◼   ► If you do any kind of working outs and want some customization, it's a great place to

00:26:47 ◼   ► do that.

00:26:48 ◼   ► Alright, thank you so much for listening.

00:26:50 ◼   ► Bye.

00:26:50 ◼   ► [BLANK_AUDIO]