Under the Radar 23: Launching Activity++
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welcome to under the radar a show about
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independent iOS app development I'm
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Marco Arment and I'm David Smith under
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the radar is never longer than 30
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minutes so it's get started so today
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what I want I think we wanted to talk
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through is a a little bit of follow up
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on the pricing discussion we had a few
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episodes ago and be talk about the
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actual app that we were talking in vague
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terms about then and that I recently
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launched and given that even for even
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for someone like me launching an app is
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a fairly rare thing in the scheme of
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what we do and so yeah having just done
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it I wanted to kind of talk through that
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what that process is like both sort of
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functionally as well as emotionally and
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kind of just go from there so first the
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app that I launched is by worth saying
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is called activity plus plus if you have
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any familiar with any of my work you're
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probably familiar with an app called
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pedometer plus plus or sleep plus plus
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or emoji plus plus I've kind of got into
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this thing where plus plus is sort of
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like the name you know it's actually
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really helpful from a naming perspective
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because I just take whatever like proper
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noun or a verb that's up you know
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describes the thing that I'm doing at a
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plus plus and that kind of works as a
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trait you know sort of like a trademark
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thing that people recognize okay because
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it helps you avoid actual trademark
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conflicts because like like activity is
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not a trademark of a word in that area
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like you like so you're not gonna have a
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conflict with that although it doesn't
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do you any favors with App Store search
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no it does not but that is aid well it
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as best I can tell like half helps
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because the plus plus as far as I can
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tell is ignored for the purposes of
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search at least as best I can tell and
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so when people search I could do very
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well for generic searches but I do not
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do well for exact searches which you
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know it's good and bad but you know it's
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my the plus plus naming kind of came by
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accident more than intentionally and so
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it just sort of forced one of these
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things of like well no now that I'd know
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that it exists and whether or not it's
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great or not in the App Store search it
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just sort of is its own thing and would
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be you know would caught it would be
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worse to change than to stick with so
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that's just sort of where I am I like it
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and it seems and I think it works well
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it's rolls off the tongue everyone kind
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of knows how it works and yeah and it's
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I like it and I like that it's geeky too
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but anyway so activity plus plus is a
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something that takes advantage of the
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new some new API is that are added in
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9.3 and watch OS 2.2 where we can
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finally get access to all the data in
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the activity app so so if you have an
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Apple watch you'd be familiar with it's
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like the three rings there's like the
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red ring which is your active calories
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the green ring which is your amount of
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exercise and the blue ring which is the
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amount you've stood or hours you've
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stood in a day and we finally have
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access to that as a third party and so
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what I did is I just said I have a lot I
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use the activity app a lot I like that
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sort of concept of measure and measuring
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how I'm doing in terms of activity and
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fitness but I don't really like apples
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activity app especially on the phone I
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find it really awkward like there's all
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it's trying to do so much and because of
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that it does the basics kind of
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awkwardly so I know as soon as I saw
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that I could do this whenever they
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announced nine point three which I think
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was a couple months ago I like I dived
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into it's like this is something that I
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wanted to do and so I did you know I
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made an app that as an alternative to
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that it's this is an area that I think
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if you're a developer looking to find
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like a new market to get into this is
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always something that I found some
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success with of looking through the EPI
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tips every time Apple releases something
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and saying you know what this is
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something new something like there is
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this type of app is entirely not
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possible before and then suddenly is
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possible so there's you're necessarily
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going to be competing in a smaller
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market which I'll mention a bit later
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but it's always a helpful thing to kind
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of dive into that because the reality is
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like you they're sort of like there's
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three types of apps that are probably
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sort of worth making if there's these
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something like this where it's sort of
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new and novel because it couldn't have
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been done before if you know first sort
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of policy reasons or technical reasons
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like this data just wasn't available to
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third-party apps before you can go ahead
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and do that or you could there's like
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the apps that are just like sort of
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like someone just sort of invents
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something totally new which are
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typically very hard to do or think up or
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the third is the as the type of app that
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are just it's like it's the same thing
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just done slightly better or different
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and the last two like if you can do that
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for the second one where you have a true
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innovation like you just invent
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something amazing that could have been
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done before but now you're doing it in a
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better way more power to you that's
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awesome that's pretty rare and you know
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kind of hard to just do what do on on a
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regular basis so most people end up
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doing the apps that are just like the
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same thing that's but you know existed
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before but done better but those are
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really competitive because by nature of
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being something you could have done
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before people already have and so
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whenever you have an opportunity to do
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the first thing to be able to just do
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something that wasn't possible before
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just because of technical reasons or
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policy reasons disagreed it's a great
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opportunity and so you know sort of
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that's what I did and it's I've now
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launched it I think I launched it last
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Thursday and yeah launch has been going
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well it's been doing been very well
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received which is always really you know
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affirming but something like this
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because you put it out into this into
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the world and you never really know
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what's gonna happen but in a bit of a
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twist it is a paid up front app and in
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fact it is a three dollar paid up front
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app which if you lure listening to our
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discussion two or three episodes ago
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where I've talked about pricing paid
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upfront was the form of business model
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that I had at the a used to sort of in
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our final conclusions had kind of thrown
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out as not possible and so that's a bit
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of a surprise and but I wanted to kind
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of talk through why I did that because I
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think it's helpful as a prize a thought
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process to sort of show that what we're
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doing as divided as independent
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developers and developers in general but
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especially as independent developers is
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we have to be making these decisions
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that ultimately like there's no right
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answer for you can never know like which
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business model is going to be best
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there's a lot you can ever know which
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design decision is gonna be best like
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when you're designing your icon or
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designing your layouts like there's all
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these things that you just have to make
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a decision and you have to just sort of
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live with it but Jukka and you have to
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work out what process makes the most
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sense for you so in this case I looked
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at yeah I looked at for pricing
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and as we finished in our last
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discussion I was probably meaning
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towards something like free with ads or
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something like that and the more that I
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thought about that like the next week I
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listened to the episode a couple times
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and I was just kind of mulling it over
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and I kept being like you know what like
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I don't like how this feels I don't like
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that more and more of my businesses
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becoming reliant on ads especially in
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the time of kind of a little bit of
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turmoil is the wrong word but it's
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there's a little bit of upheaval in
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terms of exactly what the right
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advertising platform is what that's
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going to look like come when I ad ends
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this June and it seems like a really
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poor time to be doubling down on that
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model and so I said you know what I'd
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rather have diversity in terms of I'd
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rather have a paid app even if it didn't
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perform theoretically as well as a free
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app just to have some diversity to have
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some bit some backup in terms of if one
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of my f-free with added apps starts to
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really plummet in terms of revenue
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I have something to back up and the
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biggest thing that was holding me back
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was the thought that hah man this is a
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watch app though and so if you don't
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have a watch people are going to be
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annoyed but I saw in the app store there
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was an app called heart watch which is
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by a gentleman named David Walsh who is
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a similar kind of thing but it's focused
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all on the heart rate data that the
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Apple watch collects it's a great app
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and recommend you taking a look at it if
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that's something you're interested in
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but I was kind of curious if he was
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having for this trouble cuz he said he
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had a hit paid app and it didn't seem
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like in his app store reviews and in
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general that he was having trouble with
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people complaining that oh I doubt I
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bought your app and I don't have a watch
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you know boohoo and so I was like okay
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maybe it's not a problem and then I did
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what I always do when I'm trying to deal
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with these types of problems is I went
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to a spreadsheet because for me I can't
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make decisions like this without a
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spreadsheet usually because I need to
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have something that I can kind of point
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to rationally and say you know is this
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viable is this going to work
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am I being foolish and I in just looking
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at myself it's often easy to kind of
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confused you know confuse or betray
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myself by kind of what I want or what I
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think would be nice but number is 10%
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you know if you're doing it right
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typically can't do that and so I took a
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look at the know how much money I make
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per user right now in pedometer plus
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just mic you know my single biggest app
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which is like in my mind the best-case
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scenario for a new app would be it would
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match that and right now and I do it on
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the surf on the basis of new users not
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of active users or existing users
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because that gets really complicated so
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I tend to look at it it's like based on
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the number of downloads I get how much
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revenue do I get each day and for
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pedometer right now it's like 20 cents a
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user or something like that which I
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think for free app is actually not too
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and so then the nice thing you think
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about that though is like if you sell an
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app for three to four three dollars you
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end up with two dollars and ten cents
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back from Apple for each user and so as
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long as you can maintain a tenth of the
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downloads that you get otherwise you'll
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kind of break even and I looked at that
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and I was like you know 10x that that
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seems doable that seems possible like
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the number of downloads per day that
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activity plus plus would have to have to
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maintain that isn't completely
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inconceivable and so I went for it and
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the nice thing about free Arbus or
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starting paid rather than free is that
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it I can always switch and go free later
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if I want yeah I can use the app store
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receipt system to know if someone paid
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for it upfront or not and if they did
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then great you know I'll just sort of
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put it hide the ads or idea net
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purchases or whatever it is but I can
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always make that change down the road
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and so that's what I did and you know it
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seems to be working I feel good about it
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which is probably the best thing because
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that in the end I like that you know
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it's a more proof eels a bit more
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premium it feels a bit nicer of an app
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to not have any ads in it do not have to
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think about that kind of stuff
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and to just put it out as you know
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something that's good it's also I mean
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just you know as we discussed in the
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pricing episode I paid upfront model is
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just so much simpler on you on the
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developer you know for both designing
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the app around and also just having to
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code all the in-app purchase stuff or
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embed other people's crazy kind of
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creepy ad frameworks free up or paid
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upfront it's just so much easier and and
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simpler and it really does just simplify
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the model you know what's the
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relationship between you and your
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customers what's being done but their
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data if anything you know how do you how
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do you survive how do you make one like
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it's all right up front there and there
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are downsides to it of course but I
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think if you can make the numbers work
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out paid upfront is is of course the
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easiest way to do it and and overall the
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I mean by easy I mean simple
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it's the simplest way to do it and
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there's a lot of benefits to that
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exactly and you know like I said I'm
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happy with it admit right now and I
00:11:13
◼
►
think the reality is with pricing is
00:11:16
◼
►
there is no like there there's no good
00:11:19
◼
►
answer there's no like right answers
00:11:20
◼
►
like it because the reality is as soon
00:11:22
◼
►
as if as developers we determined like
00:11:24
◼
►
oh this is the perfect thing to do you
00:11:26
◼
►
know if you do this this and this you'll
00:11:28
◼
►
maximize revenue fully like servos
00:11:30
◼
►
almost like the stock market if as soon
00:11:32
◼
►
as that becomes known and everyone does
00:11:33
◼
►
it it'll almost inevitably become the
00:11:36
◼
►
wrong thing everybody like by the nature
00:11:38
◼
►
of everybody doing it it saturates that
00:11:41
◼
►
type of thing and then becomes
00:11:42
◼
►
problematic and so ultimately like you
00:11:44
◼
►
just have to go with your gut and decide
00:11:46
◼
►
what you're gonna feel comfortable with
00:11:47
◼
►
and in this situation I was like you
00:11:49
◼
►
know what I like this app like I really
00:11:50
◼
►
felt proud of it and I was like I don't
00:11:52
◼
►
want to put ads in it like I don't want
00:11:53
◼
►
to I like the way it looks I wanted to
00:11:56
◼
►
look that way
00:11:57
◼
►
and you know so this is a twist of the
00:12:00
◼
►
road I went down and I think you know
00:12:02
◼
►
the market was better than I was fearing
00:12:05
◼
►
it might be it's definitely still in
00:12:08
◼
►
these like the very steep dropoff phase
00:12:10
◼
►
where your first couple days are like
00:12:12
◼
►
yeah this is awesome and then it starts
00:12:15
◼
►
to go down and every day you know the
00:12:17
◼
►
long in tight interconnects and I'm like
00:12:18
◼
►
is this the bottom is this the bottom
00:12:21
◼
►
what about this is that is this the new
00:12:23
◼
►
bottom and I don't think we've quite
00:12:24
◼
►
reached there yet which is you know is a
00:12:26
◼
►
bit scary like who is it gonna go all
00:12:28
◼
►
the way to zero like where no but you
00:12:31
◼
►
know so far so good
00:12:32
◼
►
and I think there's still something to
00:12:34
◼
►
be said for you know paid upfront apps
00:12:36
◼
►
like and the funny thing is I didn't
00:12:38
◼
►
ahead of anyone that I was aware of
00:12:40
◼
►
complaining about the price at $3 it you
00:12:42
◼
►
know at $3 which I'm also surprised me
00:12:45
◼
►
slightly that it wasn't like Oh $3 I
00:12:47
◼
►
guess but I guess that once you're paid
00:12:48
◼
►
you know you're paid and the difference
00:12:50
◼
►
between $1 and $3 is much more like
00:12:54
◼
►
intellectually minor compared to free
00:12:57
◼
►
and a dollar so yeah that worked at
00:13:00
◼
►
quite a while I think maybe one of the
00:13:02
◼
►
reasons you're able to do it for this
00:13:03
◼
►
app is you know as you said at the
00:13:04
◼
►
beginning of the show like they've
00:13:05
◼
►
different apps that you have different
00:13:07
◼
►
types of apps that are possible to make
00:13:09
◼
►
in this case this is a very non crowded
00:13:13
◼
►
category so it is in many ways it
00:13:15
◼
►
behaves a lot more like the early app
00:13:16
◼
►
store back when the entire app store
00:13:18
◼
►
wasn't very crowded well which was
00:13:20
◼
►
actually very short-lived but you know
00:13:21
◼
►
that was like maybe a couple of weeks
00:13:22
◼
►
but at that time you know you could you
00:13:25
◼
►
could sell something for five ten
00:13:26
◼
►
dollars and it didn't even have to be
00:13:28
◼
►
that good and people would buy it
00:13:30
◼
►
because they wanted that kind of thing
00:13:32
◼
►
and they were just were no all other
00:13:33
◼
►
alternatives or there are very few other
00:13:34
◼
►
alternatives and in this case you know
00:13:37
◼
►
when when you do what you what you gave
00:13:39
◼
►
is like the first type of app you could
00:13:40
◼
►
make which is the kind of app that just
00:13:42
◼
►
recently became possible by some kind of
00:13:44
◼
►
API or technical change you you
00:13:47
◼
►
effectively create or you enter a market
00:13:49
◼
►
where there is almost no competition
00:13:52
◼
►
upfront and it is kind of like those
00:13:54
◼
►
first few weeks of the app store where
00:13:55
◼
►
you can charge a price upfront and if
00:13:59
◼
►
people want that kind of app they'll be
00:14:00
◼
►
more willing to pay for it because there
00:14:02
◼
►
aren't 50 free alternatives to do the
00:14:04
◼
►
exact same thing where I blow in the App
00:14:05
◼
►
Store search exactly and you know it's a
00:14:08
◼
►
nice thing to take advantage of so idea
00:14:12
◼
►
so the launch has been going well
00:14:14
◼
►
something else I wanted to talk through
00:14:16
◼
►
a little bit about the launch because I
00:14:17
◼
►
get this question a lot from people who
00:14:19
◼
►
are launching their first to happen it's
00:14:21
◼
►
like how do you get attention for you
00:14:24
◼
►
for any new product and some of it is
00:14:27
◼
►
just like well you just kind of have to
00:14:28
◼
►
keep trying which is another very
00:14:30
◼
►
satisfying answer but I was very you
00:14:33
◼
►
know very grateful for I had a few news
00:14:35
◼
►
and press sites write up the app which
00:14:37
◼
►
is always really kind of exciting and
00:14:39
◼
►
awesome to see like you know something
00:14:40
◼
►
you made on a site that you that you
00:14:43
◼
►
respect deeply and so the way the witch
00:14:45
◼
►
that I would recognize really
00:14:47
◼
►
recommendation I can make with that is
00:14:48
◼
►
to make sure what you're doing when
00:14:50
◼
►
you're reaching out to them and like you
00:14:52
◼
►
should be reaching out to the press
00:14:53
◼
►
ahead of time like especially the sites
00:14:55
◼
►
that you read yourself like it sounds a
00:14:58
◼
►
lot better if it doesn't come if it's
00:14:59
◼
►
not like a cold call in so far is like
00:15:01
◼
►
you've read the site you know the kind
00:15:03
◼
►
of things they do you know what what
00:15:05
◼
►
excites them you know like some sites
00:15:06
◼
►
are really interested in the visual
00:15:10
◼
►
design or the typography or those types
00:15:12
◼
►
of things other sites tend to be more
00:15:14
◼
►
feature focused and so when you're
00:15:16
◼
►
writing your emails like write a
00:15:17
◼
►
different email to each of those people
00:15:19
◼
►
letting them know take advantage of the
00:15:21
◼
►
test flight system which is something
00:15:23
◼
►
that I did you know this time around
00:15:24
◼
►
where it's nice to be able to send out
00:15:27
◼
►
copies of your application to you know
00:15:30
◼
►
to the press I personally take the
00:15:32
◼
►
approach of always asking
00:15:33
◼
►
they want access to it like I'll send
00:15:36
◼
►
him an email first whenever I've had
00:15:38
◼
►
people do this to me we're like you've
00:15:40
◼
►
you just sort of like blindly get a test
00:15:42
◼
►
flight in flight invite for an app that
00:15:44
◼
►
I've never heard of yeah it's no good
00:15:45
◼
►
it's that's not really what you want
00:15:47
◼
►
like you want to have the personal reach
00:15:49
◼
►
out first and say hey this is something
00:15:51
◼
►
I'm working on maybe include a few
00:15:52
◼
►
screenshots or a video or something like
00:15:54
◼
►
I send then out to somebody and at the
00:15:57
◼
►
end just say hey if you know if you want
00:15:58
◼
►
to check this out I'd be happy to send
00:15:59
◼
►
you a test flight and you know if you're
00:16:02
◼
►
doing it right and if you're targeting
00:16:04
◼
►
your message to them appropriately that
00:16:06
◼
►
you know you look at what other articles
00:16:08
◼
►
they've read and you've said hey you
00:16:09
◼
►
know I saw that you wrote you know this
00:16:11
◼
►
article about another another you know a
00:16:14
◼
►
fitness tracker or something or that
00:16:16
◼
►
seems to be something that you're you
00:16:17
◼
►
know that's relevant to you and like
00:16:19
◼
►
actually you know if you are correct in
00:16:21
◼
►
that like go to a website see who's the
00:16:23
◼
►
one who writes about the products that
00:16:25
◼
►
are typically you know that would be
00:16:26
◼
►
appropriate and you send that over more
00:16:29
◼
►
often than not they'll say sure send me
00:16:30
◼
►
a test flight because obviously but it's
00:16:32
◼
►
much better coming from that respect
00:16:33
◼
►
than just like a blind thing so it was
00:16:35
◼
►
just something I wanted to mention but
00:16:38
◼
►
yeah then otherwise you just kind of
00:16:40
◼
►
keep at it it's it certainly is easier I
00:16:43
◼
►
will say having done this for so long
00:16:45
◼
►
and having some amount of reputation and
00:16:47
◼
►
and platform you know it is doubtless
00:16:50
◼
►
easier than that you know in that regard
00:16:53
◼
►
and you know and the way it's like oh
00:16:54
◼
►
it's you know like that's that's nice
00:16:55
◼
►
for underscore to be able to reach out
00:16:58
◼
►
to people and and know it but you know
00:17:00
◼
►
the realities everyone starts off this
00:17:02
◼
►
way like no I did not know the first
00:17:04
◼
►
time I wrote you know it was an app
00:17:07
◼
►
written up by a publication it was a big
00:17:09
◼
►
deal for me because I'd tried many times
00:17:11
◼
►
before and got nothing so you just kind
00:17:14
◼
►
of have to keep trying and hope that
00:17:15
◼
►
invent in the end it will happen and you
00:17:17
◼
►
know be respectful of people and if you
00:17:18
◼
►
know you write an email to somebody and
00:17:20
◼
►
they don't write back it's not the kind
00:17:23
◼
►
of thing that's like oh I wonder if they
00:17:24
◼
►
didn't get it let me bring this to the
00:17:25
◼
►
top of their inbox let me respond to
00:17:27
◼
►
three times like just be respectful and
00:17:29
◼
►
understand that they may have responded
00:17:30
◼
►
not responded because they just don't
00:17:33
◼
►
have time or they're not interested in
00:17:34
◼
►
they're trying to you know it's kind of
00:17:36
◼
►
because it's easier to be kind by just
00:17:38
◼
►
not saying anything sometimes than it is
00:17:39
◼
►
to you know try and respond back and in
00:17:43
◼
►
in the negative and you know just sort
00:17:45
◼
►
of hope for the best
00:17:46
◼
►
our sponsor this week is Pingdom goto
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been a Pingdom customer for I think
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almost 10 years now we used it in the
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early days of tumblr and I use it for
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all my own project since then and it is
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we use at the entire time I was a tumblr
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actually so they might still use it and
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it is just so good for monitoring web
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you're like down in some region of the
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routing issue you can see that and you
00:18:51
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know Pingdom it I know for as you know
00:18:54
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just from having used it that my stuff
00:18:57
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breaks in minor ways all the time you
00:18:59
◼
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know I might have a server with low RAM
00:19:00
◼
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or a disk is running low or you know
00:19:03
◼
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there's some kind of weird connectivity
00:19:05
◼
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issue where like half the servers
00:19:06
◼
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disappear for a minute and oh that was a
00:19:08
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problem with the hosts maybe or with
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with our routing issue somewhere so
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Pingdom has helped me find all these
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things over literally almost a decade I
00:19:16
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think I started using them in roughly
00:19:17
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2006 2007 so it really has been almost a
00:19:20
◼
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decade and they are just the best at
00:19:23
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we've even used Pingdom you and I David
00:19:25
◼
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have both use Pingdom to do things like
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monitor the WB DC page for changes back
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back when it was like a
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first-come-first-served ticket system
00:19:34
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where we would have it set up so that
00:19:36
◼
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like if the WC page changes it would
00:19:39
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alert us as if one of our websites was
00:19:41
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down so you can do SMS alerts you can do
00:19:43
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push notifications you can do emails and
00:19:45
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and so it's great for that it's great
00:19:47
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for monitoring your own stuff all you
00:19:49
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need to give them is a URL to hit and
00:19:51
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you can have them either check to see if
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it gives a response or if it gets a
00:19:54
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certain substring or doesn't give a
00:19:55
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certain substring as a response you can
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do SSL you do cookies there's so much
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stuff you can do with Pingdom
00:20:00
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I definitely recommend it personally and
00:20:02
◼
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I don't do that a lot I personally
00:20:04
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recommend Pingdom for anything you have
00:20:06
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to monitor either for uptime or for
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for sponsoring our show all right and
00:20:22
◼
►
the last thing I wanted to kind of talk
00:20:24
◼
►
through about a launch it's kind of the
00:20:27
◼
►
actual dynamics of it like the actual
00:20:30
◼
►
timing and sort of logistics of doing it
00:20:33
◼
►
because it's kind of a tricky process
00:20:36
◼
►
because when you are trying to launch an
00:20:38
◼
►
app you don't really know when that's
00:20:41
◼
►
sometimes you know I think I submit I
00:20:44
◼
►
submitted this application as soon as it
00:20:46
◼
►
was physically possible to submit 9.3
00:20:48
◼
►
binaries and from that point on like my
00:20:52
◼
►
goal is to be ready to launch it
00:20:57
◼
►
whenever Apple is you know is available
00:21:00
◼
►
because like we've been saying this
00:21:01
◼
►
episode so many times there's a certain
00:21:03
◼
►
element of like first mover advantage
00:21:05
◼
►
with something like this like you want
00:21:07
◼
►
if it's you're building something that's
00:21:09
◼
►
newly possible being one of the you know
00:21:11
◼
►
being the first or a second application
00:21:13
◼
►
that takes advantage of that API is
00:21:15
◼
►
going to be much more useful to you than
00:21:18
◼
►
if you're just like one of 10 and so I
00:21:21
◼
►
wanted to be a you know like I sat there
00:21:22
◼
►
in iTunes Connect trying to hit submit
00:21:25
◼
►
and having it come back and say like
00:21:27
◼
►
we're not ready for this binary version
00:21:28
◼
►
yet we're not ready for this binary
00:21:29
◼
►
version like essentially every 10
00:21:32
◼
►
minutes until he was about 10 p.m. that
00:21:33
◼
►
night when it finally went through and
00:21:36
◼
►
it's like you know that's I wanted to be
00:21:38
◼
►
that confidence that I was like the
00:21:41
◼
►
first of the 9.3 apps in line that's
00:21:43
◼
►
dedication well this is this is the
00:21:45
◼
►
thing though like I've spent months
00:21:47
◼
►
working on this and so I you know
00:21:49
◼
►
they've you know spending an afternoon
00:21:51
◼
►
sitting there hitting next you know it's
00:21:53
◼
►
like try try try gives me any advantage
00:21:57
◼
►
I'd feel foolish if in the end that you
00:22:00
◼
►
know like not doing that
00:22:01
◼
►
would have you know what would have come
00:22:03
◼
►
back to come back to bite me in this
00:22:05
◼
►
case it ended up taking a bit longer
00:22:07
◼
►
than usual for app review which can be a
00:22:09
◼
►
bit you know it was a bit worrisome and
00:22:11
◼
►
we talked about that a little bit you
00:22:12
◼
►
know in our life
00:22:13
◼
►
are saying the last episode I think
00:22:15
◼
►
about a preview but it's just a reality
00:22:17
◼
►
sometimes you never really know and so
00:22:19
◼
►
what I did though and this is like the
00:22:21
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thing that I always try and make sure
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that I've done is have anything that
00:22:25
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you're going to be doing about the
00:22:26
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launch like I tend to have like a blog
00:22:28
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post that you know the launch is long
00:22:31
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along with the app and you know
00:22:32
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certainly keeping people in the press so
00:22:34
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we're of the situation but have
00:22:36
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everything ready to go so that like
00:22:37
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whenever Apple said hey you're approved
00:22:39
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I could go ahead and launch it you know
00:22:42
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so I had my blog post written I had the
00:22:44
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screenshots all done for that like
00:22:45
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everything was ready and waiting which
00:22:48
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is good bit much better than you know a
00:22:50
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view finally you get your approval email
00:22:52
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which is you know yeah that's exciting
00:22:54
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and then you're like oh goodness now at
00:22:55
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right now I need to do all this work but
00:22:58
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like you had weeks or days when you had
00:23:01
◼
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nothing else to do for this application
00:23:02
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that you could have been doing it so
00:23:03
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definitely something that I recommend
00:23:05
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doing kind of comically this time
00:23:08
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emphasizing how much you have how little
00:23:10
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control you have over the timing I ended
00:23:13
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up launching this app while I was on
00:23:14
◼
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vacation with my family and actually hit
00:23:16
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release this version while I was sitting
00:23:20
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in the in a Children's Museum in Phoenix
00:23:24
◼
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which was kind of just like a strange
00:23:25
◼
►
place to be sitting on a bench and like
00:23:27
◼
►
you know what I need it's like I need a
00:23:28
◼
►
to get this out but it worked you know
00:23:30
◼
►
the iTunes Connect app that you Apple
00:23:32
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►
puts out is very useful and can do all
00:23:35
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these types of things and you know you
00:23:38
◼
►
the nice the one thing I will say and
00:23:40
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this is a recommendation if URL
00:23:42
◼
►
certainly new to this is launching an
00:23:43
◼
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app that doesn't have any back back-end
00:23:46
◼
►
services related to it is incredibly
00:23:49
◼
►
relieving because there's no servers for
00:23:51
◼
►
me to monitor you know see our sponsor
00:23:53
◼
►
like I didn't have any notifications or
00:23:55
◼
►
things that I need to worry about
00:23:56
◼
►
because the app is entirely local and so
00:23:58
◼
►
that's always a kind of recommendation
00:24:00
◼
►
if you if you're kind of timid about
00:24:02
◼
►
what this is gonna be like maybe start
00:24:04
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off with something that doesn't have a
00:24:05
◼
►
back-end or as as simple a back-end as
00:24:07
◼
►
possible because it is really reassuring
00:24:09
◼
►
that like there's nothing in this app
00:24:12
◼
►
that can there's no data that the user
00:24:14
◼
►
can lose there's no back-end
00:24:17
◼
►
infrastructure I need to maintain like
00:24:19
◼
►
it is just an app that you launch you if
00:24:21
◼
►
you have a permission to access your
00:24:23
◼
►
health kit data it pulls it in and shows
00:24:25
◼
►
it to you and
00:24:26
◼
►
that's all it does and that was really a
00:24:29
◼
►
nice thing especially when I'm on
00:24:30
◼
►
vacation like I've launched it and kind
00:24:32
◼
►
of participated slightly in it
00:24:34
◼
►
and but then you went back to my
00:24:36
◼
►
vacation and you know went to the Grand
00:24:37
◼
►
Canyon the next day and hiked around
00:24:40
◼
►
there with my family and didn't really
00:24:42
◼
►
pay much attention to it which was odd
00:24:44
◼
►
but nice but you just gonna have to keep
00:24:49
◼
►
that in mind when you're launching these
00:24:50
◼
►
things that you have no control over it
00:24:52
◼
►
that often and being you just kind of
00:24:53
◼
►
like can't even it's like a Zen thing
00:24:54
◼
►
which is like except that except that
00:24:56
◼
►
you have no control about the situation
00:24:58
◼
►
and just kind of roll with it as it goes
00:25:00
◼
►
because there were certainly times that
00:25:03
◼
►
I would get a bit frustrated but
00:25:04
◼
►
ultimately like it worked out it worked
00:25:06
◼
►
you know the apps in the store it's live
00:25:08
◼
►
and you know I just decided you know
00:25:10
◼
►
it's this is the right time to launch it
00:25:13
◼
►
because if this is when the first
00:25:14
◼
►
approvals of 9-3 apps are gonna go out
00:25:16
◼
►
like I want to be in that wave if there
00:25:19
◼
►
was a wave as far as I know there hasn't
00:25:20
◼
►
been much of a wave and so my kind of my
00:25:22
◼
►
fears weren't we're a bit on unfounded
00:25:25
◼
►
but you never know because a lot of
00:25:28
◼
►
these things you just end up kind of
00:25:30
◼
►
fearing the unknown when you're
00:25:31
◼
►
launching an app like I got it like I've
00:25:33
◼
►
been doing this for seven and a half
00:25:35
◼
►
years I think and I still have like
00:25:39
◼
►
tremendous anxiety about launching
00:25:42
◼
►
something new and I say that because
00:25:45
◼
►
hopefully that's helpful to you know
00:25:47
◼
►
listeners of the show who are launching
00:25:49
◼
►
things of themselves when you look at
00:25:51
◼
►
it's like if you're launching your first
00:25:52
◼
►
app you're probably just as nervous as I
00:25:54
◼
►
still am about it and that's okay that's
00:25:57
◼
►
part of the process like I and you have
00:26:00
◼
►
these figures of like what if this is
00:26:01
◼
►
actually not very good what if I'm
00:26:03
◼
►
putting this out in the world and
00:26:04
◼
►
everyone's you know kind of gonna laugh
00:26:05
◼
►
at me like it becomes very like I'm like
00:26:08
◼
►
in high school or middle school or
00:26:10
◼
►
something like this kind of that feeling
00:26:11
◼
►
of being nervous about other people
00:26:13
◼
►
think of you oh I'm the same way yeah
00:26:16
◼
►
and I think that's healthy to say though
00:26:18
◼
►
like it is difficult and you're good no
00:26:20
◼
►
matter what you're gonna feel that way
00:26:21
◼
►
so just like embrace it and understand
00:26:24
◼
►
that it gets better because if you've
00:26:27
◼
►
been do building it right if you've been
00:26:29
◼
►
making you know a thoughtful design that
00:26:32
◼
►
works well and is functional and you've
00:26:34
◼
►
tested it and you've beta tested it and
00:26:35
◼
►
you've beta tested it with the right
00:26:37
◼
►
people who are hopefully you know would
00:26:38
◼
►
be honest with you if it
00:26:40
◼
►
wasn't very good and they say it's good
00:26:42
◼
►
then just trust them and go for it and
00:26:45
◼
►
you know maybe it will be awesome maybe
00:26:46
◼
►
it'll be mediocre but you know it
00:26:50
◼
►
doesn't do any good to fret too much
00:26:52
◼
►
about it as much as you can and then
00:26:55
◼
►
yeah and then it's out in the world and
00:26:57
◼
►
now it's like the funny thing I always
00:26:59
◼
►
try and celebrate launches seems like we
00:27:01
◼
►
know we were on vacation but we did our
00:27:02
◼
►
best to kind of celebrate that it was
00:27:04
◼
►
out in the world especially I try and
00:27:06
◼
►
bring my kids into that Jimmy because
00:27:07
◼
►
they have kind of a vague sense of what
00:27:09
◼
►
daddy does and so it's kind of fun when
00:27:11
◼
►
I can show them like hey here's this
00:27:12
◼
►
thing I just launched in the App Store I
00:27:13
◼
►
can like show it to them in the App
00:27:14
◼
►
Store um and then the funny thing about
00:27:16
◼
►
launching is it feels like this big deal
00:27:19
◼
►
and then it's done and then you just
00:27:21
◼
►
move on and now you get a big long list
00:27:23
◼
►
of bugs the things you have to fix and
00:27:24
◼
►
you just keep going on that and so it's
00:27:28
◼
►
like you want to celebrate it now it's
00:27:30
◼
►
like alright now it's on to you know 1.1
00:27:32
◼
►
or 1.0 one or you you identify all the
00:27:35
◼
►
issues that you just never even thought
00:27:37
◼
►
could be issues which is always the most
00:27:39
◼
►
striking thing to launch an app for
00:27:41
◼
►
myself or you you have somebody who
00:27:43
◼
►
gives you feedback you're like huh you
00:27:46
◼
►
were absolutely right but I had never
00:27:49
◼
►
ever thought about that and like that's
00:27:51
◼
►
always the best and most fun feedback to
00:27:53
◼
►
get that's why my work has beta it was
00:27:55
◼
►
six months long there you go and it was
00:27:59
◼
►
a much I was on the I was on it from the
00:28:00
◼
►
first one to the last one yes a it got a
00:28:02
◼
►
lot better it's it it really did
00:28:04
◼
►
everything I hadn't thought of everyone
00:28:05
◼
►
everyone brought up all right I think
00:28:08
◼
►
that does it for this week so
00:28:10
◼
►
congratulations on the launch any
00:28:11
◼
►
closing thoughts no I think had one
00:28:14
◼
►
thing I'd say is you know launch
00:28:16
◼
►
something it's exciting like I always
00:28:18
◼
►
hate I get a lot of people questions
00:28:20
◼
►
from people like how do I get started
00:28:21
◼
►
and it's like you know the best way to
00:28:22
◼
►
get started is to write something and
00:28:24
◼
►
ship it like there's not am like magic
00:28:26
◼
►
rocket science to this and you just have
00:28:28
◼
►
to do that and the more you do that the
00:28:29
◼
►
better you get at doing it and the
00:28:32
◼
►
better your apps will be as a result and
00:28:33
◼
►
you know I've launched a lot of products
00:28:35
◼
►
as I have a bit of a penchant for doing
00:28:38
◼
►
and you know imagine in June we'll get a
00:28:40
◼
►
bunch of new api's and new opportunities
00:28:42
◼
►
and so I'd encourage everyone to look at
00:28:44
◼
►
them you know just don't look at the
00:28:45
◼
►
same ones that I'm looking at a problem
00:28:50
◼
►
we have a problem
00:28:51
◼
►
alright thanks David and everybody
00:28:53
◼
►
please go out
00:28:54
◼
►
by activity plus plus because David
00:28:55
◼
►
won't say it but I will and we will talk
00:28:58
◼
►
to you next week