Android developers, meet real world

Jan Isakovič

jan@artesia.sitwitter.com/iyan

Life lessons of mobile business

četrtek, 26. januar 12

The world, as seen by some devs

četrtek, 26. januar 12

Application development

+

Idea Technical knowledge

=

četrtek, 26. januar 12

ZOMG BEST APP EVER

imag

e (c

) The

Oat

mea

l htt

p://t

heoa

tmea

l.com

/

Users

četrtek, 26. januar 12

Developer

imag

e (c

) D

isne

y C

orp

četrtek, 26. januar 12

Yeah, right.

četrtek, 26. januar 12

Idea / execution

I’ll make a 100% crowdsourced app that needs thousands of active users - and I’ll release it

with no seed content. It’ll work!

Your brilliant idea probably isn’t. Ask around.

četrtek, 26. januar 12

User experience

I’ll just throw something together. People don’t care about that anyway, it’s the technology

that matters.

Oh yes they do. Get a designer.

četrtek, 26. januar 12

The importance of tech

The cloud-based distributed platform uses an optimized query engine to achieve real-time results on a data set ordered in an A*

tree.... ZZZZZZZZZ

Tech is largely irrelevant, especially for new apps and services with no scaling issues. Sorry. Features matter.

četrtek, 26. januar 12

Privacy matters

Let’s make an app that will enable users to snap pictures of their medical problems and send it to us for a remote diagnosis. We’ll

get a local doctor to help us.

Guess how many users did.

četrtek, 26. januar 12

Circumstances matter

Best idea ever!

Let’s make an app that will enable users to snap pictures of their medical problems and send it to us for a remote diagnosis. We’ll

get a local doctor to help us.

... IN AFRICA

četrtek, 26. januar 12

Social aspect

Only losers use Facebook-OR-

People will love making accounts on my mobile platform and friending people

Social data is important and on Facebook. Don’t make people re-enter their social graph - they won’t.

četrtek, 26. januar 12

Ease of use

I know! I’ll force users to register to be able to use my mobile app and I will require them to

enter a CAPTCHA on the mobile app registration screen.

...

četrtek, 26. januar 12

User feedback

I don’t need it-OR-

The user comments and app rating will be fair, coherent and constructive

User feedback is a black box of random. If you want useful feedback, you will have to get it yourself.

četrtek, 26. januar 12

App promotion

If I build it, they will come.

No, they won’t. Promotion and sales are a big part of software development.

četrtek, 26. januar 12

Competition

May the best app win!

Yeah.. not necessarily. Dirty tricks are part of the game - be prepared.

četrtek, 26. januar 12

Ecosystem

My platform is the best platform ever and so it shall remain.

.. said a Symbian developer, January 2011. Don’t get tied down to one platform or provider.

četrtek, 26. januar 12

Venture capital

We got 1 million USD in funding! We’re rich!

You got 1 million because you probably need 2 million to get to the profitable point - and you will have to come

up with the difference.

četrtek, 26. januar 12

Realism

If (Operator X / device maker Y) will preload my app on their phones, the sky is the limit!

They won’t. Get real.

četrtek, 26. januar 12

Market share

If I get just 2% market share I will be more than profitable!

The only way to get to 2% share is to fail while trying to get 80% of market share.

četrtek, 26. januar 12

Market size

Japan: 2,000,000 subscribersSlovenia: 30,000 subscribers (maybe!)

četrtek, 26. januar 12

.. any more examples?

četrtek, 26. januar 12