Comments for Tony Wright's Startup Front-EndTony Wright's Startup Front-End - http://www.tonywright.com Wed, 22 Feb 2012 00:04:00 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 Comment on How to Evaluate a (paid) iPhone App Idea by Anonymous http://www.tonywright.com/2012/how-to-evaluate-a-paid-iphone-app-idea/#comment-779 Anonymous Wed, 22 Feb 2012 00:04:00 +0000 http://www.tonywright.com/?p=453#comment-779 That's the second time I've heard that. FWIW, I didn't muck with it-- I just cropped my wife out of this picture ( https://skitch.com/webwright/8dwib/webwright11-on-instagrid.me-the-best-way-to-view-instagram-photos). I guess I'm naturally crooked? That’s the second time I’ve heard that. FWIW, I didn’t muck with it– I just cropped my wife out of this picture ( https://skitch.com/webwright/8dwib/webwright11-on-instagrid.me-the-best-way-to-view-instagram-photos). I guess I’m naturally crooked?

]]> Comment on How to Evaluate a (paid) iPhone App Idea by Anonymous http://www.tonywright.com/2012/how-to-evaluate-a-paid-iphone-app-idea/#comment-778 Anonymous Wed, 22 Feb 2012 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.tonywright.com/?p=453#comment-778 That's a great point! If your ARPU is $1.70, you can't afford gold plated customer service by any means... At our peak with TouchBase (when our run rate was enough to cover 2 solid paychecks) we were getting 10-15 emails per day (though many of those didn't require troubleshooting-- oftentimes they were compliments and suggestions). So I think a 1-2 person shop could handle that, assuming no other monstrous incremental costs. Of course, apps can vary in terms of support needs. And, at scale with a free hit like Flipboard, it's got to be pretty crazy! Yet another reason that a good ARPU is critical-- otherwise you can be paralyzed by support volume. That’s a great point! If your ARPU is $1.70, you can’t afford gold plated customer service by any means… At our peak with TouchBase (when our run rate was enough to cover 2 solid paychecks) we were getting 10-15 emails per day (though many of those didn’t require troubleshooting– oftentimes they were compliments and suggestions). So I think a 1-2 person shop could handle that, assuming no other monstrous incremental costs. Of course, apps can vary in terms of support needs. And, at scale with a free hit like Flipboard, it’s got to be pretty crazy! Yet another reason that a good ARPU is critical– otherwise you can be paralyzed by support volume.

]]> Comment on How to Evaluate a (paid) iPhone App Idea by Mike D. http://www.tonywright.com/2012/how-to-evaluate-a-paid-iphone-app-idea/#comment-777 Mike D. Tue, 21 Feb 2012 22:57:00 +0000 http://www.tonywright.com/?p=453#comment-777 Is it me or is the photo of you on the right a little distorted/skewed? Is it me or is the photo of you on the right a little distorted/skewed?

]]> Comment on How to Evaluate a (paid) iPhone App Idea by Jason Preston http://www.tonywright.com/2012/how-to-evaluate-a-paid-iphone-app-idea/#comment-776 Jason Preston Tue, 21 Feb 2012 21:43:00 +0000 http://www.tonywright.com/?p=453#comment-776 Even numbers like this are misleading though, right? because a 1 or 2 dev shop is unrealistic given other hidden costs? I asked one of the founder of Flipboard what the biggest surprise was about their success, and he told me it was the massive amount of customer support.  Even numbers like this are misleading though, right? because a 1 or 2 dev shop is unrealistic given other hidden costs? I asked one of the founder of Flipboard what the biggest surprise was about their success, and he told me it was the massive amount of customer support. 

]]> Comment on How to Evaluate a (paid) iPhone App Idea by Anonymous http://www.tonywright.com/2012/how-to-evaluate-a-paid-iphone-app-idea/#comment-774 Anonymous Fri, 17 Feb 2012 14:36:00 +0000 http://www.tonywright.com/?p=453#comment-774  Yeah, we didn't go too far down.  Apple only publishes the top 1000, so you'd need to math your way down from there.  There's a really long tail, I think, of apps that can happily support 1 or 2 devs.  We do have data down to rank 900 or so, which would net you about $9k/month after Apple's cut.  Yeah, we didn’t go too far down.  Apple only publishes the top 1000, so you’d need to math your way down from there.  There’s a really long tail, I think, of apps that can happily support 1 or 2 devs.  We do have data down to rank 900 or so, which would net you about $9k/month after Apple’s cut.

]]> Comment on How to Evaluate a (paid) iPhone App Idea by Anonymous http://www.tonywright.com/2012/how-to-evaluate-a-paid-iphone-app-idea/#comment-773 Anonymous Fri, 17 Feb 2012 14:27:00 +0000 http://www.tonywright.com/?p=453#comment-773  Yeah, I think we're probably a bit off (on the low side)-- though our own data points are indeed in there, so it's not too off.  Didn't do anything with the older data to compensate for age, which probably makes sense to do if I was going to do a great job at it.  I suppose I could multiply it by the app store growth rate. I am/was REALLY tempted to make a good study of it, try to collect tons of (timestamped) data...  But I just wanted to be in the neighborhood of understanding "is this market worth it".  It was, for our little effort, but certainly wasn't fundworthy or even full-timeworthy.  Few single-app strategies are fundworthy, IMO.  Yeah, I think we’re probably a bit off (on the low side)– though our own data points are indeed in there, so it’s not too off.  Didn’t do anything with the older data to compensate for age, which probably makes sense to do if I was going to do a great job at it.  I suppose I could multiply it by the app store growth rate.

I am/was REALLY tempted to make a good study of it, try to collect tons of (timestamped) data…  But I just wanted to be in the neighborhood of understanding “is this market worth it”.  It was, for our little effort, but certainly wasn’t fundworthy or even full-timeworthy.  Few single-app strategies are fundworthy, IMO.

]]> Comment on How to Evaluate a (paid) iPhone App Idea by Jeff Dixon http://www.tonywright.com/2012/how-to-evaluate-a-paid-iphone-app-idea/#comment-769 Jeff Dixon Fri, 17 Feb 2012 06:43:00 +0000 http://www.tonywright.com/?p=453#comment-769 Hey Tony, nice post. I did a similar analysis scrapping data from public and semi-private sources to come up with a power curve. In my case I came up with slightly more favorable results. I'm curious if your own personal results corroborated with the predicted results? Also, did you do anything to normalize the secondary data sources based on the date they were published? The overall number of iOS apps downloaded has increased significantly over the last 24 months and looking at data even 18 months old is probably misleading. Thoughts? Hey Tony, nice post. I did a similar analysis scrapping data from public and semi-private sources to come up with a power curve. In my case I came up with slightly more favorable results. I’m curious if your own personal results corroborated with the predicted results? Also, did you do anything to normalize the secondary data sources based on the date they were published? The overall number of iOS apps downloaded has increased significantly over the last 24 months and looking at data even 18 months old is probably misleading. Thoughts?

]]> Comment on How to Evaluate a (paid) iPhone App Idea by Morgan Schweers http://www.tonywright.com/2012/how-to-evaluate-a-paid-iphone-app-idea/#comment-766 Morgan Schweers Thu, 16 Feb 2012 19:43:00 +0000 http://www.tonywright.com/?p=453#comment-766 This is awesome research; now you've got me thinking about releasing my app for free and including various quantities of 'sniping points' that you can buy, and then doing the snipes on my own server... :) Those numbers are crazy big, though.  For a one or two developer team, $25K/mo. is a great foundation at the 600th highest grossing.  How far out does that curve go?  What's an app that averages (in a month) being the 1000th highest grossing paid app make per month?  2000th?  Is there any way to know? Or, to be more specific, it seems you have a mathematical model based on the data points you've collected.  Can you estimate at what 'nth highest grossing' level it crosses some arbitrary value, like the $10K/mo. number? This is awesome research; now you’ve got me thinking about releasing my app for free and including various quantities of ‘sniping points’ that you can buy, and then doing the snipes on my own server… :)

Those numbers are crazy big, though.  For a one or two developer team, $25K/mo. is a great foundation at the 600th highest grossing.  How far out does that curve go?  What’s an app that averages (in a month) being the 1000th highest grossing paid app make per month?  2000th?  Is there any way to know?

Or, to be more specific, it seems you have a mathematical model based on the data points you’ve collected.  Can you estimate at what ‘nth highest grossing’ level it crosses some arbitrary value, like the $10K/mo. number?

]]> Comment on How to Evaluate a (paid) iPhone App Idea by Ryan Luce http://www.tonywright.com/2012/how-to-evaluate-a-paid-iphone-app-idea/#comment-765 Ryan Luce Thu, 16 Feb 2012 18:56:00 +0000 http://www.tonywright.com/?p=453#comment-765 Tony - this is excellent, really great, clear analysis.  Its great to see how you guys thought through these options as you were selecting how to build your next venture.  Thanks much for posting. Tony – this is excellent, really great, clear analysis.  Its great to see how you guys thought through these options as you were selecting how to build your next venture.  Thanks much for posting.

]]> Comment on Mobile is What’s Next (for me) by Anonymous http://www.tonywright.com/2012/mobile-is-whats-next-for-me/#comment-763 Anonymous Tue, 14 Feb 2012 18:02:00 +0000 http://www.tonywright.com/?p=461#comment-763  Hey Rich-- dropped you a note at your Zillow address (the only one I had).  If Disqus notifies you of this reply, feel free to shoot me a note @ webwright@gmail.com ...  I'll try to dig up a more recent addy for you.  Hey Rich– dropped you a note at your Zillow address (the only one I had).  If Disqus notifies you of this reply, feel free to shoot me a note @ webwright@gmail.com …  I’ll try to dig up a more recent addy for you.

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