What is the motivation behind first Software App?

-

Based on a discussion with a colleague yesterday, for many, the motivation behind building their first software app could be  the ease of developing one on a framework that is popular or interesting. It appears, for many, it is still develop something because the framework is popular and figure out later if we can make any business out of it.

The discussion stems from the notion that developing applications for iPhone are quite expensive. The framework to build applications for iPhone need a Mac. So if you don't have one, that would be your first investment to buy one. And at the final stages of applications, you need an iPhone to test the application. So need to buy one of the most expensive mobile phones of today.

The apparent conclusion was that since developing iPhone applications is expensive, many developers are focusing on cheaper alternatives like Android or others that are free. I am not sure how much is that true, but it could be for some.

I would agree to an extent that this initial cost would definitely come in the way for some. Particularly those who wanted to play around develop something for fun, curiosity or write a blog about it. But if some one is serious about developing, say, a game for iPhone and think in terms of making money from the game(or even a blog), in my opinion, initial investment of about $1500 (or 1 lakh Indian rupees) is not that significant.  If you spend the next few months of your quality time on something it would better generate more than $1500.

That discussion brings another interesting aspect. Are you developing an application because it is easy, free or the framework is popular? Or is there a clear need in the market that you are trying to solve? Or in some cases, there is no need, but the new application would definitely create something new or solve something new?  or you are developing an application because you have some kind of  business plan that can really make money out of your application?

I believe, we must have a plan, if you are serious about it.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Newsworthy News in Red October : Dow Jones & Tax Dodgers

-
Dow Jones Index crosses the symbolic 10000 figure. U.S. stocks rallied, sending the Dow Jones Industrial Average above 10,000 for the first time in a year, on better-than-estimated earnings at JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Intel Corp. Bank of America Corp., American Express Co. and JPMorgan more than doubled since the Dow slid to a 12-year low on March 9 as global financial firms began recovering from $1.6 trillion in writedowns and credit losses. International Business Machines Corp. and Hewlett-Packard Co. jumped at least 54 percent since March 9 on signs the nation was recovering from the worst recession in seven decades. Source: Bloomberg And, about 7500 International Tax dodgers file for IRS Amnesty to avoid jail Some 7,500 international tax dodgers have applied for an amnesty program that promises no jail time and reduced penalties for tax cheats who come forward, the Internal Revenue Service announced Wednesday. … The program is part of a larger eff...
Read more

USCIS Selects Final H1B Petitions by Random Selection - Almost a 50% chance for each Application

-
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced today that on April 12 it conducted the computer-generated random selection process to determine which H-1B petitions, subject to the congressionally mandated H-1B cap for fiscal year 2008 (FY 2008), would continue to final processing. USCIS completed this determination ahead of the preliminary schedule noted on April 3, when it announced it had received enough petitions to meet the cap for FY 2008. The 123,480 cap-subject petitions received on April 2 and 3 were labeled with unique numerical identifiers and selected randomly by computer. The chosen numerical identifiers were then transmitted to the appropriate service center for further processing. Source: USCIS Announcement Number 123,480 looks a lot better keeping in view initial estimates. A good 50% chance for each application to be selected.  Update: 3rd May 2007 Hello friends, I understand your anxiety. But don’t loose your hope and/or temper yet. Please wai...
Read more

H1B 2008:USCIS released Preliminary Numbers

-
USCIS today released the final count of number of unique pieces of mail received for H1B petitions. It received 133,000 unique pieces of mail containing H-1B petitions. I guess, each piece of mail will ' mostly ' contain more than one petition, as no company would send each petition in a seperate package and its most unlikely that a firm applies for just one petition. Probably by the end of next week, we might know the actual number of H1B petitions filed and how lucky one must be to get through the initial filter. Source: USCIS Releases Preliminary Number of FY 2008 H-1B Cap Filings  (26KB PDF) 04/05/2007 During Monday and Tuesday, USCIS received 133,000 unique pieces of mail containing H-1B petitions. This is lower that the original USCIS estimate of 150,000. USCIS based the initial estimate on amounts from manifests received along with the mail. USCIS reached the updated number following a physical count of the mail. Each piece of mail may contain more than one H-1B pe...
Read more