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Last updated: 10/21/09 |
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The purpose of this article is to provide some guidance as to what options are available to you if you have an idea for an app. Some apps are content-based, like legal apps, and other apps are not, like games. This article is focused on content-based apps for the Apple iPhone or Touch.
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"If you build it, they will come" does not hold true if four other people have built the same app before you. There are at least five app-versions of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. How many versions of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure can the app market support? The best way to guarantee that your app does not have too much competition is to create an app with original content. For example, instead of an app containing just the Federal Rules of Evidence, how about an app that contains the Federal Rules of Evidence with citations to recent cases interpreting each rule. Or better yet, what about a concise treatise on the Federal Rules of Evidence.
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If you sell an app on iTunes, you will be paid 70% of the sales price. If the sales price is $.99, you will have to sell a lot of apps to recoup your cost, much less to make any profit. Therefore, in addition to checking out the competition, you need to make sure you have a widespread audience.
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Last week, I wrote a review concerning three of the five iPhone apps for the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. For each of the three apps that I analyzed, I found sloppy mistakes in content or navigation. In this new frontier of apps, you want to get to market as quickly as possible, but if your app is an app for lawyers, it had better be accurate or your "app maker" career will be short-lived.
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You basically have three options, and the first option is brand new.
Option 1:
TapLynx
allows you to download software that you can use to
build a content-based app
without knowing any computer programming. The catch? When you
are ready to publish your app on iTunes, you must purchase a
license from
TapLynx
for $3,499.00.
TapLynx
built the iPhone app for "All Things Digital," which is part of
Dow Jones & Co. That app is free and looks very
professional. To see that app on iTunes, click this button: Remember: You must have iTunes' free software loaded in your computer. To learn more about TapLynx, either visit the company's web site or click here to read a recent Macworld article. There are other companies that claim to allow you to build iPhone apps without coding, but TapLynx is the only one I have found so far that displays a sample app on its web site that looks as professional as any app on iTunes. Option 2: Hire someone to build the app for you. The problem is finding someone in which you have confidence. There is a site called Guru.com where you can have programmers from all over the world bid on your job. You also have the option of limiting the bids so that the bidder is from the United States. You can see their profiles and read reviews posted by previous clients. Option 3: Learn to build an app on your own. iPhone apps are built using the iPhone SDK. According to Apple's web site, you must have an Intel-based Mac running Mac OS X Leopard. To view the main iPhone developer page on the Apple web site, click here. Stanford University offers a free 23-video course on iPhone application programming on iTunes. According to Stanford, the prerequisites are: C language and programming experience at the level of 106B or X. Stanford also recommends that you have experience with: UNIX, object-oriented programming, and graphical toolkits. Recommendation: Unless you are a computer programmer, option 3 is probably not realistic. If your app is not content based, then option 1 is not realistic because TapLynx is for content-based apps. Therefore, you would go with option 2. But if your app is content based, I would be tempted to try TapLynx. You can download TapLynx for free and evaluate it. You apparently do not have to pay the $3,499.00 license fee until you are ready to "push" the app to iTunes. However, you must have a Mac, not a PC. But remember, most successful apps on iTunes are priced at less than $5.00. You must sell a large number of apps in order to recoup a $3,499.00 investment, much less make a profit.
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While I believe the information in this article is accurate, I welcome any feedback. You may contact me at: tg@garlands-digest.com
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