Confessions of an iOS app developer - I'm moving my efforts to WP8 (long)

[bamagrad03]

First off, I'm new here - so...hi!

Yes, I'm a cheater. For two years I developed apps for the iOS platform. Had a good deal of success. Most of my apps were in the sports team and sports scores arena.During in September last year, one of my apps was #2 overall in the sports category. But my relationship with Apple, it's just not working out. At night, I sneak away and find myself entertaining the siren song of superior development tools, superior coding platform, and frankly a better company to work with.

Apple and I butted heads a number of times. For those of you who don't know, they rule their store with an iron fist. They are really not developer friendly. And their IDE and platform of choice (objective C) are absolutely horrible to work with.

What does this mean for WP8 users? In short - the apps are coming. And they're coming fast.. Developing in C# on the .net platform is much preferred for developers. Working in Visual Studio 12 is a dream. But frankly we didn't take the Windows platform seriously until now. Microsoft didn't really step up to the plate with a unified vision or a serious marketing plan. And the hardware partners, until the Lumia 900, really weren't putting forth an effort that would bring developers on board. But when Nokia released the 900 - we started taking notice.

I've canceled my Apple iOS developer account. I've already had the break-up talk. I've pulled my apps from the store. And I'm packing up and moving all my efforts to WP8. I'm working on an app now that is currently an area completely unserviced by the Windows App Store. You all will see a lot of this in the coming months from many developers.

So just hang with Windows Phone. You'll be happy you did.

 

[Villain]

what apps do you have on apples appstore?

 

[tcman88]

what apps do you have on apples appstore?

I was gonna say the same thing

 

[bamagrad03]

I pulled them now. But here's my old website for the apps:

iPhone Apps for Sports Fans - Ultimategameday.com and for seat sherpa: Stadium Seating Charts iPhone Application - Seat Sherpa

I also had a series of college basketball team apps and an NHL app that covered all 30 nhl teams. They had team and player twitter feeds, team specific and general news feeds, stadium info, schedules and score results, etc. Never got a website up for those.

But the app I'm working on for WP8 now is none of those things. I may port those over eventually, but I like trying new ideas out.

 

[Agpe17]

First off, I'm new here - so...hi!

Yes, I'm a cheater. For two years I developed apps for the iOS platform. Had a good deal of success. Most of my apps were in the sports team and sports scores arena.During in September last year, one of my apps was #2 overall in the sports category. But my relationship with Apple, it's just not working out. At night, I sneak away and find myself entertaining the siren song of superior development tools, superior coding platform, and frankly a better company to work with.

Apple and I butted heads a number of times. For those of you who don't know, they rule their store with an iron fist. They are really not developer friendly. And their IDE and platform of choice (objective C) are absolutely horrible to work with.

What does this mean for WP8 users? In short - the apps are coming. And they're coming fast.. Developing in C# on the .net platform is much preferred for developers. Working in Visual Studio 12 is a dream. But frankly we didn't take the Windows platform seriously until now. Microsoft didn't really step up to the plate with a unified vision or a serious marketing plan. And the hardware partners, until the Lumia 900, really weren't putting forth an effort that would bring developers on board. But when Nokia released the 900 - we started taking notice.

I've canceled my Apple iOS developer account. I've already had the break-up talk. I've pulled my apps from the store. And I'm packing up and moving all my efforts to WP8. I'm working on an app now that is currently an area completely unserviced by the Windows App Store. You all will see a lot of this in the coming months from many developers.

So just hang with Windows Phone. You'll be happy you did.

This sounds GREAT, and we thank your cognizance of WP8! I'd also love to know which apps you've developed, and hopefully, you spread the idea to others! haha

 

[tebugg]

First off, I'm new here - so...hi!

Yes, I'm a cheater. For two years I developed apps for the iOS platform. Had a good deal of success. Most of my apps were in the sports team and sports scores arena.During in September last year, one of my apps was #2 overall in the sports category. But my relationship with Apple, it's just not working out. At night, I sneak away and find myself entertaining the siren song of superior development tools, superior coding platform, and frankly a better company to work with.

Apple and I butted heads a number of times. For those of you who don't know, they rule their store with an iron fist. They are really not developer friendly. And their IDE and platform of choice (objective C) are absolutely horrible to work with.

What does this mean for WP8 users? In short - the apps are coming. And they're coming fast.. Developing in C# on the .net platform is much preferred for developers. Working in Visual Studio 12 is a dream. But frankly we didn't take the Windows platform seriously until now. Microsoft didn't really step up to the plate with a unified vision or a serious marketing plan. And the hardware partners, until the Lumia 900, really weren't putting forth an effort that would bring developers on board. But when Nokia released the 900 - we started taking notice.

I've canceled my Apple iOS developer account. I've already had the break-up talk. I've pulled my apps from the store. And I'm packing up and moving all my efforts to WP8. I'm working on an app now that is currently an area completely unserviced by the Windows App Store. You all will see a lot of this in the coming months from many developers.

So just hang with Windows Phone. You'll be happy you did.

this post is like a breath of fresh air for alot of ppl. noone really knows what the future holds for windows phone and apps. your news and encouragement give the ppl wondering whats goin on, a sense of hope. thank you for taking the time to inform us.

 

[SnailUK]

Be interesting to hear your views once you've been through the whole app development->release lifecycle, and see how different things are.

 

[bamagrad03]

Be interesting to hear your views once you've been through the whole app development->release lifecycle, and see how different things are.

I'll be posting my experience here as I go along. I've got 10 years of .Net experience already in web development. So it's a really easy transition for me. Also, the fact that the WP8 platform is flexible enough to offer developers the HTML5 path instead of only some proprietary model for UI development, I think it allows porting of other apps from devs to be pretty easy.

 

[LaNiQuE]

Can't wait to see how things develop I hope you have a decent experience I made the switch to windows from WebOs which was a pretty cool place to develop apps from what most developers said our preware community was huge but a big problem was there weren't enough people using WebOs so not enough people buying apps to make developers stay. I feel like WP is just as unique of an experience as webos is which is why I love it and I plan to support it just like I support Webos by buying apps and not expecting every app to be free if us the users show we are willing to buy apps im sure will gain even more developers so thanks Bamagrad for making the move!

 

[socialcarpet]

 

[o4liberty]

How many apps that apple and android have that are really useful ? I have tried every platform except IOS and all of them including Microsoft have more useless then useful ones. "There's an App for That" is so true but in the end I am usually under 20 apps myself!

 

[philpeeps]

I made a list of all the apps I have grown to use on iOS before switching and compared that list to the WP Store. I found that there was an app for 50 of the 60 apps I used on a semi-regular basis. And of those 10, I am only really missing a handful.

The total numbers is a bogus metric. These apps that are for 1 book or 1 team (no offense to the OP) are a waste, IMO. Allow me to filter out the stuff I want in a more comprehensive app instead of just trying to flood the market with tiny apps.

 

[TJWINS]

I made a list of all the apps I have grown to use on iOS before switching and compared that list to the WP Store. I found that there was an app for 50 of the 60 apps I used on a semi-regular basis. And of those 10, I am only really missing a handful.

The total numbers is a bogus metric. These apps that are for 1 book or 1 team (no offense to the OP) are a waste, IMO. Allow me to filter out the stuff I want in a more comprehensive app instead of just trying to flood the market with tiny apps.

Also almost every newspaper and TV station in the country has an iOS app. I live in Pennsylvania so don't need a Texas TV station app. The total number of apps is bogus like you mentioned. Heck even my local shopping mall has an iOS app LOL!

 

[bamagrad03]

I made a list of all the apps I have grown to use on iOS before switching and compared that list to the WP Store. I found that there was an app for 50 of the 60 apps I used on a semi-regular basis. And of those 10, I am only really missing a handful.

The total numbers is a bogus metric. These apps that are for 1 book or 1 team (no offense to the OP) are a waste, IMO. Allow me to filter out the stuff I want in a more comprehensive app instead of just trying to flood the market with tiny apps.

I think the metric is bogus, but there actually is a need for individual team apps. At least until they fix the searching and branding capabilities of comprehensive apps that use in-app purchases for specific content.

Fans of a certain thing identify with that thing being branded in concert with what they love. My experience in app sales was a perfect example of this. I had 1 NHL app that covered all 30 teams via in app purchases. I had 10 college basketball apps that were for individual teams. The basketball apps outsold the NHL app (in spite of its much larger potential market) 10 to 1. Because a generic catch-all app has to be all things to all users. Whereas a specific content app is something the user identifies with immediately.

However, to your point, I think when things like - 30 individual team apps for a single sport - are used to tout some mythical total apps in the app store number, it doesn't do any good. It also doesn't do any good to have those specific content apps show up in more general searches. Right now, Apple has no answer for that.

 

[TMavC5]

This is fantastic....
Sent from my Red L920 using Board Express

 

[Laura Knotek]

Hi and welcome to wpcentral!

I am so happy to see a new person here who is a developer.

I do not complain about lack of apps, since I previously owned a BlackBerry which has even fewer apps than Windows Phone.

That's also cool that you've already researched and decided to develop something new for Windows Phone that is not available in any other form. It would be cool if you were able to port your sports apps at a future time. However, it sounds like you have a great idea for your new app, and people will definitely notice if it's brand new.

 

[burnerasc]

I would absolutely love that NHL app that follows teams/players

 

[msdugn]

Also almost every newspaper and TV station in the country has an iOS app. I live in Pennsylvania so don't need a Texas TV station app. The total number of apps is bogus like you mentioned. Heck even my local shopping mall has an iOS app LOL!

I couldn't agree with this more. Every time I visit a news web page, it prompts me to install their app just to read their site that I've viewing fine through a browser. For me, an app gives me something a web experience couldn't (like TuneIn, a game, etc.) or benefits from closer/tighter integration with my phone (Twitter, Facebook, Weather apps).

Also - glad to hear that the Windows Phone developer community is more developer friendly. I heard there was even a Microsoft 'app compatability' tool of some sort that allows developers to download and run their app through a local validation process to check for serious issues and get a really good idea if their app will be accepted through the MSFT submission process. Or is this just for WIndows 8 apps (not WP8)?

 

[Laura Knotek]

I would absolutely love that NHL app that follows teams/players

I could see where a hockey app would be on the back burner now. We need an actual NHL season first. There's no NHL team where I live, but I've always liked hockey.

 

[bamagrad03]

I could see where a hockey app would be on the back burner now. We need an actual NHL season first. There's no NHL team where I live, but I've always liked hockey.

I went through this last year with the NFL strike/lockout. I had an NFL scores app that I had put a good bit of time into. And I kept thinking, these jerks are complaining about not making enough money and they have NO IDEA how many little guys like me are really getting shafted by their greed.

Thankfully it all worked out. But as a sports fan first, and an app developer second, the NHL lockout really saddens me. That sport took a huge step back after their last strike/lockout. I'm not sure they can recover if another season is lost.

Sorry for the sidebar.