How to release a great iOS application that nobody needs

1. First you need a good and sought-after idea.

It all started with time management. After reading Time Drive, I came to the conclusion that Gleb Arkhangelsky really did a very good job and laid everything out. But when I wanted to put his theory into practice using a smartphone, a problem arose - there has not yet been at least some minimally acceptable implementation of his methodology.

At that time, I was just looking for ideas for trying a pen on the AppStore. I tested with a dozen popular iOS planners, paid and free. Some were good in their aspects (task lists, calendars), but I did not find a universal solution. Rather found, but they were terrible and clumsy, and, apparently, unsuccessful in terms of commerce. Therefore, it was decided to implement a universal and, at the same time, a simple organizer with maximum use of the advice of Gleb Arkhangelsky, as the most practical, in my opinion.


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In terms of design, it was decided not to reinvent the wheel, but to use the standard interface of the iOS Calendar, focusing on developing the functionality. Visually, our application is a standard Calendar on powerful steroids. And this approach is fully justified.

I had no expectation to earn on this application. I was well aware that the market was not big and was full of competitors' applications, some of which were well-promoted stars.



But I was going to make the product with high quality and responsibly, a level better than the others, hoping to get a new experience and at least recoup my investments. In the end, I personally needed this apa!

2. Then you need money and effort.

I didn’t rush off the bat, and within a month I thought out the functionality well. Made a specification for 40 pages. By the way, when preparing the specification (the document itself), I ran into some technical difficulties that gave me one more idea, the implementation of which would be useful to many people who work with voluminous documents. Yes, you never know what will be the true meaning of your actions. And the work that was useless may take you to a new path in a different direction. Therefore, you need to do what you think is necessary and over time, everything becomes meaningful. Usually. But that's another story…

So, I filtered the best ideas of Gleb Arkhangelsky, other authors, added a bit of my experience and successfully broke it all into 5 tabs of the application. About a week I was only thinking about icons for tabs. They had to be very concise and clearly convey their essence, like everything else in the application. It seems to me that it turned out not bad.



I will say that this is a very pleasant feeling when you have 5 tabs on your screen graphically and you understand that you need just that much - no more, no less. It is as if providence itself tells you that you are on the right track. I advise you to spare no time and always try to achieve this effect of consistency. As long as you have something that does not fit into the interface or logic, do not try to bypass this with a crutch. In this case, it is always better not to hurry, but once again soberly think things through and achieve the feeling “this is it!”. Then the application will turn out really user-friendly.

The specification is ready and the search for a programmer has been started. I myself am not a bad programmer, and from the beginning to the release, I estimated the amount of work at 3-4 mythical person-months. But I realized that you should start writing the code yourself, as you will inevitably plunge into the quagmire of small details that will completely deprive you of the holistic vision of the product. You will inevitably be distracted by ryushechki, you want to do better here and here, but in the end the project will drag on for years. I think many of us have such projects for life ...

I did not search for a programmer for a long time, but took one of the first. Or rather, not even a programmer, but an architect — that's how he positioned himself. We talked to him, I looked at what he did before, and I immediately liked him, and he liked the project. By the way, he had never written iOS code before, but he was quite advanced in Java. I believe that a good programmer learns fast and will be good everywhere. So it happened. I must say that he asked for a fairly high salary, but I decided not to save on the most important thing, remembering that the miser pays twice. In the future, he did not disappoint me.

At first we worked with him remotely. I also wrote a part of the code where I thought it appropriate, mainly using a graphical interface. Classes and algorithms were on the programmer. Of course, we used SVN, Jira and, oddly enough, email. With clear specifications and TK, remote work is perfectly acceptable. But you should not relax, but regularly monitor the progress and productivity of work. At what I advise you to demand not just reports, but regularly regularly test the current functionality. If the bugs and minor bugs in time is not identified and eliminated, then over time they accumulate and create a monster, which is easier to remake again than to put in order.

At a later stage, when a sufficient number of questions and bugs had already been collected, we began working in the office, directly discussing each new revision.

In terms of design, there was not much work - only individual tasks for icons. These tasks were given to freelancers. In total, two freelancers worked with us on this project: one worked with the main application icon, the second made internal icons. They both did an excellent job with the tasks.

Four months passed quickly and unnoticed ...

3. Then you need more money and maximum effort.

As expected, the project was slightly delayed. Nothing, by common standards. By the way, who will guess the development duration in months from the beginning to the release, will receive a promotional code as a gift.

The development process was fairly calm and predictable. In the sense that it is easy to predict that not everything will go according to plan. There were no technical difficulties - all the conceived functionality was realistic. Fortunately, Apple relatively rarely releases updates for iOS and, as a rule, they are all well coordinated. The main problem arose only with one feature, which in our imagination looked very attractive. But when we implemented it, we saw that it is completely unpractical and in real conditions is inapplicable because it is too far-fetched and not transparent for the user. Its essence was that the user can start and stop each task at the right time and even pause. Thus, the most accurate calculation of analytics would be achieved. But even to us, during field tests, it was too lazy to start all the tasks in this way, meticulously pressing the start and stop buttons at the right time. There were a lot of side problems, for example, if the user forgets to stop the task on time. We tried to solve these problems, from what the functional became bulky and clumsy. Therefore, in the end, we abandoned this feature and replaced it with another task based on a rough estimate of the time budget. The analytics becomes less accurate, but it still remains representative and doesn’t cost anything in terms of user effort.

The project was slightly delayed not because of an incorrect assessment of the scope of work or low productivity, but because we saw how to make some things better and easier. As you know, simplifying is difficult, but that is what we have been doing in the last months of development. There were a few more features that drastically changed in the process. The specification has been constantly improved and refined. All changes to the functionality immediately displayed in the specification, so as not to lose holistic vision. Agile development, EPTA!

And now, when the budget and motivation have already started to run out, we received the final version, which worked and which we liked. Of course, it was not perfect and we had a list of 3-page features in small print that still need to be improved and improved. This process will never end, unlike money. By the way, who will guess how much money was spent on development, of course, will receive a promotional code as a gift.

There were no problems with the release on the AppStore. We set a classic price - $ 0.99. And, as expected, a week after downloading the apa went on sale. It is finished!

4. Finally, we must abandon the promotion.

I must say I was expecting more from organic traffic in the early days, but it was just ridiculous - 19 downloads! But this is what will only get worse ...

Immediately after the release, you will begin to be overwhelmed with offers to promote the product. There were a lot of good offers from companies and independent figures that inspired confidence.



But all of them are not cheap. There was an option for $ 2500 guaranteed to get into the TOP-100 category Productivity. A month later, the price was already $ 4,000. I would gladly pay them, but by that time our budget had exhausted itself and it was decided to leave everything as it is until better times, including for the sake of experiment. The application was supported, we released updates, communicated with users. This all required minimal effort.

The miracle did not happen. Our quality apa has been lost among thousands of other useless applications. Competition for keywords is incredible. Over the past six months, the average number of daily downloads is encoded by one bit, and in the best and very rare case, by two. We experimented with the price, but with such low download volumes, everything is clear: $ 0.99 is the best option. We did not try to make the apu free, probably because we know its value.

The funny thing is - no one said that the application is bad. Even on the contrary - everyone who downloaded was satisfied, judging by the reviews on the AppStore and letters of support. But, unfortunately, those who did not download - the vast majority.

The moral of the story is that the development of a successful application is really first and foremost marketing and then development. Always expect to spend on promotion at least half of those funds that will be spent on development. Otherwise, you will get a great app for personal use for big money. By the way, we ourselves were satisfied with the result and actively use the application. And every time I use it, I remember how much it costs for me. But someone can buy it for the buck ...

Another serious mistake was not to release the Russian-language version of the application right away. We were seduced by the size of the American market, and the Russian market is more understandable and less competitive. Moreover, the application is primarily useful to fans of Gleb Arkhangelsky, and we have a lot more of these. We released the Russian version quite recently and, oddly enough, it brings more downloads than the English one. An order of one bit more. Don't underestimate our market, friends.

This is how we released quality apu that nobody needs ... Or need? Anyone?

I hope the story turned out interesting and instructive. I will be glad to answer your questions, as well as hear comments and suggestions. Thank.