Tag Archives: iOS

Stream featured in the App Store

Stream, , , ,

A few weeks back Parker Ortolani mentioned Stream on Threads and Stream set a personal best for downloads at 255 over a couple days. Most of which came on day one.

After that we received a message from Apple saying they may feature Stream in the App Store. What! That was extremely exciting. So much so it was difficult to believe so we asked around and checked App Store Connect directly to verify it was the real deal. Certainly didn’t want to get fished, right?

At that point we reached out to The Iconfactory. Apple needed art work in a specific format that followed specific rules and The Iconfactory has been featured before and is full of excellent designers and illustrators. Artists all.

The process couldn’t have been easier. Reach out, get an estimate with two different options, make a decision about which works best for us, and sign the deal.

What Next?

The Iconfactory asked for any artwork I had for Stream. The honest answer is we didn’t have much, just the original icons and a hero image. With our fingers and toes crossed we sent the images over with our apologies, “Sorry, that’s all we have.” Their response was simple. Thanks, this is perfect!

After a couple days we were sent a proof of the artists design. It was absolutely stunning! Perfect! They asked for any changes we’d like to see. The answer back was easy — no changes needed!

We downloaded the final output a day or two later. It’s even better in its full Photoshop glory. To say we were exited is an understatement.

Upload to Apple

Right after downloading our gorgeous new artwork we uploaded the requested PSD to the link provided by Apple.

Now we wait thinking this may or may not happen. There was never a promise for a feature and we knew that going into it. That’s ok. We had to roll the dice on the off chance it would happen.

Fingers crossed we hit the submit button.

It’s featured!

Friday morning we checked the App Store as we’d done every day this week and would continue doing until we saw it or felt it wouldn’t happen.

Well, it did happen and we couldn’t be more thrilled!

Thank you Apple for featuring our little feed reader, it means loads! ❤️

Picture of the App Store featuring Stream

More about The Iconfactory

Why did we hire The Iconfactory? That is simple. We’re huge fans of their app and design work. They’ve delivered some of the most iconic designs in the industry all top notch. They’re a small shop with amazing talent top to bottom. Choosing them was easy.

We’d like to say thanks to three folks in particular; Ged Maheux, Anthony Piraino, and Cheryl Cicha. You made the process painless and enjoyable. It’s wonderful to work with folks who deliver amazing work ahead of schedule.

We are so grateful. ❤️

Happy Birthday RxCalc

Business,

Three years ago my brother and I introduced RxCalc. I remember arriving at his home for our annual Fourth of July festivities a bit bummed. I’d submitted RxCalc for review 21 days earlier and it still hadn’t been approved. When I walked in the door my brother asked if we’d been approved. I said no. We decided to go check the status anyway, and it had been approved! It was pretty exciting to see our first iOS application for sale and it was even better to know it shared its birthday with the birth of the United States of America.

Happy Independence Day!

The Cost of Apps Development

Business,

I’ve been an iOS developer for the better part of four years now. Most of that time has been spent doing my own thing, but I’ve done work for others along the way. At one point a few years back I was bidding on some jobs for a games company. I sat down, looked at the document they’d given me, and wrote up a proposal.

A wonderful boquet of flowers.A couple days later I received an email back saying they thought my pricing was too high. Too high? Really? Basically they wanted to pay me about 1/3 what it would cost to develop the application. When you’re excited about doing work for someone and they come back at you with something like that, what do you do? You let the work walk out the door, that’s what you do.

It seems I’m not alone when it comes to people undervaluing the work of iOS developers. There is a really well know Mac and iOS developer, Craig Hockenberry, who chronicled on the true cost of creating the Twitter client, Twitterrific.

“With such a short schedule, we worked some pretty long hours. Let’s be conservative and say it’s 10 hours per day for 6 days a week. That 60 hours for 9 weeks gives us 540 hours. With two developers, that’s pretty close to 1,100 hours. Our rate for clients is $150 per hour giving $165,000 just for new code. Remember also that we were reusing a bunch existing code: I’m going to lowball the value of that code at $35,000 giving a total development cost of $200,000.” – Craig Hockenberry, 10.13.2010

I’m not sure if people think it should cost less because these applications run on a small device, or because the app store has turned into a $0.99 thrift store, but the truth is we’re professional developers. This is what we do for a living. You should expect high quality work with all the spit and polish you’ve come to expect in applications you make your living using. I’m not saying we deserve it, I’m saying we strive to earn it. If we don’t deliver what you expect, with the quality you expect, you won’t be back. That makes me work very hard to deliver something you’ll be very pleased with and proud of.

Recently another developer, Kent Nguyen, shared his thoughts on the subject and does a great job pointing out how complex applications can become. It adds up rather quickly.

“The process is not a simple one and I usually guide/educate the client through all the considerations using the following steps” – Kent Nguyen, 01.31.2012

This is a great source of information for anyone trying to decide if they need an iOS application. Know what you’re getting into, before you get into it.