Friday, August 22, 2008

App Store

We're excited that we now have several programs in the iPhone's App Store.

Our Business tool FTP On The Go, an FTP client.
As well as an hourglass program: iHourglass, both a free houglass with one image, and a premium version that has about 10. (And there are a few more things coming!)


What the App Store really has changed is overnight it created a market for really cheap little software programs. Our Premium iHourglass is $1.99. Until now, there never has been a real way or place to market and sell a program for a dollar or two. As a programmer who does it for a living, there is far more incentive to work on a simple little tool or silly program that might make a little money.

There's a whole new market for something that costs a dollar and is just kinda cool or a little bit useful...the lifespan might not be years like a good Windows/Mac utility can do (GetRight is going strong and is over 11 years old). But if it only takes a few days or evenings to create as the iHourglass and the next one did, it doesn't matter. If it doesn't last long, create something else! (Though we really think that FTP On The Go will have a good long lifespan...people have needed FTP programs for a couple decades now.)


If Microsoft had done a similar thing with the Gadgets in Vista, I bet they'd have attracted a bunch more developers to create them.