Idea for an app

[red_slr]

The last few weeks I have had an idea for an app.
I have spent some time digging around looking for a similar app and not found anything.

This means, imho, that I have either come up with a good idea or a pointless idea!
Anyway, without sharing too much detail I need to look at possible development costs.

Has anyone developed an app or tried too? Any ideas where I can get this kind of info?

Cheers!

[hyphen]

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...

[mikef]

And as that thread says

Tuna said:

an app could cost anything from 2K to 100K depending on what it did and how much support it needed

Your problem is going to be that you''ll have to share a fair amount of detail to figure out whether it''s going to cost you £2K or £100K

red_slr said:

Anyway, without sharing too much detail I need to look at possible development costs.

Has anyone developed an app or tried too? Any ideas where I can get this kind of info?

I have an app in the App Store since a couple of weeks ago, but it will likely never cover the cost of the hardware bought to develop and test on and the Apple developer subscription

[red_slr]

Thanks all good stuff. I think its possible it could have hundreds of thousands of users, if not into the millions if it was a global success.

Its not actually that complex and I am quite shocked no one has done it. Basically the wife and I were discussing the topic and I said "bet there is an app for that". Turns out - as far as I can see - there is not.

It wont sell products or generate any income by itself and I would hope it would be a free app - so I presume the income would come from adverts yes? Lest say, best case it has 500,000 downloads and 100,000 regular users - what kind of advert income might that generate?

Is it done on a CPC basis?

[mikef]

red_slr said:

Lets say, best case it has 500,000 downloads and 100,000 regular users - what kind of advert income might that generate?

Maybe £100 a month if you''re lucky (?). I find the click-through rate on mobile is much lower than on desktop browsers (CPM or clicks per thousand page impressions) and that regular users quickly learn to tune out adverts

Others may come along with different experiences to share (but ask to see their actual revenue statements from AdMob etc, there is a lot of bs spouted about ad revenue)

[red_slr]

Oh. Well that's not worth it then is it..

I wondered why no one had done it before.

As there is no up sell and its just a bit of fun I would have thought someone would have done it years ago... but that explains why not - a lot of work for nothing.

Perhaps its time to learn to code!

[hyphen]

red_slr said:

This means, imho, that I have either come up with a good idea or a pointless idea!
Anyway, without sharing too much detail I need to look at possible development costs.

Have you shared this idea with people you trust/family who are the target audience and will give you blunt feedback if they disagree with its potential?

[Frimley111R]

Apps can be great revenue earners but its not really the Apps that make themselves successful, more the marketing that does this. After all, you can have the best App in the world but it's useless if no-one knows about it.

If you can't find an App that does the same its probably because you haven't looked hard enough, there's so many apps out there after all.

I do know of a small company making good money out of Apps, they created a generic financial app and then sold it to accountants with their own brand on it, seemed/s to work well. Just don't expect to invent the next Snapchat!

[mikef]

red_slr said:

Oh. Well that's not worth it then is it..

I wondered why no one had done it before.

As there is no up sell and its just a bit of fun I would have thought someone would have done it years ago... but that explains why not - a lot of work for nothing.

Perhaps its time to learn to code!

If you want to share some detail by pm (and I won't steal the idea, I have more ideas for apps than time to implement them...) I may be able to give you an idea of

• the complexity to develop as an iOS App (sorry, can't help you with Android)
• how novel it actually is, and how easy for others to replicate
• any potential gotchas in getting the app approved by Apple (their guidelines are strict as to what they allow in the store these days)
• what you might need to learn in order to code this yourself, with suggestions for downloadable books, websites and forums

[red_slr]

ok cheers will do