My first 3 years in the iPhone App Business - Getting ideas
In the past 3 years I have developed all kinds of apps.
All of my own creations tackle a specific "problem" I encountered and figured other people have or will face.
Just think of SonoQui. I have been travelling a lot mainly due to my long student life (university abroad, 2 Masters including MBA, professional certificates all in different countries). I'm italian therefore always had to keep in touch with my family. They were curious to know what I was up to and where I was. That's how I came up with SonoQui, one of my first apps on the AppStore. For a long time, it was the only app that allowed you to share your GPS location (including map and note) with friends and family via email or text.
Just think of MyLyrics. Shazam is awesome when you want to know artist and title of a song that is currently playing but what about when it's not? We've all woken up in the morning with a song in our head and didn't know what it was. Just a few repeating words in our head. It certainly happened to me and annoyed the bejeezus out of me. That's how MyLyrics came to me: insert a few words and it tells you the name of the song and in case different versions. Sure you can do it with a search but the aim of mobile apps is to simplify tasks and make interactions efficient.
Just think of PVMaster. My mother lives in the countryside outside of Florence, Tuscany. There is a huge olive grove all around the main villa. She's always been big on green energy, not wasting and efficiency therefore when solar panels started coming out she immediately wanted to look into it. Obviously it was my job to take care of it. After a long research I finally created my own set of tools to assess the feasibility of solar and/or photovoltaic panels depending on need and solar insolation and decided to share it with everyone with an app. PV Master makes things even easier because it retrieves and displays sun data that is specific for your location automatically.
Just think of MyBookList. My wife is an avid reader and has an extensive collection of books that she loves. Unfortunately I'm not a big book reader myself but I can tell how much they mean to her and how they in some way also represent stages of life. Many times she would discuss books with her friends but (very) few times couldn't remember an author or specific title. That's how MyBookList came up. Again, the first app to hit the AppStore that allowed you to keep track of the books you read or wish to read. A barcode scanner is included to make the process of adding books even easier which then get cross referenced with amazon to make sure all the correct details are included.
I could go on forever with the 50+ apps I currently have under my developer account on iTunes Connect. The point is that the beauty of my job is that I get to make people's lives (and my own) better with the use of apps. I've always been a problem solver therefore people actually enjoy sharing their common annoyances with me and it's awesome to come up with solutions that work.
This is why one of Pat's latest podcasts (which you can find here on SmartPassiveIncome.com) incredibly resonated with me.
All of my own creations tackle a specific "problem" I encountered and figured other people have or will face.
Just think of SonoQui. I have been travelling a lot mainly due to my long student life (university abroad, 2 Masters including MBA, professional certificates all in different countries). I'm italian therefore always had to keep in touch with my family. They were curious to know what I was up to and where I was. That's how I came up with SonoQui, one of my first apps on the AppStore. For a long time, it was the only app that allowed you to share your GPS location (including map and note) with friends and family via email or text.
Just think of MyLyrics. Shazam is awesome when you want to know artist and title of a song that is currently playing but what about when it's not? We've all woken up in the morning with a song in our head and didn't know what it was. Just a few repeating words in our head. It certainly happened to me and annoyed the bejeezus out of me. That's how MyLyrics came to me: insert a few words and it tells you the name of the song and in case different versions. Sure you can do it with a search but the aim of mobile apps is to simplify tasks and make interactions efficient.
Just think of PVMaster. My mother lives in the countryside outside of Florence, Tuscany. There is a huge olive grove all around the main villa. She's always been big on green energy, not wasting and efficiency therefore when solar panels started coming out she immediately wanted to look into it. Obviously it was my job to take care of it. After a long research I finally created my own set of tools to assess the feasibility of solar and/or photovoltaic panels depending on need and solar insolation and decided to share it with everyone with an app. PV Master makes things even easier because it retrieves and displays sun data that is specific for your location automatically.
Just think of MyBookList. My wife is an avid reader and has an extensive collection of books that she loves. Unfortunately I'm not a big book reader myself but I can tell how much they mean to her and how they in some way also represent stages of life. Many times she would discuss books with her friends but (very) few times couldn't remember an author or specific title. That's how MyBookList came up. Again, the first app to hit the AppStore that allowed you to keep track of the books you read or wish to read. A barcode scanner is included to make the process of adding books even easier which then get cross referenced with amazon to make sure all the correct details are included.
I could go on forever with the 50+ apps I currently have under my developer account on iTunes Connect. The point is that the beauty of my job is that I get to make people's lives (and my own) better with the use of apps. I've always been a problem solver therefore people actually enjoy sharing their common annoyances with me and it's awesome to come up with solutions that work.
This is why one of Pat's latest podcasts (which you can find here on SmartPassiveIncome.com) incredibly resonated with me.
Published: Thu, Nov 8 2012 @ 13:14:00
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