Open Source iOS app development as a business model

[Dave Sag]

Hi People,

I have been chatting to a few people about the app I am currently
building and it seems a number of people are also as unimpressed with
the current crop of GPS cycling apps and are interested in building a
much better one.

Once I have the guts of the app's UI written I am thinking of hosting
it all on GitHub as an open source project but selling the resulting
app on the iStore and pooling the resulting money to be used to fund
better bike infrastructure in australian cities. I'd establish a
formal Foundation for this purpose and look into things like valuing
code contributions etc as tax deductible activities in order to
further encourage code contributions.

Has anyone else gone down this route?

Cheers

Dave

http://davesag.blogspot.com
http://flickr.com/people/daveasg
http://github.com/davesag

[Steven Holloway]

Another example is githubs ioctocat

Think it's about $5.

Sent from my iPhone

On 11/09/2010, at 1:36 PM, Rafif Yalda <rafif...@gmail.com> wrote:

> Actually scrap that. PocketFlicks is an example.
>
> http://code.google.com/p/metasyntactic/wiki/PocketFlix
> http://itunes.apple.com/app/pocketflicks/id301386724?mt=8
>
> On Sep 11, 1:32 pm, Rafif Yalda <rafifya...@gmail.com> wrote:
>> Hi Dave,
>>
>> I'm not sure if anyone's charged for an open source app, there's not
>> too many on the App Store. The largest I know of is Wordpress for iOS
>> (http://ios.wordpress.org/development/) but they don't charge for it.
>> Something tells me there's something deep in the developer agreement
>> with regards to other distribution methods that this might come close
>> to crossing if you charged.
>>
>> Interesting idea, just make sure to find out from Apple or find
>> examples - you don't want to put all that effort in to find out you
>> have to release it on Cydia..
>>
>> - Raf.

>>> http://davesag.blogspot.comhttp://flickr.com/people/daveasghttp://git...
>
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[Claus Höfele]

Nice list of 50 iPhone open source apps: http://ntt.cc/2010/09/05/50-open-source-iphone-apps-for-iphone-developers.html

The ones I tried don't charge for the app in the App Store, but there might be some that do.

-Claus

[Oliver Jones]

Other examples include the Doom and Wolf 3D games. John Carmack released the source to those games ages ago and then when he did the ports to iPhone based the code off the subsequently community modified GPL sources. You can get the iPhone source code from the id Software web/ftp site.

http://www.idsoftware.com/wolfenstein-3d-classic-platinum/
http://www.idsoftware.com/doom-classic/

Regards

On 11/09/2010, at 1:34 PM, Rafif Yalda wrote:

> Actually scrap that. BoxOffice (renamed to PocketFlix) is an example.

>
> http://code.google.com/p/metasyntactic/wiki/PocketFlix
> http://itunes.apple.com/app/pocketflicks/id301386724?mt=8
>
> On Sep 11, 1:32 pm, Rafif Yalda <rafifya...@gmail.com> wrote:
>> Hi Dave,
>>
>> I'm not sure if anyone's charged for an open source app, there's not
>> too many on the App Store. The largest I know of is Wordpress for iOS
>> (http://ios.wordpress.org/development/) but they don't charge for it.
>> Something tells me there's something deep in the developer agreement
>> with regards to other distribution methods that this might come close
>> to crossing if you charged.
>>
>> Interesting idea, just make sure to find out from Apple or find
>> examples - you don't want to put all that effort in to find out you
>> have to release it on Cydia..
>>
>> - Raf.
>>
>> On Sep 11, 1:25 pm, Dave Sag <dave...@gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>
>>

>>> http://davesag.blogspot.comhttp://flickr.com/people/daveasghttp://git...

[Tim Lucas]

Seen http://kickstarter.com/ ? If you've got the chops to build it then raise pre-sales money on there. It could be simply private like a normal commercial app, or you could do the open-source thang.

[Dave Newman]

Looks like kickstarter's only US based right now. http://www.kickstarter.com/help/faq#DoIHaveToBeUsbToStarAProj They say international is coming...

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Dave Newman · http://snappyco.de · @whatupdave

[davesag]

Thanks all for your input on this.

I've done some reading and as far as I can tell there is nothing in
the rules about how your structure a development team or what you do
with the money from app sales.

Kickstarter is
a) USA Only (not such an issue, my brother lives there and assures me
he can accept money on my behalf or even set me up a US based
Foundation fairly easily), but
b) Kickstarter is for smaller creative projects, not for financing a
business venture, which this, even tho based around OSS and doing good
things for cyclists, is.

I've registered with profounder.com however, which looks interesting.

A key reason for thinking about making the app OSS is that there are a
number of people all doing the same approximate thing and I just can't
stand duplicated or wasted effort. I started on this app because it's
an app i want to use, not cos I think it'll make me rich, and also
because I need some project in mind to work on to learn Objective-C
etc and it always easier to learn stuff quickly when you have
collaborators.

But I'd like to sell the app (of course being OSS others could make a
direct competitor easily enough) thru the app store as many things
worth doing are worth doing for money imho and I know the Govt, any
Govt have no interest in funding improvements to cycling
infrastructure.

I do have a loose business plan around this concept too, it's not all
altruistic :-)

The other thing I've been tinkering with is designing a really good
lightweight aluminium handlebar mount and hub-based electromagnetic
induction powered iPhone charger and will set up a simple web-shop
(also teaching myself Ruby and Sinatra) to retail those, and drive
traffic to the shop from the app. Also I figure if the app allows for
feature unlocking via in-app purchase, other developers could write
plugins for the main app and make some money off that.

Just kicking ideas around really and interested to see what other
developers are thinking about in terms of better business models than
one of
a) The Consultant: get paid by the hour, or the app to work for
someone else,
b) The Pop Star: keep churning out apps until one takes off and you
can retire, or
c) The Session Muso: writes apps for fun, gets paid to do some, sells
some themselves

Cheers on a lazy Sunday (about to go for a ride actually)

Dave

ps: anyone tried using Git and Omnigraffle files - how does it handle
merges? okay? that would be great if that worked.

On Sep 11, 10:22 pm, Dave Newman <ddanger...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Looks like kickstarter's only US based right now.http://www.kickstarter.com/help/faq#DoIHaveToBeUsbToStarAProjThey say
> international is coming...
>
>
>
>
>
> On Sat, Sep 11, 2010 at 7:04 PM, Tim Lucas <t.lu...@toolmantim.com> wrote:
> > Seenhttp://kickstarter.com/? If you've got the chops to build it then

> > raise pre-sales money on there. It could be simply private like a normal
> > commercial app, or you could do the open-source thang.
>

> > On 11/09/2010, at 1:25 PM, Dave Sag <dave...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > > Hi People,
>
> > > I have been chatting to a few people about the app I am currently
> > > building and it seems a number of people are also as unimpressed with
> > > the current crop of GPS cycling apps and are interested in building a
> > > much better one.
>
> > > Once I have the guts of the app's UI written I am thinking of hosting
> > > it all on GitHub as an open source project but selling the resulting
> > > app on the iStore and pooling the resulting money to be used to fund
> > > better bike infrastructure in australian cities.  I'd establish a
> > > formal Foundation for this purpose and look into things like valuing
> > > code contributions etc as tax deductible activities in order to
> > > further encourage code contributions.
>
> > > Has anyone else gone down this route?
>
> > > Cheers
>
> > > Dave
>
> > >http://davesag.blogspot.com
> > >http://flickr.com/people/daveasg
> > >http://github.com/davesag
>
> > --
> > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups
> > "Australian Cocoaheads" group.
> > To post to this group, send email to cocoah...@googlegroups.com.
> > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to

> > cocoaheadsau...@googlegroups.com<cocoaheadsau%2Bunsubscribe@google groups.com>
> > .

[Sean Woodhouse]

Dave,

I know you've probably already done heaps of research, but have you seen these guys?

http://en.pedalbrain.com/home

Seems like they're trying to build out a sustainable business model by charging a subscription for the back-end web services. They've also done the ANT+ sensor integration and bike mount.

Cheers

Sean.

[Sean Woodhouse]

So, in terms of a business model.

d) write an app for a vertical market (e.g. cycling) and OpenSource it. Give the app away for free on the App Store to generate interest and form a large user base. Write a compelling web application that integrates with (and value adds through social network, etc) the app and make money using a subscription model. Build hardware that integrates with App and make money off that. Then you get to reap the benefit of any new features and enhancements the community makes to the iPhone app through your subscribers and hardware purchases.

0.2c

> <IttyBittyStampEmail.jpg>

>> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to cocoaheadsau...@googlegroups.com.

[Rob Caporetto]

They're still in beta - and I've not had a chance to even try them,
but http://fundbreak.com.au is an Australian equivalent to
Kickstarter.

I'm unsure how popular/good/whatever they are - but until Kickstarter
get into gear with support for us down here… it might be worth
investigating :)

- R

On Sep 11, 7:04 pm, Tim Lucas <t.lu...@toolmantim.com> wrote:
> Seenhttp://kickstarter.com/? If you've got the chops to build it then raise pre-sales money on there. It could be simply private like a normal commercial app, or you could do the open-source thang.

[davesag]

Wow that does look cool, and, yay, aimed at a totally different market
to my app :-)

ANT+ looks cool, I've sent them an email to see what it costs to join
the ANT+ alliance (am guessing too much!)

Thanks

Dave

>  IttyBittyStampEmail.jpg
> 18KViewDownload

>
>
>
> On 12/09/2010, at 12:02 PM, davesag wrote:
>
>
>

> >>> Seenhttp://kickstarter.com/?If you've got the chops to build it then

> > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to cocoaheadsau...@googlegroups.com.

[davesag]

That's about it in a nutshell I'd say :-)

> >>>> Seenhttp://kickstarter.com/?If you've got the chops to build it then

[davesag]

They have the same issue as KS which is the funds are smallish and not
to be used for commercial projects.

Still a very interesting channel and worth keeping an eye on imho

d

On Sep 12, 4:48 pm, Rob Caporetto <rcapore...@gmail.com> wrote:
> They're still in beta - and I've not had a chance to even try them,

> buthttp://fundbreak.com.auis an Australian equivalent to

> Kickstarter.
>
> I'm unsure how popular/good/whatever they are - but until Kickstarter
> get into gear with support for us down here… it might be worth
> investigating :)
>
> - R
>
> On Sep 11, 7:04 pm, Tim Lucas <t.lu...@toolmantim.com> wrote:
>
>
>

> > Seenhttp://kickstarter.com/?If you've got the chops to build it then raise pre-sales money on there. It could be simply private like a normal commercial app, or you could do the open-source thang.