Marc Charbonneau’s Blog

I’m happy to announce the availability of WeatherMin on the Mac App Store! Like most Mac developers who are bringing software to the App Store, this is somewhat of an experiment for me. The Mac App Store is still in its early stages, and although my hopes are high I have no way of telling what the payoff will be or what unexpected issues might come up. For all the downsides though, I want to do my best to reach all my potential customers. It’s clear the App Store is the best way to do this.

For the time being I will continue to distribute WeatherMin through my own FastSpring online store, as well as release free updates with Sparkle. This is certainly more work on my end, but I think it’s the only fair way to treat existing customers who have already purchased a license.

Oh, and as part of the App Store experiment, I’m also lowering the price of WeatherMin. You can get it now for $4.99, either on the Mac App Store or my own online store. Enjoy!

Steven Frank, of Panic co-founder fame, is taking a stand against the iPhone.

When the app store first opened, there were some questionable decisions, and like most everyone, I was willing to forgive Apple a few transgressions as they were navigating new, exciting (and rocky) territory. Historically, Apple has made bad decisions, but they’ve generally corrected them. (The $100 refunds for original launch-day iPhone purchasers after the price dropped come to mind.) The boat may turn slowly, but nothing before has ever suggested to me that Apple are actively malicious.

But after an entire year of continuous bad decisions that are hostile to developers and consumers alike, we’ve moved on from “working out the kinks” to good old-fashioned getting fucked.

Every week it seems like there’s more and more developer backlash about App Store policies and the viability of making a living as an independent iPhone developer. I don’t blame them; right now the App Store is not a platform I would want to commit to. At the same time though, I’m not about to give up my own plans for the iPhone. Most of the apps I have in mind are companion apps to desktop Macintosh applications I’ve been working on over the past year or two. While I might make money on the iPhone apps alone, I don’t see them as a way to make rent as much as I see them as a way to augment and improve the work I’m already doing on the Mac. And I think most Cocoa developers will agree with me when I say that OS X is still a pretty sweet platform to write software for.

Most eBook readers let you download books online, or transfer them from your computer. Classics takes an entirely different approach by bundling only a select few books, each with its own cover and illustration drawn from scratch by artists David Lanham and Sebastiaan de With. The result (packaged together with a great custom UI, sound and animation) really makes the app shine in a way that no other eBook reader I’ve seen has attempted. It’s the interface you’re paying for though; all the books are public domain and are available for free through other eBook readers.

Currently 12 books have been packaged and included in Classics. Free updates will include more books in the future. My only concern is the possibility that after two or three more books the developers will stop development and move on to something new. A lot of recent talk about the App Store indicates that sales fall dramatically once your app drops out of the new and featured lists. However, both Phil Ryu and Andrew Kaz have told me via Twitter that they are in fact dedicated to continual updates, and a have a lot of great stuff lined up for it.

Fundware is just one announcement from United Lemur, a company founded recently by engineer Mike Lee. The idea is for new software companies to start out with a small (but high quality) offering, such as an iPhone App. Visitors to Fundware decide to purchase the application not just on its own merit, but also on the potential of the company itself. If successful, the revenue from Fundware will give the new company capital they need to get off the ground and start producing great full-sized applications.

Most “indie” Macintosh software companies (including mine!) are started with free time and a savings account, not investment venture capital or loans. This seems like a great way to help out developers who have great ideas, but lack the time or money to implement them.

The first featured application is Puzzllotto, United Lemur’s own initial iPhone offering. Apart from being the driving force behind some great applications, Mike Lee has some lofty goals for United Lemur and how it will impact the Mac software development community— I hope he’s successful.

The past month or two has seen a lot of controversy over rejections in the Apple’s iPhone App Store. Apple has pulled not just “joke” apps which don’t have any quality or substance behind them, but seemingly legitimate applications like Podcaster and Nullriver’s NetShare.

I haven’t done any iPhone development yet, but I am thinking about porting a version of my OS X application Runner’s Log. By its nature Runner’s Log is a pretty tame application, but this news still concerns me. Is it possible it could fall under the ‘duplicate functionality’ clause the Podcaster was rejected for? The new iPod Touch has Nike+ software (which is definitely a competitor) built in, and it’s certainly possible it might make it into the iPhone eventually. What if my version of Runner’s Log could upload data to a website the same way Nike+ did? What if it could read Nike+ data as well?

Now, this is enough to bother me, but I’m not really concerned about it. I think the chances of Runner’s Log being rejected are honestly pretty low, if at all. But what if instead, you imagine Hulu as an example. Hulu is NBC’s flash based online TV service, and it seems to me there’s no reason they couldn’t create an iPhone app similar to YouTube if they wanted. Except, of course, that it would be a direct competitor to TV show sales in the iTunes Store. It wouldn’t exactly be duplicating iTunes, but how would Apple handle that?

Hulu has NBC behind it, so maybe it’s not fair to compare them to the typical indie developer shop that doesn’t have its own lawyers or high-up connections with Apple. The point I’m trying to make though, is that there are plenty examples of perfectly reasonable applications that could potentially fall victim to Apple. This is an area where Apple needs to be more upfront, either by providing a comprehensive list of what will and won’t be allowed, or through more communication with developers before the development process begins. Software companies big and small can’t afford to spend three, six months (or longer, in many cases) when there’s a possibility the application won’t even have a chance to pay off in the end.

The App Store is new, probably still overwhelmed with requests, and I have no reason to believe the process won’t continue to improve over time. Right now though, this is not a good situation to be in.