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We’re back from WWDC and today we take a look at the enormous number of changes that were announced during the conference and how we think that those changes will affect our businesses. We start with our general impressions of the WWDC, then quickly move to our thoughts on what qualifies as the most significant announcement of the conference. And there was a lot to choose from. An entirely new programming language was announced as well as a number of changes to the iTunes Store that developers have been requesting for a long time. We reflect on the impact that this WWDC has had on the general mood of the developer community, and then close by considering whether attending WWDC was worth the time and expense from a business development perspective.
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We’re joined today by Brit Young, now of New Relic, who shares her story of going indie. Brit’s story is particularly interesting because in the midst of running a successful consulting business, she and her partner had the realization that a consulting business wasn’t what they really wanted. So they closed their startup, took a sabbatical, and took stock of their lives. They returned from their sabbatical recharged, and ready to go in new directions in order to follow their true passions. Listen as Brit shares the highs and lows of running a business, hiring employees, and competing in the Mac App Store.
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We start today by raving about our recent trip to the NSNorth conference, which was held in Ottawa, Canada. Then we change gears and jump into our main topic: WWDC. We don’t cover all the hints and tips we gave in our WWDC episode from last year, but Charles does explain the strategy he used to save 50% on his hotel costs. (Some planning required.) We also discuss a great restaurant we discovered last year, the best after hours parties we attended, the latest news from AltConf, and how to stay productive while you’re in San Francisco. See you all there!
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Today, Charles and Joe discuss the recent version 3.0 releases of their respective apps. Charles discusses his transition of backend providers and some of the problems and unexpected benefits that came up during the process. He also describes some of the challenges he faced in communicating these changes to his customers. Next, Joe catches us up on the release of Bombing Brain Interactive’s Teleprompt+ 3.0. He explains why they released it as a new SKU that has to be repurchased from the App Store, how they communicated that change to their customers, and how they helped their customers find the new app once it was released. Joe also shares how releasing the update as a new SKU has impacted their ranking in App Store search results, and gives his opinion on what types of apps can successfully release an update as a new SKU.
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We continue last week’s discussion of changes that we’d like to see in iOS 8 from our perspective as developers and business owners. We look at what we’d like to see change with App Store ratings and search results, discuss a possible way that developers could be allowed to respond to reviews, and consider the role that App Store reviews play in the purchase process. We close by looking at some improvements that we’d like to see in developer tools and how Apple could help strengthen the relationship between developers and their customers – if Apple wanted to.
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