jgrall

"You do not have a right to decide what people do with the content." Smh. Yes, laws be damned.

If by "open and freely accessible" you mean there should be no rules of the road, then I suppose yes. Personally, I'm glad CF is pushing back on this naive mentality.

Not affiliated with CF in any way. Respectfully disagree. Calling out bad actors is in the public interest.

Ain't that the truth.

This made me laugh. A form of malicious compliance.

It’s not a good look when your technology is replicated for a fraction of the cost, and your response is to smear your competition with (probably) false accusations and cozy up to the US government to tighten already shortsighted export controls. Hubris & xenophobia are not going to serve American companies well. Personally I welcome the Chinese - or anyone else for that matter - developing advanced technologies as long as they are used for good. Humanity loses if we allow this stuff to be “owned” by a handful of companies or a single country.

Great article that is approachable enough to share with less technical folk. Thank you!

I actually considered generalizing the app along these lines, for just about any in-person appointment that you have to keep.

I have been approached by a number of companies over the years about selling Just Landed, including some household names. The trouble is, almost none of them wanted the app – they just wanted me as an employee. These weren't companies I could get super excited about working for - especially since I love being an entrepreneur and working for myself. Of the few who did want the app or the tech, their quality bar/taste wasn't a good fit, and I worried how they would treat my users. It was never about the money. Time is my most valuable resource.

Lots of people have asked me this, or suggested it. I have been approached by a number of companies over the years about selling Just Landed, including some household names. The trouble is, almost none of them wanted the app – they just wanted me as an employee. These weren't companies I could get super excited about working for - especially since I love being an entrepreneur and working for myself. Of the few who did want the app or the tech, their quality bar/taste wasn't a good fit. It was never about the money.

God no, but I'd like to see someone take on the incumbents.

I wouldn't go as far as saying that Google and Apple are actively deceiving developers. However, they do have a strong incentive to keep things the way they are, and to keep the end user ignorant of how the app economy functions.

You might be surprised to know that many customers on the App Store, and even some members of the press, seem to think that apps being featured by Apple have been bought by the company. I would get emails like: "how have things changed for you since Apple bought your app?"

If people knew how bad the app economy has become, there'd be far fewer app developers than there actually are, and the device makers would have a serious PR problem on their hands.

In the end though, I do believe that the short-term thinking I alluded to in my post will soon come home to roost. I do hope that Apple and Google course-correct before we end up in a situation where indie apps are a distant memory. It's in their long-term interest to keep the App Store diverse and the app economy healthy.

Correct. Features by Apple aren't a panacea – especially for paid apps. But without it, you're DOA.

They're welcome to try, but you're correct.

You got it. To profitably support commercial power users I would have had to change the business model to a pay-as-you-go subscription model. I considered doing this in a way that wouldn't shut out my casual users (for whom I created the app in the first place, and who are still the majority), but I had serious doubts about the willingness of taxi and limo drivers to pay for Just Landed on an ongoing basis.

The proliferation of half-decent free flight trackers (albeit without the unique airport pickup focus), the other systemic problems mentioned in my post, and the increasingly common cannibalization of utility apps by Apple's iOS itself, led me to the conclusion that such an endeavor was likely doomed to fail.

Just because you can find passionate users doesn't mean you've found a good business, and that was the case here.