Hi Folks,

I probably should wait until its visible on the App Store but... nah.

My first iPhone app, GigCal 1.0, has been accepted as "Ready for Sale" and should appear on the App Store in the next day or two (hopefully sooner rather than later).

You can check out what its about at http://apps.ludavico.com/. Here's a blurb. Also, I'm happy to say that no-one else has made this type of app (at least searching on the AU store).

GigCal is an application designed specifically for performing musicians, bands and/or groups to manage their gigs and events and provide specialised gig related features. Such features include event set list creation, emailing of event details and set lists for printing, artists' song list creation with lyrics and the ability to email song lyrics to friends or band mates.

Other features include stage size and venue environment fields for venue contact information and full integration with the Phone, Maps, Safari and Mail applications when viewing venue information.

GigCal can be used to manage up to three artists, whether they are a solo performer, group or band. It is priced at $4.99 AU ($3.99 US) and can be found on the iTunes App Store via the link below.

http://apps.ludavico.com/images/GigCal_Smaller.jpg

This has made my day!

Nice work dude, sounds cool

Cheers. I'm already working on v2.0 and its not even fully released!

Yep. Hope the $$ rols in eh?

Yep. Hope the $$ rols in eh?

While I'm not expecting any sort of figure, I'm certain that it could attract a bit of attention since nothing else does this kind of thing.

But dreaming-wise, I hope to make $30K, pay off my uni loan and buy a VT commodore. haha. If I make half a mil, I'll buy a house.

And then the BAS forms will rock up... UGH

last edited by 3dee at 12:23:45 20/Jan/09

i was reading about some young fellas who made "ifrost" (frosts up your idevice)

apparently its raking in the cash for them

Yeah iSteam I think its called. APparently they made 11 grand in first month or week or something. Rediculous! ANd its just a novelty app!

^ f***ing hell!
Bet there's not nearly as big of a market for nokia apps!

why didn't I choose iPhone over my n96?! oh wait...that's right, cus it rocks! :D

Bet there's not nearly as big of a market for nokia apps!

I think it's more the way they executed it. I never ever used the app download stuff on my Nokia(s). Whereas with iPhone its a big and seamless feature of the iPhone as a product and for developers, the SDK is likely much better (and easier to use) than Nokia Symbian development.

I think your market is pretty small. Performing musicians? There are probably under 50k of them in Australia. Assuming one in ten has an iphone there is a market of 5000, who then see the need to buy this program?

Don't like your chances, soz..

agree^

I think your market is pretty small. Performing musicians? There are probably under 50k of them in Australia. Assuming one in ten has an iphone there is a market of 5000, who then see the need to buy this program?

Don't like your chances, soz..

I know I'm not targeting the majority. But, for that minority, its a very useful app. I'm in that minority and are using this app myself. Like I said, I don't expect anything, but it would great if something did come out of it.

Besides, I have it initially released in Australian, United States, United Kingdom, New Zealand and Canadian stores so I've got a bit more audience than just Australia.

last edited by 3dee at 13:59:43 20/Jan/09

I think your market is pretty small. Performing musicians? There are probably under 50k of them in Australia. Assuming one in ten has an iphone there is a market of 5000, who then see the need to buy this program?

im guessing from this:

It is priced at $4.99 AU ($3.99 US)

it is also available to the americans.

it is also available to the americans.

Yeah. As above, its initially released in Australian, United States, United Kingdom, New Zealand and Canadian stores.

But the cool thing is, I can get translations (I'd prolly stick to latin alphabet languages like Italian etc), and then release it more countries. Hell, I could probably release it everywhere but a lot of countries aren't English native so wouldn't do it without translations.

last edited by 3dee at 14:05:47 20/Jan/09

Google calendars seems to allow most of this stuff aswell...

Do you need to have access to an iPhone to make something like this? Is there an emulator?

Do you need to have access to an iPhone to make something like this? Is there an emulator?

There's the iPhone Simulator which hooks into XCode but you need a Mac as the toolchain is all Mac.

can you tell us a bit about the process of getting your program approved by apple?

1. Buy a Mac with OS X 10.5 (Leopard).


2. Register as an iPhone developer (free) via developer.apple.com/iphone


3. Learn the SDK, and learn to use XCode, Interface Builder and the Simulator


4. Decide you have a fantastic idea


5. Register for the paid developer program ($119 AU) and be able to debug on your device


6. Register an ABN and GST and send a few forms off to Apple, while entering other bank details etc


7. This will sign you into a "Paid Apps Contract"


8. Finish your app.


9. Use the program portal to create code signing profiles etc to add to your XCode App Store target build.


10. Make a website (crappy or not).


11. ZIP and upload via iTunes Connect (itunesconnect.apple.com) filling in all your descriptions and product codes and dates, localisation, pricing, screenshots etc


12. Wait for either a "Ready for Sale" (from a few days to a few weeks) or the dreaded "Your application cannot be sold on the App Store" rejection email (with bug descripions).


13. Run around in glee when you receive said Ready for Sale email and wait a day or three for the App Store to show up


14. Watch either s***all or a whole bucketload of money get deposited after a month or two


15. Swear at the BAS statement forms when they arrive in the mail given that you've never owned or have a clue about owning a business


16. Buy a new car or boat.

last edited by 3dee at 15:29:54 20/Jan/09

What %age does Apple take from you?

30%. But I have a feeling there was 5% extra from the tax treaty between US and AU goverments (reduces tax to prevent double taxation).

I'll have to see how it goes anywayz.

From what I can tell from the reviews people write in the AppStore, there are a lot of people who would be willing to pay for this, regardless of whether or not they have a band.

For the most part, I'm not into misleading the public, but because you're a "local" and anyone can write a review of an App, I think QGL should get on board and give you a heap of good reviews and 5 star ratings, just to get a bit of a bump up the App list. I think if you make the top 25 App list, you'll make a fair bit of bread. So let us know when it's up and I'll write you a 5 star review.

Register an ABN and GST and send a few forms off to Apple, while entering other bank details etc

Was registering for GST a requirement to deal with Apple? or did they just recommend you do it?

cheers bh

It's up now actually. Just searched on my iphone. Just search "gigcal". The link is obscure so can't type it on iPhone.

Yeah they require you GST regardless of whether you make more than the threshold ($75K).

Actually BH just remembered you have to buy it to review it.

That's very cool, just have to sit back and watch the cash roll into your bank.

Do you see you sales as realtime, weekly, monthly etc???

Yeah they require you GST regardless of whether you make more than the threshold ($75K).

That sucks :(
Assuming they require you to provide them with a valid tax invoice to be paid your 70%?

iTunes link

Not sure about sales. I have a feeling you can see daily. But the payment is kept until at least $250US is made (per store) then up to 15 days after end of month you get the dosh.

so its a calendar for giggalos?

Actually BH just remembered you have to buy it to review it.

You sure? If so that must be a fairly new thing.

Besides, I have it initially released in Australian, United States, United Kingdom, New Zealand and Canadian stores so I've got a bit more audience than just Australia.

You could release it anywhere around the world and the end result would be the same, $0..
Because we all know Muso's have no money ;D


Seriously though, Good luck for the program and hope it serves you well. Seems like a good idea.

Enjoy your soon to be new boat :D

expand your market and give it added functionality for DJs too :D

nice work man, hope you make some phatl00t

Submit an enhancement request :P

You could release it anywhere around the world and the end result would be the same, $0..
Because we all know Muso's have no money ;D

Pretty much. I'll be buying s*** with the funds hahaha

If you start making s***loads of scratch dude its mos def worth talking to an accountant about how to deal with it all. Keep that in mind!@#

Yeah, cause I have no business experience whatsoever :S

Yeah, cause I have no business experience whatsoever :S

I coulda sworn you wrote something above about not knowing what the ABN stuff was all about but maybe I imagined it

Yeah I know what an ABN and GST is, I'm just a business, tax and form newb. I was happy when I could just chuck in my income into e-tax and hit NO 30 times. But now it might be a little more complicated :P Def gonna go see the TaxMan

^ You'll probably have to do a yearly bas, remember 10% of what you receive is the taxmans GST......in addition to 15-30% of the NET (ie after 10%) income less expenses. You'll have a GST bill guaranteed, and depending on your regular refunds, may have tax to pay on the income.

Thus why i asked about GST requirement, basically apple want to claim a 10% input tax credit from you, and make you pay the GST, thus the requirement to be registered.
If you don't have to provide them a valid tax invoice and it's not specifically stipulated in the contract (between you and apple), i'd be inclined not to register for GST. It's up to Apple to check with the ABR that you are registered for GST before they claim the credit. But yeah...at the end of the day it's only 10%

But really depends what the contract says, whether your a partner in the sale or whatever. Apple probably have their bases covered unfort :(

PS keep invoices etc for all of your computer programs etc you needed to buy to develop the program. Internet expenses etc etc.

Keep receipts from expensive restaurants for "business meetings" as well.

Will do ;)

taking clients to a night at the ballet too ;)

A colleague of mine at work has some games up on the store and is pulling down some pretty nice $$ from it (over $3g a week(.

Seems a pretty sweet way to earn bucks as a solo developer if you know your s***.

3K a week f*** yeah.

Pity I won't know anything until tomorrow really.

Good luck mate! I think this program is a nifty idea and I know stacks of people who would use this program if they were gay enough to buy iPhones :P

I'd get it translated into Spanish first if I were you. It's the fourth most common native language in the world and it uses the Latin alphabet!

this is really cool.. if u need a good review let me know where to type it!

You'd have to buy it first :)

They closed that loophole a little while ago (competitors posting 1 star reviews...)

I'd get it translated into Spanish first if I were you. It's the fourth most common native language in the world and it uses the Latin alphabet!

Yeah my goal is to have a few non-english translations (not by Google ha).

I'd get it translated into Spanish first if I were you. It's the fourth most common native language in the world and it uses the Latin alphabet!

is this a joke??? Why not get it translated into the 1st, 2nd and 3rd most common languages first???

^^ can china and india buy iapps? ^^

I'm gonna put it on the Huttese store one day.

i suggest posting this on the gamearena forums as well as any other forums you know of.

is this a joke??? Why not get it translated into the 1st, 2nd and 3rd most common languages first???

Because they're not latin-based, and I'm pretty sure it doesn't need to be translated into English? There's a lot of different answers as to the top 5, but almost all have English and Spanish as the primary Latin charset languages.

1. Mandarin Chinese: 885 million
2. Spanish: 332 million
3. English: 322 million
4. Bengali: 189 million
5. Hindi: 182 million

Also looking at the list of popular languages, a lot of them are for cultures where iPhone ownership and gig scheduling probably isn't a big priority for most people.

last edited by Hogfather at 20:17:27 20/Jan/09

Maybe it's because I don't know what "latin-based" means, but why not suggest to translate into Mandarin, or Indian, for example?

Also, someone needs to report iTunes to the ACCC or whatever it's called, because so often the description will advertise a different price to the one actually listed. It's f***ing gay and annoying.

i have epic ideas for apps. alas no mac

Edit: nm

Latin alphabet is the A-Z alphabet that so many languages use.

The only real reason (in my app) non-latin languages are a bit difficult is that the Venues list is sectioned into A-Z. So you'll see headers from "A" to "Z" with the venues sorted into those. Its easy for Latin based languages because you can just do "#ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ".

What would a Chinese alphabet be?!?

I sent out some mad advertising for you! I twittered everyone to check out GigCal, it's made by a friend.

I'll give it to a band member and then get them to write a review, and I'll throw it up on MacTalk.com.au for you.

Keep receipts from expensive restaurants for "business meetings" as well.

Yeah ahh...no. The majority of "business lunches/dinner" cannot be claimed - unless travelling.

Cheers exo and paradigm :-)

I just wanna see some results tomorrow! Hopefully something has happened by then...

but why not suggest to translate into Mandarin, or Indian, for example?

I assume by 'Indian' you mean Hindi. Hindi and Mandarin Chinese use non-Latin script, so they would probably be more difficult or expensive to translate.

Usually, the more closely two languages are related, the easier they will be to translate between one and the other. English, Spanish and Hindi are all Indo-European languages, meaning they are more closely related to each other than they are to Mandarin. They should translate between each other more easily than they would to Mandarin Chinese. English and Spanish are even more closely related, so they should translate more easily between each other than they would with Hindi. If you looked at translating something from Spanish to Portuguese, you'd find that it would be quite easy as the languages are so closely related and share large collection of cognates and grammars.

The Romance languages (i.e. languages that were a result of Romans combining with local dialects and languages) use a Latin script, and while a lot of their words use those fancy symbols above letters, they are gradually being phased out as most of them are superfluous and do not form minimal pairs in written script. Most Germanic languages and many Slavic languages are in the same boat.

Ha, I posted on GameArena and some Vagabob prick flamed me.

Then it got removed as advertising.

I love the internet.

last edited by 3dee at 09:45:44 21/Jan/09

Ha, I posted on GameArena and some Vagabob prick flamed me.

Then it got removed as advertising.

I love the internet.last edited by 3dee at 09:45:44 21/Jan/09

We remove everything commercial as advertising on GA; you never had a chance. If you were some random newb posting here your post would have probably been smashed too :)

Haha yeah I figured adverts would get disintegrated on sight on most forums.

I'm feelin' the love, i'm feelin' it. hahah. Now I just gotta get our bassist to buy it and give me a sweet review >< ha

Great explanation CT. Now I get why what I was sayig was dumb:)

all this iphone love needs a little balancing out

http://img102.imageshack.us/img102/7456/thegoogstg9.jpg

You've got a G1? I'm somewhat jealous.

:-) haha

http://img135.imageshack.us/img135/7736/90037688wh6.jpg

Sounds good. I wrote some an event managment website, with the ability to sell tix online.

I got an idea i was gonna write for wm6 phones, sell on handango.

Awesome. Yeah there's some ticket apps I think but mine won't be doing that (too complicated for me tbh). Also, this is so lame.. Apple introduced promo code creation for developers to seed their apps to reviewers etc but they only work in the US store ... Sigh. What about the other 70 odd App stores???

http://unix.org.au/~brett/iphone/issh04.jpg

http://unix.org.au/~brett/iphone/issh02.jpg

http://unix.org.au/~brett/iphone/issh03.jpg

hah madness

http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g95/neda85/photo.jpg

haha

Sweeet. First review is 5 stars. Say hes been waiting for this app for ages. (etc etc). uk store

last edited by 3dee at 21:46:24 21/Jan/09

Let us know how much money you make :D

Unless its a large "gimme some... GIVE ME IT OR ILL MUG U" figure :P

Now this is an iPod app!

Har har I've made 30 bucks in the first day :) and hardly anyone knows about it yet

Great explanation CT. Now I get why what I was sayig was dumb:)

Heh no worries. It's kind of my area of expertise.

I know heaps of people I'll tell about this app. Unfortunately, I don't think any of them have iPhones :(

i've got alot of ideas.. but unfortunality i have no idea how to program yet even write half a html code... so anyone can point me in the right direction of where i can tell this programmer what i want and KAABOOOM KAAABAAAM?

Iedetonator

so anyone can point me in the right direction of where i can tell this programmer what i want and KAABOOOM KAAABAAAM?

Your local mosque.

now now fpot, lets stay on topic.. or do you have a.d.d or something?

Yes :(

i've got alot of ideas.. but unfortunality i have no idea how to program yet even write half a html code... so anyone can point me in the right direction of where i can tell this programmer what i want and KAABOOOM KAAABAAAM?

What are they? **runs away with ideas muahahaha**

zubzub, u should just get your hands on a mac and start learnin

ud be up and coding in no time!

Hey 3dee - just out of curiosity has the app started rolling in the money yet? Don't want to know the specific figures but a simply yes/no would suffice on whether or not it has met or exceeded your expectations on revenue.

And if it's exceeded I'll have the Scuderia in Red.

old mate at work has some good ideas for apps but was telling me theres a massive delay on getting the developers kit from apple, like 6 months/12 months

is that right?

Not that I know of? The SDK itself is free download whenever you want. If you want to stuff on the store you have to enroll in the dev program which can take a bit to get accepted (and then pay) but not that long.

Hey 3dee - just out of curiosity has the app started rolling in the money yet? Don't want to know the specific figures but a simply yes/no would suffice on whether or not it has met or exceeded your expectations on revenue.

Nope, far from it.

Made 8 sales first day, 3 the next then 8 each for the next 3 days then 25th i made 2 sales and 26th, none.

I need marketing in the music/band arena but are too poor. Its almost like one of those bands that whoever knows of them really loves their music but the rest of us havent even heard of. Sigh.

Not to mention the "New" section of the iTunes App Store front page is retarded. It has apps that were released back in September in it.

I'm just going to continue making 2.0 a much better product (and its much better in the small amount that I've developed so far) and then push that version.

I've also decided to add extra tools to it (in an Extras tab). A metronome is the first one (easy to make). Other one would be a guitar tuner (I'd have to learn FFT algorithms to pull this off).

Dunno what else I'd put in there but it would peak more interest. I could try and make it the "ultimate gigger's app".

Any ideas for other extra tools?

Also:

"Old and busted"
http://img141.imageshack.us/img141/4027/img0004ti3.png
http://img217.imageshack.us/img217/3682/img00031fb0.png

"New hotness"
http://img141.imageshack.us/img141/72/copyofimg0004nd1.png

http://img217.imageshack.us/img217/1564/img00051is0.png http://img218.imageshack.us/img218/4183/img00061gm5.png http://img147.imageshack.us/img147/9586/img00071nt6.png http://img147.imageshack.us/img147/7421/img00081zi4.png http://img407.imageshack.us/img407/8963/img00091nq3.png

last edited by 3dee at 10:54:57 28/Jan/09

last edited by 3dee at 11:11:14 28/Jan/09

You could look at is using PPC (AdWords is the best/easiest) and build up some specific keyword targetting and pay say 25-50c a click. If you're selling for $5 an app then you should go for a 25% CTR so in theory it would cost between $1-2 to generate the sale but you'd make $3 as profit.

Another method could be Facebook advertising if you have friends or groups that are like minded - easier to target.

I've tried both Facebook and Google AdWords for little campaigns for things on AG and found I got much better returns from the Google stuff, even with the targeting in Facebook, which I thought was weird. Maybe I newbed it up though, I haven't spent a lot of time on it. But yeh I would definitely go adwords and see how you go; as it is relatively specific I suspect your costs per click will be lower than 25-50c (?) so you might be able to get away with even cheaper advertising

Well yeah they're a few ways of doing it, but tbph, I don't exactly have any money to fork out on advertisement given that I have no idea if it'll actually help at all which is a bummer, not to mention I'm forking out money for recording our EP in 2 weeks and saving up money as I don't get paid for time off. That's the problem with some of us developers, we have no money!

Well I've signed up for AdWords with a small $50/month budget so I'll see how it goes anyhoo. Better than nothing.



last edited by 3dee at 12:01:55 28/Jan/09

last edited by 3dee at 12:02:34 28/Jan/09

build it for Android yo

Haha I thought of this app idea this arvo, came home spent about three hours coding, tweaking, and making some artwork, and just submitted to the app store. $2US with 11 string localisations, and destined for the whole world.

http://apps.ludavico.com/?page=colortool

What else can I make?

Can you consume / connect to WSDL web services with the internet connectivity s*** easily with an iPhone?

Don't know anything about WSDL but the APIs consume any normal HTTP server data (along with a bunch of other networking data methods). So if its a PHP page which spits out one of these XML WSDL files then sure. And you can obviously send/receive HTTP messages directly.

is the google adwords meant to be working, i searched specificaly for the musicans calander and no ad.

My budget isn't exactly high but yeah. I've had a few clicks but I'm just getting some trends with my keywords then I might tweak the ad. Sales of GigCal are almost nothing last 2 days :'(

I might take it up to $100 a month for the moment and see what happens with the auto budget crap. Its not like I cant afford $25 bucks a week.

Saving is a bitch

Look 3D, we love you and all but we stopped giving a s*** a while ago. Unless you get rich and start hosting QGL lans again, stop updating with useless content.

Hope you get rich and start hosting lans,

Tigers***

this just in, newb declares thread over

f*** off bats*** I'm interested in the process, and to see if he does ok. I'm sure others are too.

Isn't that what blogs are for?? surely you could double your adstream with a dev diary or something?? get exo to pimp it on Mactalk au (where they're much more mac friendly)

Great ideas.. Wrong audience, wrong allocation of time/resources to cater for said wrong audience = poor product.. Thats why alot of stuff never sees the light of day, good ideas that are pitched poorly. Get to spamming music forums (does ilounge still exist?? Inthemix etc etc..)

what FraktuRe said.

QGL ... LANs... BAHAHAHAHA.

Yeah I'm a semi newb at marketing, but moreso just poor. Been meaning to go on some music forums actually. Frakture are you looking at doing some iPhone devving?

Also i'm not posting here to pitch my apps. If youre interested the apple dev process like frak then cool otherwise let the thread visit page 2 in peace. Simple. Or ask trog to crush kill and destroy it. Just get outta my thread if you're just trolling it.

I'd love to if I had the ideas for it, or any experience.. I'm a long way of doing anything useful yet.