[Adium-devl] Adium iPhone

[Ryan R. LaMothe]

It seems to me that you have a specific philosophical difference from  
other developers, about commercial (ie. for pay) software development,  
which is fine.  But I would like to offer a counterpoint or two  
regarding your points below.

1) Without the App Store, there would be no supported SDK, centralized  
distribution system, centralized marketing, centralized payment  
system, et. al.

2) To support #1, I have done a fair amount of J2ME development for  
the Blackberry for commercial clients.  Since there is no centralized  
distribution system, centralized or even standardized installation  
system, centralized payment system, etc. development on the Blackberry  
is a complete pain in the ass.  And terrible from a user perspective,  
especially people who are not technical people, when it comes to  
installing applications, updating applications, etc.

3) The convenience of #1 to overcome to PITA of #2 costs money.  It  
costs developers money and it costs Apple money.

4) If Apple does not make money, they go out of business.  Without  
Apple, there is no iPhone, iPod, etc.  So, selling the application,  
even for a nominal fee works to support the entire development and  
commercial ecosystem that allows any of this to exist.

6) The key to successful, profitable software development is simple:   
The right product for the right price.  Will Adium for iPhone selling  
at $0.99 sell a million copies?  Quite possibly.  Will Adium for  
iPhone at $15.99 sell a million copies? I doubt it.  This is just an  
illustration to make the point.


I am glad to see such lively discussion about this possible  
application :)


-Ryan

On Jan 23, 2009, at 1:19 AM, Peter Hosey wrote:

> On 2009-01-22, at 21:56, Chris Forsythe wrote:
>> Pro
>> - It's cheaper than SMS - Obviously, if you are already paying for  
>> data, and you are not paying for additional SMS for more than 200  
>> messages out to people.
>
> Alternate version:
>
> - It exists, unlike SMS
>
> +10 from my iPod touch and me.
>
>> - It'd be a neat project - Obvious.
>
> I abstain, for now. If I get the jailbreak toolchain working, I may  
> hack on it (if it's free), but I will not participate in the App  
> Store as it currently exists.
>
> And, of course, *everything* I write for Mobile Adium would need to  
> pass through another developer for review before it can go into  
> Mobile Adium's main repo for inclusion in the official app, since  
> I'm sure Mobile Adium will not be available for jailbreak (I'm not  
> suggesting that it should).
>
>> - It'd be a possible way to generate a lot of money for the project  
>> and possibly employ a few of the key Developers - Do some math. If  
>> 100 copies were sold at 1.99, you get 200 dollars for the project.  
>> If 100000 copies are sold, etc etc.
>
> If we sell it.
>
> I'm against selling Adium for the same reason I'm not an App Store  
> developer—I don't want to contribute money to that system.  
> Therefore, if the rest of you decide to sell Mobile Adium, then I  
> simply won't work on it at all.
>
> So, on the scale from 1 to 10, 1 from me.
>
>> Persistent availability
>
> Not really. If your device is asleep, or if you quit Mobile Adium,  
> you stop being available on the device.
>
> 2 from me.
>
>> - <+sholt> sending cat pictures to that one guy you kinda sorta  
>> like, but don't want to get your phone number - Tasty sammiches for  
>> all.
>
> Hm, I guess so. I keep IM handles pretty close to the vest, too, but  
> if I had to give someone my IM handle or my number, I'd give them my  
> IM handle. 3 from me.
>
>> Cons
>> - It will be a lot of work. - A lot of people are able to work on  
>> Adium part of the time, but the question is whether those same  
>> people can work on another IM client code base, more or less.
>
> 6.
>
>> - There isn't a lot of ways to make an IM client on the iPhone  
>> unique. - I can't think of a way to make an iPhone application for  
>> IM very unique from other IM applications on the iPhone.
>
> 2. Unique is bad. Mac-like Adium only works on the Mac. For the  
> iPhone, we should make an iPhone-like Adium.
>
>> - Translating Adium to the iPhone is unlikely. - Adium has a lot of  
>> fun and unique properties that I don't see translating very well to  
>> the iPhone.
>
> 5. Mainly the Xtras, especially sounds (I, for one, will not pull  
> out my earphones to use IM). For that matter, unless Adium is  
> actually running, sounds won't happen on the iPhone, either.
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Adium-devl mailing list
> Adium-devl at adiumx.com
> http://adiumx.com/mailman/listinfo/adium-devl_adiumx.com