So App Cubby is no more, but the people are the same. David Barnard is one of the good guys in the development scene who cares about his customers and the apps he makes. He’s showcasing a new app called Perfect Weather on the Contrast Web site.
App Cubby changes it name to Contrast
This weather app looks amazing. I immediately signed up when I heard about it earlier today.
I like it.
OK, I guess “good guy” now means a dev who spends too much time complaining, not updating his apps, and not coming through on promises to customers.
You might be surprised at how much I care about customers, and how hard I work to build the best apps I possibly can. I try to be very open on Twitter about things I’m working on, but sometimes that results in broken “promises”.
Look at iWork 09. Even with essentially unlimited resources a company sometimes has to make hard decisions to prioritize one thing over another. Gas Cubby and Trip Cubby have not been making much money the past couple years, so I had to put them on a shelf while I focused on other apps that paid the bills. Now that I was able to sell Gas Cubby to someone with the resources to update it more frequently, I’m reinvesting some of that money in updating Trip Cubby: http://davidbarnard.com/post/58971566236/trip-cubby-turns-five
I didn’t have to update Trip Cubby, I could have just paid myself a bonus and gone on vacation. I also could have invested the money in an app that had bigger revenue potential. It will likely take years for me to recoup this investment in Trip Cubby. But I do care about customers, and each app I’ve built holds a special place in my heart. I put so much effort into each app, not updating them or pulling them from the App Store is a gut wrenching decision. But sometimes it’s the only decision that makes sense and is the difference between me getting in over my head or staying afloat.
Customers are selfish, we always are.
I applaud your transparency.
LOL, I’m not a customer, because I wouldn’t expect any app I buy to be actively supported and taken care of.
Now David, I think you’re a brilliant guy, and I’m impressed every time I hear from you. I’ve long assumed that the disconnect there seems to be between your sensibility and how great your apps could be is that you personally don’t write the apps.
I’m not selfish at all, I just really freaking care. Why can’t a change in name equate to, you know, a “contrast” between old business and future business?
What specific things have given you the impression that my apps aren’t “actively supported and taken care of”?
David, just right up there so much about killing your apps. The original Launch Center that got SO MUCH press that never added anything new and then got killed. The new Launch Center that I got to play with that still got very few updates and again not a rapidly growing list of supported URLs.
Personally, if I were you, just a suggestion: There are other mileage apps, there’s Dark Sky and some other similar app that does the weather thing. I would throw “all” my bones into Launch Center Pro, because that is something only you have that sets you apart. If LCP had the same or a greater fire behind it as Drafts, that could be very special.
None of that is even true. Launch Center saw several big updates from it’s initial release. And the plan was to keep updating it and have it serve as a sort of “lite” version of Launch Center Pro: http://davidbarnard.com/post/58969519327/going-pro
But no one seemed to want it after Launch Center Pro was released, so I changed course and apologized: http://davidbarnard.com/post/58970326763/we-were-wrong
The reason Launch Center Pro has seen fewer updates is because we’ve been doing much bigger updates rather than a bunch of small ones (for many reasons I wont go into). Launch Center Pro 2.0 and an iPad version are deep in development. And before you even ask, 2.0 will be a free update for existing users. The iPad version will be a separate app (for a whole other set of reasons I wont go into). Also, we have been updating the URLs (http://appcubby.com/launch-center/changes/), but that’s an inherently slow process because other developers have to add code to their apps and let us know the schema.
And let me get this straight, in the first paragraph you vent at me for not supporting apps and pulling one from the App Store, but in the second paragraph you’re tell me to just ignore Trip Cubby and focus on Launch Center Pro? Which is it going to be?
Sorry for the venting. I did have the original Launch Center. From when I bought it there was a short while when a new app was added here and there and then it just stopped receiving updates for a really long time.
It sounds like things are looking up. That’s a handy update list, though I don’t see a link to it anywhere on the site. 2.0 might bring me around.
And yes, if I saw that you were totally passionate about making one app the best it could be and different from anything else out there, I would pay a little more for that. That would be awesome!
Ever since 1.1 in March, you can see the list of new/updated URLs right inside Launch Center Pro. We tried to strike a balance of not annoying people with a weekly alert or something like that, but apparently we erred too far in hiding it. Though maybe it’s just that you haven’t been using the app.