Buzz Andersen on Mike Lee’s “Engineering the Organization”
Buzz raises a very good point in his commentary and expresses many of the same concerns I have had with the iPhone as a new development platform. Ever since the SDK was launched late last year, I’ve slowly been developing a sour taste in my mouth based on the whole gold rush mentality.
I look at the iPhone as an extension to the Mac platform, which is rich with talented developers whose only investment is in their love of building beautiful applications for the passionate 7% of the computer market. With a few notable exceptions, I think these people are translating their passion for the Mac to the iPhone. They are either building new games and utilities for the iPhone or extended their Mac offering to the iPhone.
The second side of new platform is the George Hearst crowd. They’ve got funding and heard there may be gold in these parts. The George Hearst crowd also has an advantage over most Mac development shops in their ability to afford to give away their product(s) in order to stake their claim in a particular segment, which makes can make it an uphill battle for the small guy.
I’m not completely against going the funded route where it is appropriate, but like Buzz, most of the stuff I’ve seen on the AppStore doesn’t really warrant the tradeoffs of giving up control. Are developers trading their freedom just for a few months of financial stability while they build the 1.0?
If you have an idea and a vision, rather than trying to shop it to the A-List checkwriters, fire up Xcode and just start building. From what I’ve seen, the real hits in AppStore are the applications built by the small developers, not the George Hearst crowd. If we should learn anything from the Tapulous fallout it is that in the eternal struggle between talent and checkbook, the checkbook is always going to win. Don’t look to the George Hearsts’ as a means to build your idea. Just build it and let them come to you if or when you need it.
