Why would remote control for Mac support Windows?
To answer this question I would have to compare past year to 2018. During 2018 I was super optimistic, up until that point, downloads and sales grew at pretty astonishing rate. I started working on the app full time on May 2016, and during 2016 it earned mere $9K, then in 2017 — it went up to $63K, and boom in 2018 it reached $135K. Yes, all those are gross revenue, and you have to take into account marketing, taxes and expenses, but overall the trend was positive… very positive. During 2019 things started to change… revenue went down to $109K, which is not shabby — but the trend is worrying. Especially now that I have bought a house and have to pay a mortgage and other loans.
So I had a choice, I could take some freelancing jobs, look for a “real” job, or make a new app… or try to reach broader audience with my apps. My competitors already offered Windows support, so my thinking was that it worth my efforts, at least to try it, before anything else. And so I did. I have switched to Mac in 2010, along with purchase of iPhone 4, as I was asked to help develop iOS app for our company product, before that I was Windows .NET developer. Let me tell you — I totally forgot what a mess Windows was. Comparing to Mac it’s wild west. Everyone does what they want. The number of technologies is mind boggling. Visual Studio with all the buttons sparkled everywhere is distracting as hell after working for a decade in Xcode. But I had to do it. And it was FUN! Starting new project, re-learning C#, Win32 APIs, and etc. wasn’t easy — but totally satisfying. Seeing things starting to “move” as my boss called it — meaning starting to actually work… was great. And it happened pretty quickly, after I figured initial growth pains.
What next?
Next is — marketing. I have to adjust my marketing to reach folks who have iPhone/iPad and use Windows on their computer for some reason :) I hate marketing. There are no clear rules, no accurate way to measure, cause so many things appear to affect it, no way to tell a head if you going to get back what you invest in it. Marketing is my nightmare. So I’m not planning to stop there…
My big next project is shop for keypads — every keypad that is offered in the app now, will be free, but new keypads won’t, and I’m still thinking if I should allow people to upload keypads they made, and sell them to others (this is going to be challenging), or start with keypads I made for now and add that later. Also, should I sell them for some kind of token or price them in real $$$. Many questions, backend, testing, multi-platform support, migration for current users… it’s going to be FUN!
