Lyang Hsueh's Blog

The journey is the reward.

Announcing My New Startup

Happy New Year, folks. 2012 came to visit, I'd use this opportunity to talk about the new startup I'm working on - It's called Spiralcake.

For the last couple of years, I was always trying to start a real new startup doing mobile app development. Last month I left my previous job, working on an iPhone app project at home. I once talked to a friend of mine who is a freelance graphic designer about the plan and asked him to be my partner, working together and start a mobile development company with me. He said "Let's do it!" and then we started figuring out a company name while eating spiral cakes. And that's it, that's the story of how Spiralcake was founded.

So what is Spiralcake? Spiralcake is a mobile development lab in Shanghai that focused on creating enjoyable apps and games. The founding team is made up of a couple friends and I in December 2011. I'm very excited to be working on new startup with these talented guys. Right now the office is setting up, website is live. So next steps, our goal is to make a parkour game for iOS. Because we are all very passionate about iOS platform games. In the next few months, we'll be very busy developing the app and we believe it's going to be a lot of fun. Hope you'll love our apps as much as we enjoy creating them. Stay tuned by following Spiralcake on twitter @spiralcakeapps. 

To learn about future Spiralcake products, sign up at http://www.spiralcake.com. 

Our new adventure has begun.

 

My Thoughts on Apple Subscriptions

Apple launched its in-app subscription plan, after the launch of Rupert Murdoch's iPad only magazine The Daily. I have read the official statement from Apple. The service now is open to all content providers, for each subscription sold through the app, Apple takes a 30% cut. Publishers can set the price and length of a subscription, also can offer subscriptions through their own existing websites but would be required to offer those same terms to anyone signing up through Apple.

Subscriptions purchased from within the App Store will be sold using the same App Store billing system that has been used to buy billions of apps and In-App Purchases. Publishers set the price and length of subscription (weekly, monthly, bi-monthly, quarterly, bi-yearly or yearly). Then with one-click, customers pick the length of subscription and are automatically charged based on their chosen length of commitment (weekly, monthly, etc.). Customers can review and manage all of their subscriptions from their personal account page, including canceling the automatic renewal of a subscription. Apple processes all payments, keeping the same 30 percent share that it does today for other In-App Purchases.

Okay, the rules seem fair enough. Problem? At first, most publishers are free to offer subscription elsewhere, for example through their websites, right? If developers offer subscriptions elsewhere, they have to offer them inside their iPad and iPhone apps too, and at the same price. Developers are also forbidden from including links inside their app to purchase content or subscriptions outside the app.
...Apple does require that if a publisher chooses to sell a digital subscription separately outside of the app, that same subscription offer must be made available, at the same price or less, to customers who wish to subscribe from within the app. In addition, publishers may no longer provide links in their apps (to a web site, for example) which allow the customer to purchase content or subscriptions outside of the app.
In other words, Apple won't allow you to encourage your iOS customers to pay for your subscription service outside the App Store, and you are not allowed to link to your own signup page. The only way for users to sign up to pay for your web app, once they're inside the iOS app, is by giving Apple 30%. Many of web and SaaS apps also build iOS apps to complement their free plans, aiming to their customers into upgrading to a paid subscription. Now If you want your customers to upgrade in-app, Apple is going to tax you 30%.

Does Apple deserve the same cut from publishers who are simply augmenting their offering with iOS apps? Definitely not.

My Thoughts on the Apple iPad

iPad is here, not a tablet computer, not a netbook. It starts at $499, the price is a lot better than what I thought it would be, and we know what the Apple iPad does do. such as: iBooks, Games,10-hr battery life, Wi-Fi, 3G, green tech etc. Apple says "It's the best way to experience the web, email, photos, and videos." But I have an iPhone and I have a Macbook Pro. I’m not feeling a huge need to have an iPad. I have to say I'm kinda disappointed and confused in the iPad.

Here's what I don't like about it:

  • Huge Ugly. It seems like a bigger iPhone or iPod Touch. Grrrr
  • The A4 chip seems like a bad idea. No way Apple is going to consistently be better than Intel or AMD at making low power chips.
  • No camera. which means no video conferencing and no quick shots for posting. Please! even the new iPod Nano has one!
  • 16, 32, or 64GB is all you get, because there’s lack of an SD card reader built directly into the iPad.
  • You won’t be able to plug in an external USB keyboard or/and a digital camera you already own without buying a separate USB adapter.
  • Only runs apps from the App Store. Want to run a different browser on your iPad? Too bad.
  • No Flash for now, bad enough on the iPhone. maybe Apple is hoping that HTML5 will take off quickly and start to disintermediate Flash as the primary technology powering video playback on the web?
  • Perhaps the biggest disappointment is, No multitasking! saying I can't listening to Last.fm radio while reading my email? I can't have Twitter client open at the same time as my browser? No, thanks!
  • It uses microSIMs that literally no one else uses, then it doesn't support China Unicom 3G.
  • Basically it works the same as the iPhone. I want a 10-inch iPhone running Mac OS X, not this big iPod Touch.
  • The Name iPad. Apple should have watched this MadTV spoof "Apple iPad" from 2007 first. LOL

Here’s the problem with all this. That’s not to say the iPad won’t sell, or that I don’t want one. I don't think Apple will have any trouble selling these things. Some people say Apple is Evil that Apple plans for the iPhone OS to be the future of its product line. Because the iPhone OS is designed for Apple’s total control, not only does the hardware have to be flawless, the software must be too. and the only way to ensure that is to have Apple approve every inch of it. You can say it's a closed platform, you can say that App store may not be open, but third-party development will extend the iPad to do things we can’t even dream up, just give it 6 months and we'll see.