People see different things when they look at iPad. Most see the georgeous hardware and the great platform for all kinds of media consumption (well, maybe not portable music but…). When I look at iPad, I see a massive revenue generator for really smart software companies.
There are some limitations on the platform but we Finns always tend to get too focused on limitations and ignore opportunity. Americans (and some other more entrepreneur minded countries) look at the opportunity every day for a month and then they will spend a day with limitations. We do the opposite. Here are the limitations or better yet: here is the framework:
- You can only get software into iPod through Apple’s application store; and
- You have to develop the application using Apple’s development enviroment (no Flash, no Silverlight).
Actually from developers’ points of view this is good news: you know exactly how to develop and you have an immediate market place – sales channel.
Now, if nobody does anything, what will happen is that we will have a few dozen mostly current iPhone game developers doing one application at a time for iPad. Because of the lack of resources and continuity, they succeed in creating occasional top 10 placement in the store fading away fast when new applications fill the space. None of these companies will have presence in the Valley; none of them will ever be a house hold name. And, that is fine if your ambition level is set there.
What we should do in Finland is gather a bigger team of the smartest user problem identification people, iPhone developers, user experience designers, server developers and experienced management and start an iPad application factory, not around one application but a continuous flow of visually, functionally and cerebrally engaging experiences. This company would release about half a dozen applications a year, it would have an office in Silicon Valley in a year and it could raise serious capital (if needed). It can easily be argued why this kind of model is difficult to set up. But for once, let’s put our individual ambitions aside and create something large and lasting.
Finland is a small country. The only way we can create succesfull international businesses is to pool the best resources under one roof. I am not saying that one of these small iPad software companies will not be a success one day but it is a long and rocky road and there is no hedging risk in one application at a time type of operating environment.
If you are interested in this idea, please contact us.
Written by Matti Airas
We actually have something that comes pretty close in the concept: Offscreen Technologies (http://www.offscr.com/) who are basically trying to be exactly what you just described but for Nokia devices.
I find the iPad in many ways to be very interesting and a definitive device form-factor of the future. However, I’m not all that keen on the “focus on a single platform” idea. I believe great apps (and websites) are born when people are passionate about an idea or concept – not when they are passionate about making money or putting out a large number of apps for a particular platform. I think Offscr has proven that in that they have a huge number of average apps but nothing stellar.
I guess that’s the price you pay for volume. You can have high quantity or high quality but rarely both.
I like your idea, in fact I always want to join a team to build up some real native ipad applications.
do you have any plan for this?