I am kicking myself now. I had exactly the same idea last year during my Spanish trip but released I could not do it all myself. Instead of maybe trying to get funding etc I just let the idea slip.
Now another company has just launched this.
www.loco2.com/
To be fair from what I have seen it does look very good and very professional the story of my life. I let Facebook go too, I had the chance to make a social media website at university to allow us all to keep in touch when we graduated. I let that one pass as I thought it was too easy!. I feel very sorry for the guy that did take the project on!.
Why is it when I ever have a good idea for an app or website I always just dismiss it as a stupid idea?
Of course this thread is more of a tongue in cheek thing rather than a serious moan :). I know how to run a business in the same way a man that runs a newsagent does but life always proves I am no entrepreneur when I do take risks it rarely rewards itself.
There is an Android app I have been thinking about creating for a while, it is pretty bad idea but I think I will make it now just in case it isn't a bad idea :D.
|
Friends Reunited launched in 2000.... Not quite the same as what Facebook offers but is partly the same. Shows how Facebook took off and Friends Reunited didn't really. Other sites existed before Facebook as well. MySpace launched before Facebook as well.
But sometimes you should perhaps try to get an idea off the ground :-) I thought of the PVR when I was 9 but didn't patent it. :-)
|
|
I thought of in car GPS sat nav when I was 9. Even visualised what it looked like.
|
|
Did you visualise how GPS worked as well? That invention would have been worth something to a 9 year old :-)
|
|
I knew it would be working on radio location, and would have a moving map display.
|
>> I knew it would be working on radio location,
Decca was up and working by then?
>>and would have a moving map display.
Problem was the the rollers keep jamming and the paper tore on the perferations?
Probably more money in motorcarinvestor.com/mille-miglia-ago/
I am sure that I have seen a 1930s version but Google has not yet delivered an image.
|
>> I thought of in car GPS sat nav when I was 9. Even visualised what
>> it looked like.
>>
Didn't they have that in James Bond?
I invented the CVT gearbox when I was 10 while sitting in a particularly boring school assembly. So there.
Rattle:-
If you are going to try the mobile app route, you'll never achieve it with "app number 1". The methodology is so different from what you were taught at college (or self-taught) that you'll need to practise for some considerable time before you understand how the system works.
Android is Java, admittedly, but "not as we know it." Google have some very good tutorials on their website and I'd recommend you work through them now so that when you do get the opportunity or the idea, you're ready to go. It's not desperately expensive to register for the app store, either.
You could also consider Windows Phone, which despite having a smaller userbase tends to make more money than Android for small developers, and is growing remarkably quickly thanks to Nokia. Frankly, finding a good idea on iPhone or Android and duplicating it on WP will probably make some short term cash.
I made some decent money from Android a few years ago when it was new and flourishing (and Google were supporting active developers with free devices etc); no reason why you couldn't do the same with Windows Phone.
You can grab a Lumia 520 for less than £100, developer registration is £20, and if you still have a .ac.uk email address (sign up for Alumni benefits!) you get access to Visual Studio 2012 for free.
|
My missus has a Nokia Lumia Windows Phone, had it since they were launched (she worked for Nokia at the time). She has become frustrated at the lack of apps available, and since seeing my new Sony Xperia she wants to swap to Android.
So there is some mileage in what FF says about apps for Windows Phone. There's a huge gap to fill, so long as the platform persists and succeeds. One depends on the other though, so it's a vicious circle and a difficult one to judge.
|
|
Yep it all goes back to the 8-bit and a smaller extent the 16-bit wars of the 1980s and early 1990s. It was the main reason the Commodore 64 was still such a massive seller when it was well past its prime, the software.
|
>> Yep it all goes back to the 8-bit and a smaller extent the 16-bit wars
>> of the 1980s and early 1990s. It was the main reason the Commodore 64 was
>> still such a massive seller when it was well past its prime, the software.
>>
Way more complicated than that!
|
>> You can grab a Lumia 520 for less than £100, developer registration is £20, and if you still
>> have a .ac.uk email address (sign up for Alumni benefits!) you get access to Visual Studio 2012 for free.
Hadn't thought of that myself. Might get myself a man.ac.uk email address if I can :-)
|
How do you get it free with an .ac.uk address? Is there a link to a page with that info on?
Just asking...
|
|
A lot of Microsoft software is discounted or free for education users... I'm guessing having a UK academic email address lets you confirm you're in higher education.
|
|
Nicole still has her surrey .ac email. Get loads of software cheap.
|
>> How do you get it free with an .ac.uk address? Is there a link to
>> a page with that info on?
"Find out how to get professional developer and designer tools at no cost!"
www.dreamspark.com/ (Microsoft)
Last edited by: Focusless on Wed 13 Nov 13 at 11:41
|
They all come with none commercial licences though. I am not sure if Salford alumni can get free ac.uk addresses. I will check but I doubt it.
|
I am not sure if Salford alumni
>> can get free ac.uk addresses. I will check but I doubt it.
>>
Cantab do, I assume other universities do too.
|
>> They all come with none commercial licences though.
Of course they do. But no different to getting MSDN 180 day evaluation copies of Microsoft products for evaluation etc.
I checked on Manchester's Alumni and they do emails for Alumni - need to get hold of my Alumni ID card first. Probably on the regular magazine I get sent but I don't keep them.
|
|
Enabled/created an email for me at Manchester University. I bet I can't get free software though.... it has the addition of alumni in it, i.e. alumni.manchester.ac.uk. Ah well.
|
Business is all about execution and very little about the idea alone.
|
|
I have the right form of address but am not a student. So no good to me but worth knowing for our genuine students if asked. We get ludicrously cheap deals anyway corporately.
|
|
Thanks. Not personally eligible but interesting.
|
|
Just checked and I don't think Salford do. I suppose they have to save money because of all those expensive leases on their buildings at Media city.
|
>> Thanks. Not personally eligible but interesting.
In case you don't know and are interested, the (pretty powerful) MS Visual Studio Express tools are free for anyone to download:
www.microsoft.com/visualstudio/eng/products/visual-studio-express-products
|
Loco2 - So annoying - rtj70
