If you are thinking about starting a dating site, pause for a moment and consider partnering up with a developer and building an iphone app instead.
iPhone Developer Quits Day Job After ‘iShoot’ Hits Number One
“iShoot was the first app I developed using Objective-C,” Nicholas said, “It was created on an original MacBook that was in rough shape. The Wi-Fi was dead and even the Ethernet port had to be jiggled for it to work right.”
I’ve read countless stories like this over the past few months and I’m sure we’ll continue to hear about people cranking out apps in a few weeks and making hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Why build for the iPhone?
- Less expensive than starting a dating site (not including white label sites)
- Larger opportunity to make more money (majority of dating sites are limping along)
- Significantly reduced marketing costs ( let the App Store in iTunes do all the work)
- Once you have an installed base of users you can keep selling them applications (new versions, upgrades, etc.)
I’m not saying that everyone should follow this path, but with such a crowded market it makes sense to explore different opportunities. For example, you could build applications based on Viximo’s new iPhone VixML development platform.
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I don’t think the iPhone will stay on top for long. With Google’s Android mobile OS, the Blackberry Storm and other compariable phones on the way it will be interesting to see where things stand in 2 or 3 years.
Wouldn’t it be better to develop something the all phone’s could access through their browsers?
Android has a ways to go but I get your point. I’ve used an Android phone a lot and its crashy and crude at this point.
You can always skin your iPhone to look like a Blackberry, someone released a skin for that this week. the lack of keyboard remains an issue, but if you peruse Apple patent filings, I think you will find some interesting ways they plan on outfitting iPhones with virtual keyboards.
Your final point is exactly what Java/Brew was supposed to do on phones. So much for cross-platform compatibility.
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