You all asked questions of Gedeon Mehaux, creator of the Twitterrific iPhone application and he was kind enough to provide some great answers.
To summarize Twitterrific, it has both a free and $9.99 premium version and sits on top of the microblogging revolution Twitter. You can read and publish "Tweets" in a clean, intuitive interface directly from your iPhone.
If you have any follow-up questions, just post and hopefully Gedeon will jump back in for a few follow ups. Here we go:
Q: IconFactory didn't start out as an iPhone App. developer the way many, many others are. Was it a little side project that just blew up, or was it a conscious shift to get in front of the iPhone onslaught? (from Eli):
A: We've been developing software for the Macintosh platform since 1998, so it wasn't a stretch to expand into Apple's iPhone space. As soon as the phone was announced, we knew we wanted our puzzle game, Frenzic on the platform.
We petitioned Apple to allow native software development on the device right from the beginning. Apple's response to that and other developer requests were the web apps and we did indeed make a limited version of Frenzic for the web, but it wasn't the same as being able to code a native version.
Then Apple announced the SDK and we knew we were going to get Frenzic on the phone. In the interim, Twitterrific took off and that became our main focus.
The program has been very successful and Frenzic had to take a temporary back seat. Now, we're back on Frenzic and very excited about getting it out to the expanding iPhone/iPod touch market.
Q: I'm sure that because IconFactory already had Twitterrific for OSX, you guys had quite a headstart, but how long was Twitterrific for iPhone in development? How much time does the team spend maintaining it?
Thanks for building such a great app. I hope there is more to come. (from Teej)
A: Yes, because Craig started working on the jailbreak version of Twitterrific long before the official SDK was announced, he had a leg up on other developers when it did finally come along. Craig worked on Twitterrific for about 4 months prior to the SDK and then worked to complete it for the ADA deadline. So total, I'd say Twitterrific 1.0 for the iPhone was in development for a total of about 6 months prior to it's release. Support for the program is about average for one of our products. We're always getting new feature requests and bug reports, and we get them in the queue for future updates.
Q: Can you share any usage numbers? If so, how many users of the free and paid versions are there? (from Teej)
A: I'm not at liberty to discuss sales revenue for any of our products I'm afraid. I can say that there are hundreds of thousands of Twitterrific users across both the Mac and iPhone however. Some of those are paid users, some are free users. Twitterrific has become our most well-known software application, which is incredible considering it's been around for just about 2 years.
Q: Once the Apple Push Notification Service is finally ready for prime time, are there any plans to update Twitterrific so it could be pushed tweets? That way users could avoid a lot of the ridiculous text-messaging fees AT&T forces on us. (from Teej)
A: We would like to, but there are many factors yet to be determined. Chief among these will be, will Twitter allow the API to push tweets to mobile devices? Server loads being what they are, they may not, or Apple may limit such interaction with Twitter's servers. The technical aspects of this are still in flux, so it's impossible to speak with any authority on pushing tweets to Twitterrific.
Q: Has Apple's NDA proven to be an issue for you? (from Frank)
A: Without a doubt. The NDA has slowed the learning curve for us, slowed development of Twitterrific and prevented companies like ours from helping and interacting with others who are in the same boat as we are. It's a shame that Apple has decided to keep it in place, even after the launch of the App store. We're sure they have their reasons, but it would make life a lot easier for everyone involved if it went away gracefully.
Q: Do you have any revisions or features on the roadmap for Twitterific? (from Stins)
A: Always! There are a bunch of features we plan on adding in future revisions.
For the moment, our focus is turning back to the desktop version of Twitterrific however so it can catch up with the mobile code. Twitterrific version 4 will be very cool when it is released. Stay tuned.
Q: What kind of competition do you have? How are you different (read: better)? (from smallone)
A: When Twitterrific first came out for the Mac, it was one of the only desktop apps for Twitter. Now there are dozens, and more than a few for the iPhone.
Competition is good, it helps keep us on our toes and gives users choices.
We're confident in our ability to design and build superior software products so we'll put out new revisions to both versions of Twitterrific and let the Twitter faithful decide if they want to support our efforts. What more can we do really?
Thanks and take care!
Yours,
Ged
