Not too long ago, AppCraver spoke with Jame Lee from Seahorse Software, the developer of such apps as Blackjack Run, Tric-Trac and Pyramid Solitaire. He answered our questions about developing apps for the iPhone and iPod touch.
1. When did you start developing apps for the iPhone?
James: I started as soon as the initial SDK was available for download. I was lucky enough to get approved early on in the initial 2.0 beta tests.
2. What was the inspiration behind your app?
James: Seahorse Software has been developing programs for the Palm OS platform for over 10 years. We have built up a library of 14 titles and wanted to move over the popular ones.
But the real reason was that I personally moved from a Palm device to an iPhone, and wanted some of my programs on it.
3. How did you settle on your price point for the app?
James: Initially we were going to mirror the price points of the equivalent Palm program. But after some research, decided to a lower price point based on the potential volume.
4. Roughly how many apps did you sell in the first month of operation?
James: I prefer to keep the actual sales number private. But I can tell you sales far exceeded my expectations.
I will reveal that by the beginning of October, BlackJack Run Lite (which is free) was downloaded over 1 million times!
5. How did you like the developer tools provided in the iPhone SDK? Is there anything missing?
James: I really like using the tools Apple provides. I find them very useful. The only one I don’t use is Interface Builder, thus I create all the interfaces programmatically.
6. Is your company privately owned? Venture backed?
James: It is a private company.
7. What are some of the other iPhone apps that you like?
James: I personally like Trism, Montion X Poker, and iFlix.
8. What’s the development cycle for iPhone apps like?
James: It is pretty much like most program development. Create, implement, test, distribute. I personally wish the testing part was a bit easier, but now we have the Ad Hoc, which helps.
9. Are you working on any other apps that you will be releasing soon?
James: I am about to start up Euchre, and have plans to move over some of other very popular Palm programs.
