You need to move this site to a host that can handle the load today. I'm getting timeouts and finally got the home page to load. I can't get any of the other pages to load either.
Kudos to you for following your dream, but I do have to say I'm fully against making it easier for people to move that which should stay on the web to native apps. We have web browsers for a reason.
i don't think his intention is to move content, but rather just to make that content more easily accessible and visible to mobile users.
the problem with mobile websites is that they have to compete with the app store. if an iphone user wants a train schedule, are they more likely to open up a browser and search google for "train schedule iphone" and scroll around clicking on random sites? or would they just open the app store, search for "train schedule" and easily see all available apps, ranked and reviewed, easily added to their home screen with a single click?
i run such a mobile website for metra trains (http://metra.jcs.org/) but because i have no native app in the ios or android stores, it doesn't see much traffic. i've thought about developing an app that just embeds a browser and goes to the site, just so it can be listed in the app store.
apple does in fact have a listing of mobile web apps at https://www.apple.com/webapps/ but i doubt most iphone owners even know it exists. it's also not very easy to use from mobile devices, strangely enough.
it was strange to me too at first, but we built it in response to the fact that we kept on getting asked about getting onto the "app store" by small business owners who were going digital and building Wordpress sites. Everyone wants an app nowadays - so we're filling a niche.
In the end, browsers are great but mobile safari doesn't yet let you have access to everything you can get in Cocoa. We want to open those features up to anyone with a Wordpress site.
I think it's genius. WP site owners don't care about channel redundancy, they just want a push button method of putting their content into as many channels as possible. Catering to the "Look Ma, I made a mobile app!" crowd is a big market.
Supply and demand. As long as there is a demand for native apps then it doesn't really matter where we think things "should stay." I think this is a great step toward making Wordpress sites more accessible via mobile devices. Good work!
This is a very legitimate concern. As an app developer who has had an app rejected 6 months ago on similar grounds (section 10.6), it is something that should be tested. Upon my app being rejected, I added things like push notifications and it still got rejected for the original reason.
For your reference this was the complete description of the rejection:
=======
10.6
We found the user interface of your app is not of sufficient quality to be appropriate for the App Store. Apps that provide a poor user experience are not in compliance with the App Store Review Guidelines.
Specifically, we noticed your app does not take advantage of the iOS platform. It would be appropriate to add iOS specific UI and functionality.
Please evaluate whether you can make the necessary revisions to improve the user experience of your app.
Alternatively, you may wish to consider building a web app using HTML5. HTML5 is the major new version of HTML and enables audio and video to play natively in the browser without requiring proprietary plug-ins. Using HTML5, web apps look and behave like native iPhone and iPad apps, and using HTML5's Offline Application Cache, your web apps work even when the device is offline. With web apps, you have flexibility to deliver as much or as little functionality as you desire.
If you wish to build an HTML5 web app, you can do so and distribute it directly from your web site. It is not appropriate to resubmit an HTML5 web app to the App Store.
To get started with iPhone or iPad web apps, please review Getting Started with iPhone Web Apps.
For a description of the HTML elements and attributes you can use in Safari on iPhone, check out Safari HTML Reference: Introduction.
My biggest worry for gozman is that he'll start seeing rejections for template based apps. Apple has been cracking down on these kinds of apps even for very high profile companies. For example, one company I know of has a template based app for every major college in the app store right now. The only difference between them is the icon, splash page, and theme colors inside the app along with distinct data feeds. Apple is threatening to remove all their apps unless they do something to differentiate them further.
I'd be more worried about the Sandbox app getting pulled. It basically presents as its own app environment, which is a huge no-no with Apple and I'm surprised it even was approved.
I think his business provides much more than just a url and a webview. The offline pages, organized layout and category browser is much more than what that clause is made to prevent.
The unfortunate thing about having a business that is at the mercy another business (such as iphone apps) is that apple can at any point block anything coming from OP's site. But thank god for competition.
I think the "web sites bundled as apps" is speaking more of an app that consists only of a webkit view which loads some web site. A single-site browser app.
There's a service called Tapatalk that does something very similar to what Appifier does, but for forums, and has a number of generated "native forum apps" in the App Store.
1. I was a software engineer that got an MBA and was doing management consulting.
2. Over 80k / year
3. My runway is private, but we financed ourselves by taking on short-term iOS/Wordpress dev/design consulting gigs to stay fed.
It's a cool idea with a few players in the field.
Did a quick check on a WP Blog and the application sandbox keeps crashing.
I only have two concerns. You are entirely at the mercy of Apple with this product. There isn't too much customization available so Apple may at some point decide to reject your customers apps. A lifetime membership might not help without the code for customization if you ever go offline.
The second is the other players in here. I think people are going to want a lot more customization.
Either way, you've selected a market with a lot of demand.
WPTouch and http://www.wiziapp.com/ are the main competitors I can think of. (WPTouch built into an app of course)
Genius, I'd invest all my money into this idea. From a marketing perspective:
1. big market (a lot of wordpress sites run by small & medium businesses that would love an easy and cheap app)
2. practically sells itself (costs, ease of use, service)
3. if possible try to roll it out both ways (drupal and android)
Questions:
1. What about more complex and altered WP sites?
2. What will your to-market strategy be? More specifically: target customer
Again, a great idea and a very good feel for what the market needs. Congratulations!
Interesting idea, but can't get it to work. I created a test account and added 2 WordPress blogs to it: TechCrunch and the official Wordpress blog (http://wordpress.org/news/). Went through the steps, downloaded the sandbox app on my iPhone 4S and tried to preview them. App instantly crashes when loading both sites. Is it just that these blogs don't have the required JSON plugins (possible)? Or is it that they have too much content for Appifier to handle? Either way, an abrupt crash doesn't inspire confidence. Do you have any sample blogs we can try to test this with?
That plugin is a core part of their app. You have to download and install it. You can't just put in someone else's blog URL; they don't have the appifier plugin running. WordPress doesn't have a JSON API built in, that's something he created.
For those having trouble with the site, I ended up looking at Google's cached copy and then finding the walkthrough youtube video that you can watch here: http://www.youtube.com/embed/QkwDDB0I5_g?autoplay=1
That video is really well done. The product looks slick too. I do wonder how much demand there is to read individual blogs on an iOS device? Would an RSS reader meet the demand better?
The site looks good and the product seems interesting and useful.
Unfortunately, you're getting hit hard with HN traffic being number one on the front page currently and thus things are slow.
However I was able to load the index page and watch the introductory video.
One thing that bothers me is I clicked on your Terms of Service link and was prompted to login: you might want to consider making as much available to logged out users as possible and esp things like terms of service which I may want or even need to read before signing up.
Sorry about that. We redirected all of our traffic from our marketing vps to our appserver (heroku) to handle the load. Check back tomorrow for the terms or send us an email.
I don't want to knock your product, because I know site owners will love it, but does anyone actually like and use these simple apps that wrap a website?
Yes. I do, for one. For a site you like to use every day, being able to just tap and swipe to get to everything is so much better than constantly pinch zooming, aiming for little links, waiting for the page to load, pinch zooming, aiming for little links, etc. of a website.
Congratulations on the move to startup life! Great looking website and nice user experience for publishing.
Posting the service on HN is one of those things I wish I had thought of a few months ago, I still have a lot to learn - thankfully a friend sent me this link since he knew what we were doing. TainoApp (http://gettainoapp.com) does all that (Wordpress to native iOS app), plus full platform support for Windows Phone 7, and Android (wrapping up Blackberry and MeeGo support as of this posting) you can see it at work here - http://goo.gl/nuZcm. So far, it seems we're the only ones that can do Windows Phone 7 - hopefully someone in the community can point out other projects we haven't heard from that already does it, so that we can continue learning from others.
We have the tech specs ready for implementing support for most of the CMSs out there (Tumblr, Posterous, and others including Tresite - heavily used in latinamerica), but decided to focus on Wordpress installs first since the install base was larger we were able to churn out an mvp faster since we were more familiar with the wp architecture.
Our focus had been on engaging one on one with customers and quietly testing out different revenue models - but this kind of torrent of feedback would have been truly welcome. It wasn't until the start of the new year that we decided to test an introductory offer for the platform - aimed at the latinamerican market first (it's google translate friendly - http://goo.gl/Y5JZL). I felt we were missing a lot of the features I wanted, so I held back from doing a public push to get feedback - that was a big mistake. Seeing everyone's comments for Appifier has been an uplifting experience - so keep at it!!! One of the toughest things I've felt is being out there and being open to scrutiny by other startups. Maybe we can chat sometime and talk a bit more about some of the mistakes we've done along the way - drop me a line at jramphis at gettainoapp dot com. Best of luck!
Hey - if there was a low-to-no effort way of signing up for something to handle a one day burst in traffic then I'd imagine you'd rake in a pile of cash.
Congrats on the launch. I have some feedback, but a random question for you first - did you work at Deloitte in their S&O practice?
Now for the feedback - assuming your audience is a non-tech WordPress user, I'm suggesting that you do A|B testing on the use of "Native App". From experience talking to clients on the marketing team or communications team, most don't know the difference or meaning of "native app". To them, an app is an app is an app - native or not.
The key question that these folks care about is "will my app have a custom icon that represents my brand", "can i submit to the app store", and "will my customer see this icon on their iPhone once they download it?".
So, my hypothesis is that if you strip "native app" from your copy (all of your copy) and just focus "custom app", "custom icons", "app store submission", "WordPress to iPhone", your target audience won't miss a beat and won't blink at "native app".
If you end up testing this out doing A/B tests or user research, I'd love to hear the results.
Cool! I will be using such a service several times this year. Honest question - what makes your service more special than the other services out there that claim to do the same thing?
P.S. I do like the one time charge option... I haven't seen many that have that as an ooption.
Here's a few ways that we stand out:
* Our apps can be distributed on the app store like all other native iOS apps. You can even charge for these apps and we won't take a penny.
* We support push notifications. You can send messages to users of an app as long as they have it installed on their phone.
* All content is available offline, even when the phone is in airplane mode.
* Our architechture opens up the possibility of more interesting native features (text-to-speech among other things)
* You can preview your app on your phone and get a really good feel for how it will look and operate once deployed.
* When your app is deployed, you can change its parameters and branding at any time. Changes are updated across your installed base instantly.
Do you include the WP markup in your generated app? Or do you transform the markup into Objective-C code (so no HTML/CSS included in the app)? The latter would be much harder to implement I think.
I'm not sure I see the benefit of converting a website into a pseudo-app, then charging for that app. Users would effectively be paying for the wrapper when the same content is available without charge via a browser. I realize this happens all the time and there are a plethora of site shortcuts-as-apps in the app store, but the fact that they are abundant doesn't make the practice any better.
I'm honestly curious about the use cases for this and what extra value this provides for the user over using the website in a browser.
This is awesome, I know loads of people who will use this, including me if I ever have time! A couple of questions though:
How does payment/subscription work? Is there a limit to the number of apps you can publish under the monthly plan, or is there a cost per app and then a monthly fee for the analytics and push? Is there a nice user interface for push? Where can I see a demo of it all in operation (the management of an app that's out there)? :)
Congratulations! I am sure its a proud moment after taking the big step in life :).
A nice concept as well (btw, the hackernews effect is slowing down/timing out your site).
On a tangential note (maybe), are you also liking running the startup (a company)? I am sure developing the product would have been an awesome experience, but when it comes to manage and run the company it calls for something else. How are you liking that?
Go Montreal ! :)
Slight issue though - I created an app, says everything went well, downloaded the sandbox, but nothing appears under "My projects". Does it take time to update ? Also, "Push composer" and "Analytics" in my admin panel link to "#". Are these just placeholder links to let users know that the functionality is coming ? Good job on shipping the product !
How is this app different one WPTouch which also turns your WordPress into something iPhone friendly: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wptouch/ I know you turn the site into a native app, but WPTouch works just fine with HTML and CSS. Is there something I'm missing?
[+] [-] larrys|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] traftonesler|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ajjuliani|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] gozman|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|14 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] marknutter|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] there|14 years ago|reply
the problem with mobile websites is that they have to compete with the app store. if an iphone user wants a train schedule, are they more likely to open up a browser and search google for "train schedule iphone" and scroll around clicking on random sites? or would they just open the app store, search for "train schedule" and easily see all available apps, ranked and reviewed, easily added to their home screen with a single click?
i run such a mobile website for metra trains (http://metra.jcs.org/) but because i have no native app in the ios or android stores, it doesn't see much traffic. i've thought about developing an app that just embeds a browser and goes to the site, just so it can be listed in the app store.
apple does in fact have a listing of mobile web apps at https://www.apple.com/webapps/ but i doubt most iphone owners even know it exists. it's also not very easy to use from mobile devices, strangely enough.
[+] [-] gozman|14 years ago|reply
it was strange to me too at first, but we built it in response to the fact that we kept on getting asked about getting onto the "app store" by small business owners who were going digital and building Wordpress sites. Everyone wants an app nowadays - so we're filling a niche.
In the end, browsers are great but mobile safari doesn't yet let you have access to everything you can get in Cocoa. We want to open those features up to anyone with a Wordpress site.
Mike
[+] [-] snorkel|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] derrh|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|14 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] dan1234|14 years ago|reply
"2.12 Apps that are not very useful, are simply web sites bundled as apps, or do not provide any lasting entertainment value may be rejected"
[+] [-] epoxyhockey|14 years ago|reply
For your reference this was the complete description of the rejection:
=======
10.6
We found the user interface of your app is not of sufficient quality to be appropriate for the App Store. Apps that provide a poor user experience are not in compliance with the App Store Review Guidelines.
Specifically, we noticed your app does not take advantage of the iOS platform. It would be appropriate to add iOS specific UI and functionality.
Please evaluate whether you can make the necessary revisions to improve the user experience of your app.
Alternatively, you may wish to consider building a web app using HTML5. HTML5 is the major new version of HTML and enables audio and video to play natively in the browser without requiring proprietary plug-ins. Using HTML5, web apps look and behave like native iPhone and iPad apps, and using HTML5's Offline Application Cache, your web apps work even when the device is offline. With web apps, you have flexibility to deliver as much or as little functionality as you desire.
If you wish to build an HTML5 web app, you can do so and distribute it directly from your web site. It is not appropriate to resubmit an HTML5 web app to the App Store.
To get started with iPhone or iPad web apps, please review Getting Started with iPhone Web Apps.
For a description of the HTML elements and attributes you can use in Safari on iPhone, check out Safari HTML Reference: Introduction.
[+] [-] seanalltogether|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] BHSPitMonkey|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ntkachov|14 years ago|reply
The unfortunate thing about having a business that is at the mercy another business (such as iphone apps) is that apple can at any point block anything coming from OP's site. But thank god for competition.
[+] [-] unfletch|14 years ago|reply
There's a service called Tapatalk that does something very similar to what Appifier does, but for forums, and has a number of generated "native forum apps" in the App Store.
[+] [-] BigCanOfTuna|14 years ago|reply
1. What was your job.
2. How much did you get paid.
3. How much savings(runway) do you have to support this product.
Thanks!
[+] [-] gozman|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] sumukh1|14 years ago|reply
I only have two concerns. You are entirely at the mercy of Apple with this product. There isn't too much customization available so Apple may at some point decide to reject your customers apps. A lifetime membership might not help without the code for customization if you ever go offline. The second is the other players in here. I think people are going to want a lot more customization.
Either way, you've selected a market with a lot of demand. WPTouch and http://www.wiziapp.com/ are the main competitors I can think of. (WPTouch built into an app of course)
[+] [-] delosfuegos|14 years ago|reply
1. big market (a lot of wordpress sites run by small & medium businesses that would love an easy and cheap app) 2. practically sells itself (costs, ease of use, service) 3. if possible try to roll it out both ways (drupal and android)
Questions:
1. What about more complex and altered WP sites? 2. What will your to-market strategy be? More specifically: target customer
Again, a great idea and a very good feel for what the market needs. Congratulations!
[+] [-] magsafe|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dangrossman|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] gozman|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] arpit|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] city41|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] llambda|14 years ago|reply
The site looks good and the product seems interesting and useful.
Unfortunately, you're getting hit hard with HN traffic being number one on the front page currently and thus things are slow.
However I was able to load the index page and watch the introductory video.
One thing that bothers me is I clicked on your Terms of Service link and was prompted to login: you might want to consider making as much available to logged out users as possible and esp things like terms of service which I may want or even need to read before signing up.
Otherwise, best of luck!
[+] [-] gozman|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] underwater|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dangrossman|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jramphis|14 years ago|reply
Posting the service on HN is one of those things I wish I had thought of a few months ago, I still have a lot to learn - thankfully a friend sent me this link since he knew what we were doing. TainoApp (http://gettainoapp.com) does all that (Wordpress to native iOS app), plus full platform support for Windows Phone 7, and Android (wrapping up Blackberry and MeeGo support as of this posting) you can see it at work here - http://goo.gl/nuZcm. So far, it seems we're the only ones that can do Windows Phone 7 - hopefully someone in the community can point out other projects we haven't heard from that already does it, so that we can continue learning from others.
We have the tech specs ready for implementing support for most of the CMSs out there (Tumblr, Posterous, and others including Tresite - heavily used in latinamerica), but decided to focus on Wordpress installs first since the install base was larger we were able to churn out an mvp faster since we were more familiar with the wp architecture.
Our focus had been on engaging one on one with customers and quietly testing out different revenue models - but this kind of torrent of feedback would have been truly welcome. It wasn't until the start of the new year that we decided to test an introductory offer for the platform - aimed at the latinamerican market first (it's google translate friendly - http://goo.gl/Y5JZL). I felt we were missing a lot of the features I wanted, so I held back from doing a public push to get feedback - that was a big mistake. Seeing everyone's comments for Appifier has been an uplifting experience - so keep at it!!! One of the toughest things I've felt is being out there and being open to scrutiny by other startups. Maybe we can chat sometime and talk a bit more about some of the mistakes we've done along the way - drop me a line at jramphis at gettainoapp dot com. Best of luck!
[+] [-] bosch|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jaipilot747|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] kingofspain|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] gozman|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] iusable|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ahmadss|14 years ago|reply
Now for the feedback - assuming your audience is a non-tech WordPress user, I'm suggesting that you do A|B testing on the use of "Native App". From experience talking to clients on the marketing team or communications team, most don't know the difference or meaning of "native app". To them, an app is an app is an app - native or not.
The key question that these folks care about is "will my app have a custom icon that represents my brand", "can i submit to the app store", and "will my customer see this icon on their iPhone once they download it?".
So, my hypothesis is that if you strip "native app" from your copy (all of your copy) and just focus "custom app", "custom icons", "app store submission", "WordPress to iPhone", your target audience won't miss a beat and won't blink at "native app".
If you end up testing this out doing A/B tests or user research, I'd love to hear the results.
[+] [-] dholowiski|14 years ago|reply
P.S. I do like the one time charge option... I haven't seen many that have that as an ooption.
[+] [-] gozman|14 years ago|reply
Here's a few ways that we stand out: * Our apps can be distributed on the app store like all other native iOS apps. You can even charge for these apps and we won't take a penny. * We support push notifications. You can send messages to users of an app as long as they have it installed on their phone. * All content is available offline, even when the phone is in airplane mode. * Our architechture opens up the possibility of more interesting native features (text-to-speech among other things) * You can preview your app on your phone and get a really good feel for how it will look and operate once deployed. * When your app is deployed, you can change its parameters and branding at any time. Changes are updated across your installed base instantly.
[+] [-] itmag|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jeffcouturier|14 years ago|reply
I'm honestly curious about the use cases for this and what extra value this provides for the user over using the website in a browser.
[+] [-] tehwalrus|14 years ago|reply
How does payment/subscription work? Is there a limit to the number of apps you can publish under the monthly plan, or is there a cost per app and then a monthly fee for the analytics and push? Is there a nice user interface for push? Where can I see a demo of it all in operation (the management of an app that's out there)? :)
[+] [-] shad0wfax|14 years ago|reply
A nice concept as well (btw, the hackernews effect is slowing down/timing out your site).
On a tangential note (maybe), are you also liking running the startup (a company)? I am sure developing the product would have been an awesome experience, but when it comes to manage and run the company it calls for something else. How are you liking that?
[+] [-] paisible|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mtw|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] barce|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] eli|14 years ago|reply