Got pitched on a couple of iPhone apps while down in Austin. One pitched me with a “Got an iPhone? Come inside and get a $15 iTunes gift card” spiel as I walked to the convention center. I had 20 minutes to kill so I said sure. I entered their venue (which probably cost a ton to rent) and downloaded the iPhone app. Then I had to use it once in front of ‘em. Then they gave me the gift card. Then I exited the building. Then I walked three steps and deleted the app from my phone.
The other one was an app at the trade show portion of the event that included some sort of location/geo/something-or-other. The woman demoing the app showed me how, using this app, she could pinpoint the location of Andrew, one of the app’s developers. (Andrew was standing right next to her.) Then she started using the iPhone to figure out his location. When it worked, she proudly showed me that her iPhone had spotted Andrew. I commented that this certainly was a great way to determine the location of someone who is standing right next to you.
Justin Wise
on 17 Mar 10This had me laughing out loud. Probably because I can totally picture myself doing the same thing.
I’m left wondering, though, how you would encourage each one of these companies to do something different?
Obviously what they did did not work, but what could they have done that would have made you say, “Wow. I want that app!”
I’d love to hear your thoughts. . . . .
Daniel
on 17 Mar 10Lol, how exciting! Pretty good pitch and business model from both companies in a not overcrowded niche. ;)
ploogman
on 17 Mar 10a tad lame that you are making fun of people who have a booth and gave you an iTunes gift card, so you didn’t like the app, big deal, why denegrate the developers? if it wasn’t for them and others buying booths, the festival would not be what it is, just saying, and the location app you mentioned, that is a joke app that has been on the app store by various vendors that just checks the location of the phone on which it is running and since the person is next to you, it pretends to show their location, just a joke app and nothing new
James
on 17 Mar 10What’s the point of this post, exactly?
You’re not exposing a lesson about marketing (clearly, in both of these instances they got their message to you, even if their product failed to capture your interest).
You’re not describing a design flaw. Hell, you only barely describe one of the apps, so how could you be?
Unless I’m missing something, it seems to me that you’re not doing anything productive here at all. You know, aside from describing how you took an offered gift card (and can’t even be bothered to describe the app that it came with, much less name it) and made a less-than-witty comment about another app.
Well done.
Rüdiger
on 17 Mar 10I like your products, but… you guys are kind of cynical all the time.
Lighten up!
FrancescoK
on 17 Mar 10Seriously, what’s up with this post?
Jeremy Ricketts
on 17 Mar 10So… huh? What are you trying to say in this post? How dumb iPhone apps are? How dumb this developer’s marketing method was?
Am I supposed to be like “HAHA! That’s so awesome. Way to go man!”?I read this blog because it usually has something insightful, important, or new to say. In the past few years it’s been interesting to see a lot of the 37Signals’ ideals and principles fleshed out and “reworked”. Almost all the posts, long or short, tie into some of the fundamental ideas about user interface, company culture, entrepreneurship, marketing, etc. I’ve learned a lot from you all and have come to admire your ways of thinking.
Trying to be a witty, cynical douche is so twitter-2009. Contribute something!ML
on 17 Mar 10Seriously, what’s up with this post?
Mostly I found the two stories a pretty good summary of the “feel” of SxSW. If you want me to dig for a deeper meaning, I suppose I can do that…
For the first one, I was amazed at the money being spent here. You’re going to pay me $15 to download your app? Can that really be a good business strategy? Where is all that money coming from?
For the second one, I thought the “benefit” shown was a bit silly. When the winning feature of your app is something I can accomplish with my eyeballs, how much of a feature is it really? Felt like there was a disconnect from reality when someone was “pitching” the fact that I could use my iPhone instead of one of my five senses.
Also, both examples seemed to be a good symbol of the hype over substance mentality that I noticed at SxSW.
Brian Burridge
on 17 Mar 10Matt,
Your point came through loud and clear and its inline with all that 37 Signals has stood for over the years and all that is in Rework. Perhaps though, not everyone who reads this post has heard or read much of that, and so they haven’t learned the lessons yet.
I’ve heard from many others that the hype over substance was rampant at SxSW, but why should we be surprised? That seems to be the standard for the entire Web tech world at this point, ie. spend money long before you have it in the hopes of a big payoff down the road, and/or pretend to be one of the success stories before you’ve even gotten past step 1.
Apps, whether mobile based or web based have such a low cost to get started that it seems to lead to teams to make very foolish and unsound business decisions.
Jack
on 17 Mar 10Ah now come on :-) How is one supposed to demo the geo-whatsit? If it was someone you couldn’t see, how would you know it worked? Not that I’d run it on my phone, tthere’s only so much interconnectedness I can handle..
Robert
on 17 Mar 10Really? Were they seriously pitching a product that pathetic, or were they just demoing geolocation functionality in a provable way, i.e., you can verify that the guy they located is standing right where the app says he is, because you can can see him?
I’m all for 37s having a point of view, but this just sounds like smug condescension. Contribute something, indeed!
Sean Iams
on 17 Mar 10It would have been cool if they did the geolocation demo like a large-scale human game of “guess which cup Andrew is under”
Justin Chen
on 17 Mar 10The 2nd app sounds like a demo of Google Latitude.
Wes
on 17 Mar 10I don’t get all the hostility in the comments. The SxSW crowd loves to schmooze and hype their wares, but a lot of them forget that, in order to get to the pimp phase, they need to actually build a compelling product.
Honestly, the whole scene was so diluted I barricaded myself in my hotel room. I got more meaningful human interaction cruising the Austin M4M section on Craigslist than hanging with my peers.
Niket
on 17 Mar 10This blog headline seeks attention without any usefulness.
Scott
on 17 Mar 10Hype is the explicit point of sxsw: straight from the home page “New media presentations, music showcases and film screenings provide buzz-generating exposure for creators and compelling entertainment for audiences.”
You’re same hype complaint could be applied to the bands playing there – they don’t get paid to play but do get exposure. What’s wrong with that?
Chad
on 17 Mar 10I think the post is very clear: There are a lot of ways of getting customers, most apps are useless, you can make a lot of money making useless apps, and useless apps do nothing to improve society.
Bottom line: If your product/service doesn’t really help people, don’t bother with it because any income you do make is short term and not worth the time spent to develop it.
Scott
on 17 Mar 10Hype is the explicit point of SxSW: straight from the home page “New media presentations, music showcases and film screenings provide buzz-generating exposure for creators and compelling entertainment for audiences.”
Your same hype complaint could be applied to the bands playing there. They don’t get paid to play but do get exposure. What’s wrong with that?
Marcus
on 17 Mar 10I think the post spoke to different point: have realistic expectations about the effects of your sales pitch.
Giving away $15 iTunes cards is a great way to get them in the door. If you don’t wow them, don’t be shocked that they delete your app in 1 minutes. EVERYONE WILL.
Showing that your app can find the person next to you, while accurate, just may not be compelling. ESPECIALLY in a crowded, noisy exhibition hall.
I think both these are examples of a “bounce”. Matt was willing to listen for 1-3 minutes, but when no obvious benefit was displayed, he bounced to the next booth.
Exactly the same as the web, right? It’s really just a crowded, noisy exhibition all (with more nudity!), so your pitch had better be fantastic or people will bounce.
[Oh, and I realize the first example wasn’t precisely a bounce but it didn’t result in a sale so maybe we call it an “abandonment”? :-) ]
Oh, and I’ll be the first guy went and told his boss how many iTunes cards he gave away, then they went to the bar to celebrate. I think this is very common…
ploogman
on 17 Mar 10I am taking a quick break to follow up on this post and the remarks others made
1. wow, so nobody here has seen the joke app that pretends to track someone down by just locating the phone that is running the app?.
2. sorry, but some of these comments are so kissa** (and I see that a lot on SVN) like Brian B.’s comment. For your info Brian, I’ve been a 37signals fan and follower since it all started, I love Getting Real, I love the apps, I love the perspective and design philosophies that both Jason and David has espoused, and I probably agree 95% with their view. They inspired me to create some web and non-web apps that are publically available. They gave me the inspiration and courage to go it alone and try. But this post was more of a negative flippant angst post than anything else and I think it was not really in keeping with the typical stature of a 37signals SVN post and was not that interesting. It sounded very juvenile. Sorry, just my opinion.
3. Those of you who actually have started something from scratch and had to come up with some marketing will know how difficult it can be. I don’t think giving away a $15 gift card to get someone to try an iPhone app is a good value from a vendor’s point of view, it may even be stupid. But, I think it is callous and kind of rude to make a big point out of how you deleted the app seconds later after taking the gift card. If you wanted to be the bigger person, you should have given the gift card back if you thought the app sucked and told them so – that’s Getting Real. They were just trying to create some buzz and it wasn’t illegal and you didn’t have to stop in and try the app, it was just an offer made to you.
Andy
on 17 Mar 10You’re own comment form has the following text below if:
NOTE: We’d rather not moderate, but off-topic, blatantly inflammatory, or otherwise inappropriate or vapid comments may be removed. Repeat offenders will be banned from commenting. Let’s add value. Thank you.
That should also apply to the blog posts.
Kevin
on 17 Mar 10The first example is pointing out is that the company is wasting their money. They’re only attracting people who want $15 of songs for free, not people who want to use their app.
Marc-Olivier Vachon
on 17 Mar 10The second application could be real useful if you want determine the location of the iphone you lost in the house, which is why I’m buying a second iPhone. I love Apple.
EH
on 17 Mar 10It seems elementary that paying people to use a junky app (of which there are mannny in the iPhone world) is about the most diametrically opposed business model to what 37S propounds.
I don’t see a problem with calling out stupid crap. And why all the hypersensitivity? He didn’t name names or anything, he was just illustrating some overhyped stuff that the world could (probably) do without. Not all businessess are a good idea, you know.
ploogman
on 17 Mar 10@ EH, Kevin
you’re right, but that’s not what he actually wrote
interesting that so many want to explain what he wrote or rewrite what he wrote and make it something better than what it was
we all understand what he wrote and giving $15 gift cards to try out an app is probably not good business sense (unless they knew who he was and thought he would blog about the app here at SVN, then maybe it was the best $15 they could spend to get 70-100K+ readers a day to see it, though he does not mention if they knew who he was or that he was from 37signals)
@ Marc-Oliver no, it only tells you the location of the phone you are using, its a joke, a prank, it does not tell you where another phone is or where someone else is (unless they happen to be right next to you), you can find these apps on the app store, they are prank apps
Was also @SXSW
on 17 Mar 10I agree with Matt… the overall feel of SXSW seemed to be a lot of people building applications that are basically shit. The “HOT” applications seem to be the location based apps like four square an gowalla.
Kevin Rose even pimps these apps (which he so wisely invests in) saying if your out on a Friday night looking for your friends, you can use gowalla to find them. Yeah, or you could actually call them to see where they are. These apps are especially great for the great majority of us that are married with children and are usually out cruising around on Friday nights looking for our friends at bars.
Don Schenck
on 17 Mar 10I love this post, Matt.
Don’t you all “get it”?? Where’s the REALITY?? ARGH!!
Jeff
on 17 Mar 10That just made me laugh out loud!
nikroub
on 18 Mar 10Whether or not making great useful web apps or produce inspiration.
Whether or not posting naive observations
...
, 37s keep create buzz.
Steve Pilon
on 18 Mar 10If the app that the guy spent $15 to get you to take a look at had turned out to be something that impressed you, and then you came on SVN and posted about how this awesome new app you discovered at SXSW is… Well, that would have been the best $15 he ever spent, right? You roll the dice, you take your chances. There’s nothing wrong with that.
However, did it occur to you that the card might be bogus? Maybe he shoplifted a stack of unactivated giftcards from his day job at Kroger or something, and none of them are actually worth a penny.
RubyPanther
on 18 Mar 10The energy people put into commenting on a blog post they themselves are saying is a waste of time is hilarious!
Yeah, it sucks! And we’re slummin’ the comments! Who sucks the mostlyest?
Aaron M
on 18 Mar 10I think an iPhone app is just like any other, one needs to build one that’s useful, where you “scratch your own itch”.
MrAnon
on 18 Mar 10Matt, you deserve an award or something. When I teach my students about narcissism, I will give them example of dear yourself.
Marla Erwin
on 18 Mar 10At SXSW I met IRL with many people I’d previously known only online. Trying to find someone in a vast convention center (or worse, on 6th St.) and hoping to recognize them from a tiny Twitter avatar is exactly the use case for that second app. Care to divulge the name so I can download it?
ploogman
on 18 Mar 10@ Maria and everyone
wow, nobody has seen the prank apps in question?
i’ll requote myself: “no, it only tells you the location of the phone you are using, its a joke, a prank, it does not tell you where another phone is or where someone else is (unless they happen to be right next to you), you can find these apps on the app store, they are prank apps”
@ Don Shenck
I’ll requote myself: “sorry, but some of these comments are so kissa** (and I see that a lot on SVN )”
@RubyPanther you’re right! but it is fun to take a break and comment sometimes after mostly reading 95% of the time and not commenting
Don Schenck
on 18 Mar 10@ploogman—That’s S-c-h-e-n-c-k.
If you’re going to slam me, at least please spell my name correctly.
ploogman
on 19 Mar 10@ Don Schenck
sorry Don, that was a type, and I was not trying to slam you and no intention to disparage you, its just that a lot of comments on SVN are kind of like “we love you 37signals no matter what” and that’s fine but it sort of interferes with the discourse, – there is also a sense among a lot of SVN readers that they want to get on 37signals’ good side, but you know, I think they will be the first to say that while they want polite comments, they also want real comments and real feelings and they’re not going to slam you or throw you under the bus if you disagree with them
by the way, I love you 37signals as well
ploogman
on 19 Mar 10typo as “type” should have been typed “typo” (no pun intended)
Mary Stanley
on 23 Mar 10it would be great if it could find my keys, seriously.
This discussion is closed.