ERIC SINK ON THE BUSINESS OF SOFTWARE

ERIC SINK ON THE BUSINESS OF SOFTWARE

by Eric Sink
Released March 2006
Publisher(s): Apress
ISBN: 9781590596234

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Book description

The authors of the bestselling Beginning iPhone 3 Development are back, with the same excellent material completely updated for iOS 4 and written from the ground up using the latest version of Apple's Xcode 3. All source code has been updated to use the latest Xcode templates and current APIs, and all-new screenshots show Xcode 3 in action.

Beginning iPhone 4 Development is a complete course in iOS development. You'll master techniques that work on iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. We start with the basics, showing you how to download and install the tools you'll need, and how to create your first simple application. Next you'll learn to integrate all the interface elements iOS users have come to know and love, such as buttons, switches, pickers, toolbars, and sliders. You'll master a variety of design patterns, from the simplest single view to complex hierarchical drill-downs. The confusing art of table building will be demystified, and you'll learn techniques to save and retrieve your data using SQLite, iPhone's built-in database management system and Core Data, the standard for persistence that Apple brought to iOS with the release of SDK 3.

And there's much more! You'll learn to draw using Quartz 2D and OpenGL ES, add multitouch gestural support (pinches and swipes) to your applications, and work with the camera, photo library, accelerometer, and built-in GPS. You'll discover the fine points of application preferences and learn how to localize your apps for multiple languages. You'll also learn how to use the new concurrency APIs included in iOS 4, and make robust multithreaded applications using Grand Central Dispatch.

  • The iPhone 4 update to the best-selling and most recommended book for Cocoa Touch developers

  • Written in an accessible, easy-to-follow style

  • Full of useful tips and techniques to help you become an iOS pro

What you'll learn

  • Everything you need to know to develop your own best-selling iPhone and iPad apps

  • Best practices for optimizing your code and delivering great user experiences

  • How to create "universal" apps for both iPhone and iPad

Who this book is for

Anyone who wants to start developing for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch.

Table of contents

  1. Title Page
  2. Dedication
  3. CONTENTS
  4. FOREWORD
  5. ABOUT THE AUTHOR
  6. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
  7. INTRODUCTION
  8. Part One: Entrepreneurship
    1. One: WHAT IS A SMALL ISV?
    2. Two: WHINING BY A BARREL OF ROCKS
      1. Remembering the Good Old Days
      2. Teaching New Tricks to Old Dogs
      3. The Importance of Barrel Research
      4. Why Don't We See These Opportunities?
      5. The Business of Software Products in 2003
    3. Three: STARTING YOUR OWN COMPANY
      1. Know Thyself
      2. Have a Failure Plan
      3. Choose Your Product
      4. Make the Numbers Add Up
    4. Four: FINANCE FOR GEEKS
      1. Three Financial Statements
      2. Profit Margins
      3. Why Open Source Business Models Are Hard
      4. Funding
      5. The Perils of Getting Advice from Experts
    5. Five: EXPLORING MICRO-ISVs
      1. A Force of One
      2. Shareware
      3. My Problem
      4. Introducing...Winnable Solitaire
      5. Hypotheses
      6. Bottom Line
    6. Six: FIRST REPORT FROM MY MICRO-ISV
      1. My Results So Far
      2. Ten Things I Think I Think
      3. Next Steps
    7. Seven: MAKE MORE MISTAKES
      1. Endless Decision Making
      2. My Stories
      3. Summary
  9. Part Two: People
    1. Eight: SMALL ISVs: YOU NEED DEVELOPERS, NOT PROGRAMMERS
      1. Boundaries vs. Flexibility
      2. Developers
      3. Frequently Asked Questions
    2. Nine: GEEKS RULE AND MBAs DROOL
      1. The Tale of a Technology Decision
      2. Some Unsolicited Advice for Mainsoft
      3. "Fine, Eric, So What's Your Point?"
      4. "So You're Saying That Developers Are the Only People Who Are Valuable?"
      5. "But Aren't Developers Missing Some Skills?"
      6. "Geeks Everywhere? Where Does This Madness Stop?"
      7. "But...But...What About Steve Ballmer?"
      8. Some Unsolicited Advice for Steve Ballmer
      9. Back to the Matter at Hand
    3. Ten: HAZARDS OF HIRING
      1. 1. Hire After the Need, Not Before
      2. 2. Realize That Hiring Is All About Probabilities
      3. 3. Know the Law
      4. 4. Get a Variety of Opinions
      5. Hiring Programmers: The Usual Advice
      6. Look for Self-Awareness
      7. Hire Developers, Not Programmers
      8. Education Is Good
      9. But Too Much Education Is a Yellow Light
      10. Look at the Code
      11. The Very Best
    4. Eleven: GREAT HACKER != GREAT HIRE
      1. For the Love of the Code
      2. Fussy About Tools and Platforms
      3. Fussy About Doing Interesting Projects
      4. Fussy About Interacting with Users
      5. Bottom Line
    5. Twelve: MY COMMENTS ON "HITTING THE HIGH NOTES"
      1. A Serious Choir
      2. The Needs of the Many Outweigh the Needs of the Few...
      3. "So Are You Saying We Should Forget About the High Notes?"
      4. Two Kinds of Talent
    6. Thirteen: CAREER CALCULUS
      1. And You Thought Math Would Never Be Useful
      2. Focus on the First Derivative
      3. Constant Learning
      4. Seize Your Mistakes
      5. Bug 5909
      6. Risks
      7. Postscript
  10. Part Three: Marketing
    1. Fourteen: FINDING A PRODUCT IDEA FOR YOUR MICRO-ISV
      1. Jump on the Micro-ISV Bandwagon!
      2. Letters. I Get Letters.
      3. The Algorithm for Finding an Idea
      4. Build a List of Ideas
      5. Evaluate the Ideas and Pick One
      6. Your Next Steps
    2. Fifteen: MARKETING IS NOT A POST-PROCESSING STEP
      1. Positioning
      2. Some of These Rules Can Be Bent. Others Can Be Broken.
      3. What Position Do We Have Right Now?
      4. What Position Do We Want to Have?
      5. Is This Position Already Occupied?
      6. What Features Should a Product in This Position Have?
      7. Bottom Line
    3. Sixteen: CHOOSE YOUR COMPETITION
      1. Scout Work
      2. You Need Competitors
      3. How to Choose the Right Competitors
      4. Accidental Competitors
    4. Seventeen: ACT YOUR AGE
      1. Four Groups
      2. The Chasm
      3. A Few Examples
      4. Act Your Age
      5. P.S.
    5. Eighteen: GEEK GAUNTLETS
      1. What Do Customers Want?
      2. However...
      3. Getting Fooled by the Early Adopters
      4. Gauntlets of Fumbling
      5. Stories
      6. Gauntlets of Dexterity
      7. Bottom Line
      8. Clues That You Might Be a Geek
    6. Nineteen: BE CAREFUL WHERE YOU BUILD
      1. What Is a Platform?
      2. The Pros and Cons of Large Platforms
      3. How Are Platform Decisions Made?
      4. A Word to the Businesspeople
      5. OK, Now a Word to the Geeks
      6. The Operating System
      7. .NET Yet?
      8. The Bottom Line
    7. Twenty: THE GAME IS AFOOT
      1. #include <You_Need_Competition.h>
      2. Ping-Pong
      3. Sorry!
      4. The 100-Meter Dash
      5. Golf: The Putting Green
      6. Bridge
      7. Gymnastics
      8. Football
      9. The Oscars
      10. Rugby
      11. Golf: The Tee Shot
      12. The 19th Hole
    8. Twenty-One: GOING TO A TRADE SHOW
      1. Monday, 7:30 a.m.
      2. Monday, 9:30 a.m.
      3. Tuesday, 12:50 p.m.
      4. Wednesday, 9:30 p.m.
      5. Thursday, 8:00 a.m.
    9. Twenty-Two: MAGAZINE ADVERTISING GUIDE FOR SMALL ISVs
      1. Guidelines for Getting Started
      2. Choosing Where to Place Your Ad
      3. Ad Salespeople
      4. Buying the Ad
      5. What Happens After Your Ad Runs
  11. Part Four: Sales
    1. Twenty-Three: TENETS OF TRANSPARENCY
      1. The Magic of Selling Software
      2. 1. Have a Weblog
      3. 2. Offer Web-Based Discussion Forums
      4. 3. Don't Hide Your Product's Problems
      5. 4. Don't Annoy Honest People
      6. 5. Offer a Painless Demo Download
      7. 6. Offer a Money-Back Guarantee
      8. 7. Share a Little About Your Financial Standing
      9. 8. Talk About Your Future Plans
      10. Ways in Which You Might Want to Be Opaque
      11. Practicing What I Preach
      12. Bottom Line
    2. Twenty-Four: PRODUCT PRICING PRIMER
      1. Stating the Problem
      2. It All Starts with Positioning
      3. Think About Your Expenses
      4. How Much Is Your Product Worth to the Customer?
      5. High Volume/Low Price or High Price/Low Volume
      6. Is Your Price Too Low?
      7. Know Where the Lines Are
      8. Price Is Not Just a Number
      9. Complaints About Price
      10. Loss Leaders
      11. Temporary Pricing
      12. Know the Law
      13. Summary
    3. Twenty-Five: CLOSING THE GAP, PART 1
      1. Proactive Sales
      2. Working with a Sales Guy
      3. Characteristics of a Sales Guy
      4. One More Mandatory Trait for a Sales Guy
      5. Reasons to Have a Sales Guy
      6. The "No Sales Guy" Approach
    4. Twenty-Six: CLOSING THE GAP, PART 2
      1. Responsive Sales
      2. 1. Make Sure Customers Know About Your Product
      3. 2. Make Sure Your Product Is Something Customers Want
      4. 3. Make Sure They Can Afford Your Product
      5. 4. Offer a Full-Featured Demo Download
      6. 5. Answer the Customers' Questions
      7. 6. Provide a Place for Community
      8. 7. Make It Easy to Buy Over the Web
      9. "But We Can't Do It This Way!"
      10. We're Not Perfect
    5. Epilogue: JUST DO IT
  12. INDEX

Product information

  • Title: ERIC SINK ON THE BUSINESS OF SOFTWARE
  • Author(s): Eric Sink
  • Release date: March 2006
  • Publisher(s): Apress
  • ISBN: 9781590596234