Profit is an almost perfect indicator of barriers to entry. If a company makes a lot of profit (35+% operating margin) doing something - Apple's HW, or Microsoft's OS - many observers inevitably think they can just come in with a lower margin version, thinking "hey, some margin on huge volumes is still great!" But they miss the point that large margins follow from barriers to entry. Large margins on revenues the size of Apples indicate huge barriers to entry.
I think you're ignoring the group of people who both work smart (as you define) AND work long hours. That combination would probably have the highest correlation with success. It's not either / or.
The reason that 200,000 apps is huge is not because all 200,000 benefit a single user; rather it's because 200,000 apps enables millions of people to write this exact same post, but substitute Echofon and Bloomberg (his 2 daily use apps) with App X and App Y.
this is correct - I've tried to reach out to CL ads to obtain early customers for a web app that would seem to solve their problem (and I'm very honest about it, saying it's our app), but it gets flagged as solicitation, with a note to post it elsewhere.
I think Apple went out of their way to make it seem like iPad2 is a long-running product:
- end of video, Ive saying "iPad2 will define the category for years to come"
- 2011: the year of iPad2
Both of these are, I believe, explicit attempts to make people NOT think a new iPad3 is coming soon (so people won't wait, and will buy now instead), but in reality these two things perhaps support the iPad3 in September rumors...
seems like they are ignoring an opportunity for a pivot - their promotion created demand for their web design services, but they want to be an app maker so they don't pay attention to customers for anything other than apps.
Hands on Apps engineer for series A startup tackling energy efficient lighting. In bay area. Looking for smart problem solvers, as this product is in a new space (networking meets LEDs). http://bit.ly/dcMTVy
we hear this from users - you can "force" style combinations now by choosing styles manually and then seeing the rooms that result, but we should probably make this function more obvious.
one of the founders previously started an interior architecture/design firm; subject matter expertise is key to the implementation. personal fashion is a possible expansion, but home furnishings is a $100B+ market in the US alone, so we'll focus there for a while...
yes, we'll optimize for speed soon (but we hope to optimize at the right time). bedroom and dining room are next on the list. getting visitors is indeed the big challenge. SEO, viral/social, and SEM (in that order) are what we'll focus on. would love feedback in this area as well.
yes - account creation lets you save rooms that you've created (we have people who have spent hours putting together different room combinations) but you're right about the high hurdle and we'll shortly be releasing a version that you can use all the way through without signing up.
We recently released a new version of the quiz, and looks like we had an IE7 bug which we'll fix right away. BTW - 55% of Sproost visitors have been FF, only 25% have been IE7/6.