White Peak Software suffered a major email server outage earlier today. Server hardware at the hosting provider died a horrible death causing the outage. I believe the outage started around 10:30 am Eastern and continued until almost 8:00 pm Eastern.

After a few hours and reports of emails bouncing back with “invalid email address” errors, I decided to move the White Peak Software mail server to a new hosting provider. This meant email was once again flowing even while the original hosting provider tried to solve the hardware problems.

Email seems to be stable again. However, if you sent an email to White Peak or me any time today and I have not responded then please resend the email. It’s likely the email fell into a black hole.

I’m very excited to announce a new partnership between Outer Level and White Peak Software. Outer Level is the maker of great Mac and iOS apps including LicenseKeeper, Bullfrog, and (my personal favorite) Knapsack. Outer Level’s success over the last year has left Jon, founder and lead developer at Outer Level, with more work than he can handle by himself. So Jon has asked me to join the Outer Level development team to help out.

I’m very excited about this opportunity to work with one of the top Mac developer in the community. And while I have a lot to offer Jon and team, I will selfishly be learning a lot from Jon as I help with new development on Knapsack, Outer Level’s travel app.

What impact will this have on White Peak Software? None. I will continue working for White Peak Software as I have for the last 7 and a half years (Wow! It’s been that long?!). This partnership will, however, reduce my availability for consulting work, but this is a good thing as it fits within my long term goals for White Peak.

I received an email in August from a large company. A gentleman from the company wanted to talk with me about an opportunity for White Peak Software and Labor Mate. The company wanted to rebrand Labor Mate as one of their own iOS apps. As part of the deal they would do various marketing campaigns including print ads, exposure on high traffic web sites, and announcements in email newsletters. The market efforts would potentially reach millions of people that I otherwise would not reach unless I invested large sums of my own money in my own marketing efforts. Needless to say, I was very excited.

In exchange for the additional exposure Labor Mate would receive, I would rebrand Labor Mate to look like an app from the large company and part of the net revenue from sales would be split. Best of all I remain owner of the app and I have final say in what goes into the app. The deal could be looked at, in some ways, as corporate sponsorship for Labor Mate. And I was stoked!

Over the next few months we negotiated the terms of the agreement. At the same time, we worked on rebranding Labor Mate. I was pleased with the final results, which was a much nicer looking Labor Mate. And the corporate branding was done in a very tasteful, non-intrusive manner. My only complaints, which were minor, were the desire to include a splash screen and the new look was a little too foo-foo looking for my liking. Still, I was excited about the opportunity.

It wasn’t until about a month ago that my opinions about the deal started changing from excitement to concerns. Contract negotiations were slow and becoming much more complex. Lawyers got involved turning a “no nonsense” agreement into a 3 year commitment with requirements for various liability insurance, errors and omissions insurance, service level agreements, and more. Assuming Labor Mate sales remain the same for first 12 months of the agreement, I would pay out roughly 25% of net revenue just in legal and insurance fees. The deal was no longer feeling like a great opportunity.

The slow progress on contract negotiations wasn’t the only thing changing my mind about the opportunity. I starting feeling as if I would not have final say in Labor Mate’s functionality. Also, receiving visual assets from the large company was slower then I’m use to, and the extra time needed for internal approval of the app before submitting to Apple was dragging. My concerns grew as a result. I set aside time to work on a White Peak Software products, and I often don’t have time or patience for these types of delays. Was this something I could expect in the coming years?

As the weeks went by I was starting to feel like the once great opportunity was raising too many warning flags indicating a nightmare in the making. Now please note, what I would call a nightmare business arrangement might be a walk in the park for others. I’m set in my ways. I’m an indie dev. I work from home. I make the decisions. I control what I work on and when. I have my own way of working, providing support, and determining success. And I don’t like making compromises on matters I disagree with. Anything that changes this for me is a nightmare in the making.

I started feeling the deal would mean giving up the control and freedom I enjoy as an indie dev. I felt I might be expected to drop everything when the large company decided changes were needed for the app. And I would need approval from the large company on any and all changes I want to make to the app. There was also a good amount of monthly reporting required, beyond financial reporting, that is not uncommon in Corporate America. The deal would mean I have a bond with a large corporate business partner regarding this one app and as my past has repeatedly shown, I don’t function well in Corporate America.

To make matters worse, there was no long term plan for the rebranded Labor Mate. What happens if the agreement is terminated early? Would that be the end of Labor Mate? Would I be required to pull it from the App Store or would I only need to remove the branding elements from the app? Would there be pressure to support other mobile platforms? And what if my vision for Labor Mate’s future differs from the large company’s vision? What would be my options going forward with Labor Mate?

There were too many unanswered questions for my liking. What was once an exciting opportunity was already causing undo stress and concerns for me. In the 3 months that past, things didn’t get better. They got worse, from my point of view. And if that can happen in a short 3 months, what would the next 3 years be like? My gut kept telling me it would be a 3 year nightmare.

Everyone I talked to about this deal agreed, it sounded like a great opportunity in the beginning but not so great in the end. Everyone also agreed I should walk away from the deal before it was too late.

So today I talked with my contacts at the large company. I explained that this opportunity wasn’t right for White Peak Software and that I am stepping away from the deal. To my surprise, it came as no surprise. I guess that means I did a good job communicating my concerns over the last couple of months. It also might mean they recognize indie devs and Corporate America don’t always mix.

I should note the individuals at the large company were friendly, understanding, and tried their best to make the deal work. They too were feeling the stress and were annoyed with the lengthy negotiations. In the end, though, I had to decide what’s best for my company, and this deal wasn’t in White Peak Software’s best interest.

Despite the distractions of this deal over the last 3 months, all is not lost. I did learn, and re-learn, some valuable lessons.

1. If it sounds too good to be true then it probably is.
2. Lawyers for the other side suck because they are not looking out for your best interest. Lawyers for your side are awesome because they are looking out for the your best interest.
3. Talk to friends, peers, business associates and colleagues, and anyone else who will listen about any major business deal. They will often provide insight and points of view you will never think of.
4. Don’t get distracted by too good to be true opportunities that do not fit into your business plan. And don’t try to make the opportunity fit into your business plan just because it sounds too good to pass up. It’s either a natural fit for your business or it is not.
5. Stand by your principles
6. It’ okay to say “No” even if no comes 3 months down the road.
7. And lastly, if it sounds too good to be true then it probably is.

So what’s next for Labor Mate? I’m going to take the money I would have spent on extra insurance, hire a kick-ass designer, and get to work on Labor Mate 2.

Isn’t not like I need a distraction from work, but I couldn’t resist this one. I saw a tweet about iDOS, a DOS emulator app just released for iPad and iPhone. For fear the app will be pulled from the App Store, I bought it right away. Besides, it’s only 99 cent.

I read a story about someone installing Windows 3.0 inside of iDOS. Sounds cool but I’m not interested in Windows 3.0. Instead, I decided to install Turbo Pascal. Embarcadero recently posted Turbo Pascal v5.5 as a free download so the first thing I did was to grab a copy of it. Next, I grabbed an unzip program so I can unzip TP55.zip in iDOS. (Save time and go here to download unz552x3.exe.)

Here are the remaining steps I followed to get Turbo Pascal up and running on my iPad.

• Connect the iPad to iTunes.
• In iTunes, go to the Apps tab for the connected iPad and scroll down to the file sharing section.
• Drag and drop TP55.zip and unz552x3.exe to iDOS.
• Sync the device.
• Once sync is complete, launch iDOS on the iPad. You’ll find the two files in the root directory.
• Copy unz552x3.exe to a new directory, or just run it in the root directory. This will uncompress the unzip utility files. I prefer running it in a separate directory to keep the root clean.
• Unzip TP55.zip. This will create two directories, DISK1 and DISK2. Again, I copied TP55.zip to a temp directory before unzip.
• Run install.exe found in the DISK1 directory. If your experience is similar to mine, you will get a message saying to insert the oop/demos/bgi/doc diskette. I’m guessing the installer can’t find the directory DISK2.
• At this point, I aborted the install. Not to worry. Turbo Pascal’s IDE, compiler, etc have been installed.
• By default, the IDE can be found in c:\TP. The program file to run is turbo.exe.

That’s it. Happy coding!

Update: If those not lucky enough to grab a copy of iDOS from the App Store, you can download the source code for DOSPad and build your own version.

Yesterday Apple announced the Mac App Store, which will be available in 90 days. The Mac App Store is modeled after the iOS App Store. The store provides customers a trusted way to buy and download safe, quality software for the Mac OS X desktop. As with the iOS App Store, software developers must submit their apps to Apple for review, apps must adhere to a list of rules, and Apple gets 30% of the app price for each unit sold.

My first impression when reading about the announcement was 30% is too high. E-commerce providers such as Fastspring and eSellerate charge a much lower percentage. But the Mac App Store does do a few things that other e-commerce providers do not. The Mac App Store has the potential to reach many more users given that the app will be available on the desktop. Also, the Mac App Store will host the download file. But when I think about it, none of this is new. The only thing new is Apple.

Download sites have existed for years. The PAD specification, which has been available for years, provides a mechanism for software vendors to publish app metadata and be discovered by download sites, and ultimately by customers. And many download sites and e-commerce providers provide hosting of the app. Even Microsoft gave it a try with its web-based app store concept called Microsoft Marketplace, which after many years is no more. So it seems to me, the only thing new and different about the Mac App Store is the review process.

Downloading desktop software from download sites can be risky. You never know if the software you download contains a virus or malware. Attempts such as pre-scanning software for viruses by download sites have been made to instill trust but at the end of the day it’s hard to trust software downloaded from these sites. The Association of Software Professionals have attempted tackling the trust issue for years and has had some success. Still, at the end of the day, gaining customer trust with an online business is challenging.

Personally, I never download software from download sites but I buy a lot of software online. I only buy and download software from the vendor’s own web site, and I’ll only do it when I feel I can trust the vendor. The vendor earns my trust by having a professional online presence, provides contact information with bonus points for having a physical address and phone number, offers a money back guarantee, and most importantly digitally signing the software with a certificate from a trusted CA. If you browse the White Peak Software web site, you’ll see I follow these trust rules myself.

Trust is important when doing business in the online world, and the Mac App Store will help gain customer trust. This should, in turn, help encourage customers who have never bought desktop software online to final do so. The added level of trust and the potential reach to new customers makes the 30% cut to Apple worth while in my opinion. But I still have concerns, from a developer’s point of view, about the Mac App Store.

Many existing, and popular, apps sold today including some from Apple will be rejected from the store based on the list of review rules. But a bigger concern for me is that software vendors wishing to sell through the Mac App Store as well as through their own company web site will be required to maintain two different versions of the same app. Mac App Store apps cannot be self updating, cannot be trial version, and cannot use its own licensing scheme. These three things are key components to selling desktop software on the Internet today. This means a software vendor wishing to sell an app through the Mac App Store as well as through its own company store must have two separate builds of the app, one build without the self updating, trial version, and licensing scheme for the Mac App Store, and one build containing these features for sell through one’s own online store.

Another concern I have with the Mac App Store is the lack of pricing and licensing options. For example, Killink CSV is a business app bought by individuals and large companies alike. By selling directly to the customer, I can offer various pricing and licensing options. I offer a volume discount on purchases. The more single user licenses you buy, the lower the per unit cost. I offer a site license option too, which allows customers to pay a lower price while being able to install the software on a greater number of computers. Then there are coupons. I use coupons to offer discount pricing for a variety of reasons. It’s doubtful the Mac App Store will support coupons in the next 90 days. Then there are affiliates. While sells from affiliates represents only a small portion of my product revenue, affiliates do bring in additional customers. Come to think of it, in a way, one could think of the Mac App Store as an affiliate with review process.

I can’t help but wonder…giving the fact that I have more control over pricing, can offer discounts, and run sales using coupons…will customers become annoyed when they pay one price for my app in the Mac App Store only to find out they could have saved money by buying directly? And how will customer support change with the introduction of the Mac App Store? I’m assuming Apple will not provide any customer information after a purchase to the software vendor. What happens when a customer calls or emails me about re-installing the app on a new computer? I’ll have to first find out how they purchased the app, through the Mac App Store or through my web site. I can see it now, a customer responds with, “I don’t remember.” And what about refunds? Direct purchases can be refunded, Mac App Store purchases, well, “You’ll have to talk with Apple.”

Overall, I can see the Mac App Store leading to confusion and delay.

Oh, and then there is the concern of paid upgrades. Many, if not most, desktop software vendors count on revenue earned by paid upgrades. Paid upgrades are currently not supported in the iOS App Store, so I have to think the same will be true of the Mac App Store.

And let’s not forget the trial versions of the app. A customer can come to my web site and download a free 30-day trial of my software. This gives the user time to evaluate the app before making a purchasing decision. This is not going to happen, at least not initially, with the Mac App Store. Will this lead to users demanding lower prices and if so will software vendors given in starting a new race to the bottom. I certainly hope not. Software vendors need to stay their ground and price their products based on the value of the app.

Will my app be rejected from the Mac App Store if I include in the app description, “Come to my web site to download a free 30-day trial”? And what of cross-platform apps? Say I write a version of Killink CSV for the Mac. According to the list of review rules, I cannot mention the availability of the Windows version in the app’s metadata. If I do, it will be rejected even if this is a key selling point of the app.

I welcome the Mac App Store. It has great potential for tapping into a customer base that otherwise would be un-tappable. But I worry the Mac App Store is not the right place for many desktop app and by not being in the Mac App Store sells will suffer. Only time will tell if the Mac App Store will help software vendors, especially the indie shops like White Peak Software, to succeed.

Life has been crazy busy recently. Of course it seems my life is always crazy busy, and just when I think it can’t get any more crazy busy, it does. I’m behind on a number of things, and I can’t help but feel overwhelmed. Heck, feeling overwhelmed is probably an understatement for how I feel right now.

This year has been an amazing year for me, work-wise. I reinvented White Peak Software last year as company focused on iOS, and this year is shaping up to be my most exciting and enjoyable year in the company’s (almost) 7 year history. But a number of things are suffering as well. Progress on the book is suffering. Product updates are suffering. New product releases are suffering. Even client work is suffering because there’s simply no way for me to keep up with the demands. Despite of all this, I feel a bit better this evening after reading a posting from Jeff LaMarche.

I look up to Jeff, and I’m amazed at how much work he pumps out. I often wonder where he finds the time – not having a two year old in the house probably helps – and I’m convinced he never sleeps. In his posting Complaining About Success, Jeff mentions “time has become a scarce commodity.”

Ah, he is human. He does fall behind from time to time.

While I feel for Jeff, I admit reading his post makes me feel a bit relieved that I’m not alone.

And Jeff, if you are reading this, I plan to stick with the release then nil approach. It’s the approach I learned when first diving into Objective-C. Old habits are sometimes hard to break.

Fall is almost here and it’s going to be a busy on for me. Not only will I be heads down trying to finish my upcoming book, I will be speaking at two iOS developer conferences. The first conference is Voices That Matter in Philadelphia on October 16 and 17. This will be my first VTM, and I’m very excited to be apart of the event. There are a lot of great talks planned for the 2-day conference. My talk will be on the advantages of writing universal apps for iPad and iPhone. Early bird pricing ends today so register now to save money. Use the discount code PHASPKR to save even more money.

The second conference I’m speaking at this fall is 360iDev Austin. It’s no secret that 360iDev is one of my favorite developer conferences. I have made numerous friends since attending my first 360iDev last year, and the networking I’ve done at past 360iDev conferences has help land me paying gigs. My session at 360iDev will be on the fundamentals of iPad programming. This session is intended for anyone just starting out with iPad programming. Earlier bird pricing as already ended for 360iDev Austin but even at the full price of $599, it is money well spent if you are serious about iOS programming.

Hey Peanut 1.3 is now available in the App Store. The 1.3 update to Hey Peanut includes a new safari theme and all new animal sound effects.

What is Hey Peanut? Hey Peanut is a photo app for toddlers available on iPhone and iPad. Parents add pictures to Hey Peanut and optionally record a message on each picture. Then your 1 to 3 year old can flip through the pictures, touching each one to hear the recorded message. Hey Peanut also includes colorful themes with fun sound effects to entertain your child.

Keep an eye on the @HeyPeanutApp and @WhitePeak Twitter feeds for free promo codes.

I’m happy to announce version 1.2 of Hey Peanut, the photo app for toddlers available on the iPhone and iPad, is now available in the App Store. This update fixes bugs reported on iOS4 and adds new HD artwork for iPhone 4.

Last month I mentioned my experiment with the pricing for Labor Mate to see what effects, if any, a price increase will have. The initial results were interesting. The number of units sold went down, but revenue had gone up. On the surface it seems the price increase was a success, but I needed more data.

I increased the price of Labor Mate by $1 on May 15, going from $0.99 to $1.99. By increasing the price on May 15, I was able to compare the first half of the month with the second half. And as I mentioned in the previous post revenue had indeed gone up. But I was curious to see if this would continue and what might be the long term effects, so I left Labor Mate at $1.99. After all, I made more money in May as a result of the price increase.

June is over and the sales numbers are in. I’m now able to compare a full month of sales (for June) at the higher $1.99 price to a full month of sales (for April) at the lower $0.99 price. And I can compare these numbers to May’s numbers. The results might be surprising to some, but are inline with what I secretly thought would happen.

In June, Labor Mate earned a whooping $31.94 more money than in April, and it earned $30.90 less compared to May. In April, Labor Mate averaged $35 per day. The average was $37 per day in May, and only $36 per day in June.

Revenue from Labor Mate has been on a slow but steady increase since it was first released back in 2008. Though I cannot prove it, based on past trends, my gut tells me Labor Mate would have likely hit June’s revenue number in May without the price increase. And my gut, again based on the trend, says June would have probably hit May’s number without the price increase. In other words, while the price increase did improve Labor Mate’s revenue, the amount of additional revenue resulting from the price increase is actually no different from the slow and steady increase in revenue I was already seeing at the lower, 99 cent price point. As a matter of fact, I saw a bigger jump in revenue between March and April, with April bringing in a whooping $175.71 more than March.

I’m now convinced the price increase did little to improve revenue, and actually the price increase likely did more harm than good. Prior to the price increase Labor Mate was ranked in the Top 100 in the Health and Fitness category for a number of different countries including the U.S. Today Labor Mate is no were near ranking in the Top 100 in most stores.

Another negative effect caused by the price increase is that fewer people are now using Labor Mate. As I noted in the previous post, the number of daily downloads dropped. This means fewer people are buying Labor Mate, which in turns means fewer people are using it. I believe Labor Mate’s slow but steady raise was due in part to word of mouth advertising. Now that there are fewer new moms and dads buying and using Labor Mate, there are fewer people recommending Labor Mate to other new moms and dads. And I admit, ignoring price for a moment, I’m a little disappointed that fewer people are using the app. A part of me prefers selling at a lower price point so more mom and pops to be will use it. (Hmm, maybe I should release a free, iAd supported version.)

So what’s next? I’ve thought about dropping the price back down to 99 cents, but this could lead to a backlash from the folks who purchased Labor Mate over the last 6 weeks. Plus, $1.99 is still cheaper than a large cup of Starbucks coffee. The better idea, and the one I have been planning all along, is to continue improving Labor Mate and make it stand out above the other 99 cent copy cats. This includes leaving the price at $1.99 for now. After all, as one recent new user said to me in email, “it is a very practical and intuitive app and certainly justified at $1.99.”