AppBeacon

The Problem

The App Store opened in 2008 and filled up fast. By December there were more than 11,000 apps, and every app site showed the same “new” and “top” lists. Nothing helped you work through the store once and keep track of what you’d already seen.

What I Built

• A personal list of every app you hadn’t reviewed yet, sorted into the App Store’s 20 categories.
• “Sink” an app you don’t want and it never shows up again.
• Bookmark an app you might buy later and get updates on its price and new features.
• Mark the apps you own, and jump to other apps from the same developer. That feature came from a developer’s suggestion and went live the same day.
• Search, a how-to video, and a blog with app reviews, some written by guest reviewers.

Launching Quietly

I launched AppBeacon on November 25, 2008 and told almost nobody, so I could fix bugs with a few real users first:

I've become tired of the constant "Beta" status for so many websites and applications.

From "AppBeacon Launches … Quietly", November 25, 2008

Less than three weeks later I left a comment about AppBeacon on a Newsweek article. Within 10 minutes the servers were struggling and pages were taking 15 seconds to load. I made quick fixes on the fly, broke the site, fixed it again within minutes, and AppBeacon was officially open.

Why I Sold It

AppBeacon grew alongside the App Store, from 11,800 apps at launch to more than 80,000 by January 2010. In 2010 I sold it to a major mobile phone accessory manufacturer. They shut it down soon after.

What It Means for Your Project

I’ve taken a product from a “coming soon” page to a sale. I launched it small on purpose, fixed it under real traffic and kept it running while the catalog grew nearly sevenfold. I’ve also worked with an outside designer, so I know how to turn someone else’s design into a working site.