Ask HN: Selling/licensing a white labelled iPhone app
Does anyone have experience doing this, or thoughts to share?
I can think of a few points of consideration:
1. Potential loss of income due to it being available free from someone else. The buyer has a bigger presence and can tap into a bigger market.
2. Build vs. buy and alternatives. The buyer may potentially build their own. My app has been in production for 2 years, with battle-tested code. There are possible, existing alternatives to mine, but I do not know if they are probable (i.e. in terms of willingness, interest, price, etc).
3. Legalities. We aren't lawyers, but what are key things to be aware of. Eg. I will be continuing to sell my app. What's stopping them from re-selling it. I prefer a simple license rather than 1 which no one can understand.
4. Time and effort. Other than the obvious time needed for changes to the app's features, what else is required? Eg. what's a reasonable time period for handholding, providing support
5. Ongoing support. What's the practicality of providing an ongoing source update, or should it be a one time transfer of the code snapshot.
6. What are guidelines to figuring out the magic number?