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Comment by joshstrange | Hacker News Reader

> I have mostly found that all app store apps, no matter what app store, are 100% garbage unless they come from a Fortune 500 company and even then, a lot of those are garbage.

Hard disagree. My favorite apps are made by either a solo developer or a small group/company.

Some examples:

- Overcast (Podcast Player)

- Prologue (Audiobook App)

- Octal (HN Client)

- Apollo (RIP, Reddit)

- Drafts (Notes app)

- Any Zach Gage game

- Widgetsmith (Widgets)

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I chat with a successful app dev one time long ago. His formula is rather simple. If it takes time to develop the app don't do it. In stead publish 10-20 apps in a day. Hire some people on the cheap to search and organize data. Even after a long time his idea what might be successful and what probably wont be is way off.

Ideas are like, an app that is just a list of some kind. Ill make up an example: An app that has searchable list of cities in Denmark with a typical picture for each. Here you could allow the user to write a note with each entry or allow sorting by distance from- but it is more effective to move on to the next "app". You make 20 country apps like that, non of them get any downloads except from one country that gets 10 per month/120 per year. That makes it a productive day.

Investing serious effort into something that has to go through the review process is just irresponsible IMO.

So you have seven examples out of nearly 2 million apps, one doesn't exist anymore, one is a wrapper around news.ycombinator.com, and one is the equivalent of a skin app.

No, these are not shining examples of good apps.

You said all apps are garbage unless they come from Fortune 500 companies, I give you examples of apps that are not garbage from solo developers, and you respond with this… I have no clue what to say.

I’m not sure HN is the place for you with that attitude.

+1 for Prologue. I use it every day and I think its amazingly stable and well designed

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