Interest in a XenForo specific iphone/android app.

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gfc said:
+1

Not interested in something the user has to pay or a tapatalk like "generic" app.
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If you don't want the users to pay and you don't them to use a generic app, you're likely going to have to end up forking out a lot out of your own pocket. Are you saying you would be willing to pay for the top end white label version?
 
That's what he said. I think many people will. generic meaning one app for many websites.
I doubt it will be a lot for an uncustomized white label app. But we will see.
A heavily customized version is bound to cost a premium price. This could be interesting as well. Investment can be recouped by app sales.
 
I am saying that it is extremly important having an own icon on the homescreen and no competitioners within the app.

And that has a price, of course.
 
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Alfa1 said:
A heavily customized version is bound to cost a premium price. This could be interesting as well. Investment can be recouped by app sales.
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That would be an issue for @Slavik how interested is he in putting in that level of investment required to develop a product like that. It would be good to get a really solid product out there, but if slavik isn't sure that he is going t recover his costs incurred in going above beyond want he has to do for his own forum, then I can understand why he wont go down that route. Maybe this needs more than just a comment on a forum. As somebody who would really want this, I would be happy to look at other ways in which I can contribute
 
Of course everyone wants this app to make their coffee to but we need to be reasonable.. The people who use these apps use them because they strip out the nonsense we admins don't think our forums can do without. Don't believe me read the Tapatalk reviews from apples App Store.
 
I would happily pay top dollar money for a white labeled app just for my own forum. Tapatalk BYO costs more than 800$ per year, and you have zero control over the app - meaning if tapatalk decides to increase the price (again), or stop the app, you're screwed.

I'd rather pay good money to own my own app, so perhaps an upfront cost and annual renewals to get updates and support might be the way to go?
 
Funding has been a thought, whilst im willing to fund to fund the development out of my own pocket, having some "guarantee" of returns is a nice though. However given how recent croudfunded projects have gone on XenForo before, it is something I am loathe to consider (not that id be running off with anyones money or anything).

I'm going to be putting together a first release technical specification shortly, and see where it goes from there.
 
Forums generating revenue from advertisements (as most large forums do) need to be able to place ads in an app. Otherwise they would harm their own business model. However the cost is not a problematic factor for them.

On the other side you have a lot of forums which generate only small money or even no money at all. Their choice would be a free app just like Tapatalk.

It is up to you which of them you would like to serve. ;-)
 
HWS said:
Forums generating revenue from advertisements (as most large forums do) need to be able to place ads in an app. Otherwise they would harm their own business model. However the cost is not a problematic factor for them.

On the other side you have a lot of forums which generate only small money or even no money at all. Their choice would be a free app just like Tapatalk.

It is up to you which of them you would like to serve. ;-)
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I think you can get the best of both worlds for many sites with a single app. In app ads will definitely need to be one source of revenue if the app is to be free, however I'm curious to find out if that will be the best way of monetising visits in the long run, even for larger sites. I'm not sure it will be, I think this issue really depends on the site, the admin and it's users. Depending on the type of the site and the devotion of it's userbase, it may be more lucrative for the admin and the app developer to offer an in app purchase to remove all adds from a particular site than to just force ads upon all users using a free ad supported model. (The winner for many sites probably being a mix of both)

While many large sites are add supported, how much are they really earning per user from those ads? And how many users would instead be willing to drop a dollar a week a month or year in order to remove the adds and support their site? In a forum environment where a user often feels a strong connection with the site, the admin, mods and other users, I feel they'd be inclined to drop that dollar occasionally to support the site they spend so much time on and improve their user experience. It could even be marketed as a donation depending on the site. That's got to be more than what the ad revenue the admin was earning from that one user previously.

In app purchases makes this kind of support much more accessible and convenient to a user and could potentially turn out to be considerably more lucrative to a site admin (and Slavik's Apps 'R Us) than solely serving their own ads.
 
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Slavik said:
Funding has been a thought, whilst im willing to fund to fund the development out of my own pocket, having some "guarantee" of returns is a nice though. However given how recent croudfunded projects have gone on XenForo before, it is something I am loathe to consider (not that id be running off with anyones money or anything).

I'm going to be putting together a first release technical specification shortly, and see where it goes from there.
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I am pretty sure that if you set up a well outlined project with clear description of what the project is and is not going to be then such a crowd fund would be just as successful as XenReviews. :)
I don't think you can compare yourself with Jaxel or Robbo.
 
We're looking into rolling our own forum app but NixFifty suggested we look at this thread, hmm. Am interested in this if we can have our own branded version which we would submit to Apple/Play ourselves (like TapaTak BYO).

Ray
 
I'm interested;

Not as an admin but as an end user. I would love if some of the sites I used (including xf.com), had an app. The mobile site is fine but this app looks awesome.
 
Have had a quote back for the initial work to be done. It's reasonable costing, I want to write the spec up into something more "tangible" to people know exactly what will be delivered in the first version, and what will follow.
 
As a current Tapatalk BYO customer I would love to spend my app fees elsewhere, especially for a quality app. The support one receives (or doesn't) from Tapatalk is atrocious

RobParker said:
Would a white label app require an apple dev account? Or would you publish it?
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Most app services build the files necessary for your app. Publishing is not included, but you can always hire someone to do it for you.
 
I think matching the tapatalk model exactly might be best, i.e. a choice of white label or ad-supported generic app. Smaller forums would benefit from the latter, since it isn't worth a large investment in a mobile app for only a couple of users
 
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