Looking around at how developers have started to use the iPad for content delivery, it seems like some are just porting what they offered on the iPhone to the bigger screen. Which made me wonder:had the innovation for mobile apps dried up?
But David Coallier of CloudSplit emailed me a week or two ago with a sneak peak of a new side project called FLUDapp that he’s been working on with Matthew Ausonio & Bobby Ghoshal. We talked about their app’s unique and ground breaking features, and about using a platform like FRAPI to build it and all within a month.
Q1. WTF (What the FLUD) is it?
A. Download FLUD right now (August 5) and you are going to see an intuitive and beautiful RSS news reader with social sharing controls, video playback, no limit on feeds, bookmarking etc.
Our vision, however, is to create an ecosystem that converts readers into influencers. What is an “influencer?” you might ask… Internally we have our own ideas of what that means, but that is really up to the community to decide. We have purposely left things open-ended for v1.0 because the community is going to give us some powerful ideas and they already have. For now our goal is to focus on building controls and tools that users WANT to use and not get caught up in the features game.
Q2. From the preview images, it looks like it’s well suited for the iPad. Does that rule out iPhone or iTouch users?
A, Our iPhone design is catered to a much smaller piece of screen real estate. What you see on the iPad and what you will see on the iPhone will not be a full on 1:1 design. All we are going to say is that we want to maintain our position as the “sexy” news reader and we will make sure we keep things intuitive and beautiful no matter what device you use FLUD on!
Q3. What was the initial business model for the FLUD App, and how did you come to a final decision?
A. We initially talked about building a community on the iPad where users could pull in and track all their social network activity from the major social networks and then cross-connect with their friends in the app but we decided that not only would the app become a headache to build and maintain, but that the actual business model would be flawed because users hate information overload.
Wave proved that point to us just the other day. An app like that is right for a power-social user but not for the masses. That is where FLUD was born. We started an application that allowed a user to track content that they chose to track and then eventually will be able to influence. Under the right conditions, that can be a potent mix on an exponential scale.
Q4. How do you view the iAd as a platform from a developer perspective?
A. iAds is a brilliant way to help a developer make their apps free. We were shuffling the idea of having a free version of FLUD that was ad supported, but with the amount of imagery and content the users will be exposed to, the ads might hurt the app. I’d love to hear from the users about this.
Q5. Why choose to develop FLUD in a month why not 28 days or 2 months?
A. This is the first time I have been asked this question haha… well to be completely honest, our design and build time was set for 30 days quite arbitrarily.
Both Matthew and I have full time jobs and we wanted to challenge ourselves to see what we could do in 30 days while working nights. David Coallier of echolibre jumped in to help us at the final push. Our app uses FRAPI as our API, and his awesome framework helped shaved a few days off of our deadline. We were sweating it out toward the final week but we love the end result!
Q6. Does it make it easier that it was a personal project?
A. If this was 100% personal the answer would be a resounding yes. The truth is, while this was an experiment between Matthew and I, we didn’t do it entirely for ourselves. We wanted our users to love the app and we want to address all their needs. So to answer your question, no, this wasn’t easy by any stretch. I think we pushed ourselves and now we have a great competitive product that our users love and it will continue to be built out.
Q7. What was the initial business model for the FLUD App and how did you come to a final decision?
A. We initially talked about building a community on the iPad where users could pull in and track all their social network activity from the major social networks and then cross-connect with their friends in the app but we decided that not only would the app become a headache to build and maintain, but that the actual business model would be flawed because users hate information overload. Wave proved that point to us just the other day. An app like that is right for a power-social user but not for the masses. That is where FLUD was born. We started an application that allowed a user to track content that they chose to track and then eventually will be able to influence. Under the right conditions, that can be a potent mix on an exponential scale.
Q8 How do you view the iAd as a platform from a developer perspective?
A. iAds is a brilliant way to help a developer make their apps free. We were shuffling the idea of having a free version of FLUD that was ad supported, but with the amount of imagery and content the users will be exposed to, the ads might hurt the app. I’d love to hear from the users about this.
Q9. What about the whole information overload issue?
A. Yes this is a great question. The easiest way to scare a user away is information overload. That is why we built FLUD to be highly scannable with plenty of breathing room around the content. Our goal is to help the user get quick bytes of information while they are at their desk, on a commute etc.
Q10. Why choose to develop FLUD in a month why not 28 days or 2 months?
A. This is the first time I have been asked this question haha… well to be completely honest, our design and build time was set for 30 days quite arbitrarily. Both Matthew and I have full time jobs and we wanted to challenge ourselves to see what we could do in 30 days while working nights. David Coallier of echolibre jumped in to help us at the final push. Our app uses FRAPI as our API, and his awesome framework helped shaved a few days off of our deadline. We were sweating it out toward the final week but we love the end result!
Q11. Does it make it easier that it was a personal project?
A. If this was 100% personal the answer would be a resounding yes. The truth is, while this was an experiment between Matthew and I, we didn’t do it entirely for ourselves. We wanted our users to love the app and we want to address all their needs. So to answer your question, no, this wasn’t easy by any stretch. I think we pushed ourselves and now we have a great competitive product that our users love and it will continue to be built out.
Q12. What is the basic framework for the App?
A. FLUD was built with Objective-C along with Facebook and FRAPI as third party integration.
Q13. What software tools did you use for the project management for getting an app built in a month?
A. Lots of white paper stuck to our lab’s walls, plenty of e-mails back and forth, late night phone calls, video conferencing on skype and maybe about 2 days of Basecamp. Things were moving too quickly for us to use any real PM tools, of course all that will change now.
Q14. So is there a worry about the seeming stream of clone apps in the iTunes store?
A. Not at all. Competition is healthy. I don’t want to shoot myself in the foot here but the truth is FLUD, Flipboard, Reeder and Pulse are 4 top notch RSS reader apps. Eventually all the core functionality across the board will normalize and it will come down to market position and design. Over the next few months we will continue to strengthen not only our app but also our brand, goals and message.
Q15. How did you find the Apple approval process?
A. Apple is doing their best to make sure they get most apps approved within a week of their submission. I do wish that there was a long list of items that we know we cannot have in our app in order to get approved. FLUD would have come out a week earlier, but we got rejected because BBC doesn’t allow featured syndication. The fix was easy, but it would have been nice to have that knowledge beforehand so we didn’t waste 14 days with just waiting.
Q16. What could you have done better in the Apple approval process for the next app?
A. A better notification system to show where your app is in order of approval as compared to other apps and a better list of “DO NOT DO” so developers can make better decisions the first time around would be very helpful.
Q17. What are the time frame for updates to the FLUD App?
A. We are looking to work as fast as possible and to build a larger team to help facilitate quicker updates. Expect updates to FLUD to happen over a period of weeks and not months. If we are successfully able to find talent to build our team out, we can move faster. Know of any great iOS developers in SoCal?? Ping us!
Q18. When is the Flud App available? Also is there FLUD App available in all countries?
A. FLUD is currently available in the app store and is featured as the #1 new News app in the app store and #2 most downloaded paid news app in the app store. We are fairly happy with that result after only 5 days, of course we want the crown and there is plenty of work to do yet. Also, yes, FLUD is available to every country that has an iPad in it’s stores.
Q19. What does the FLUD App cost?
A. The app costs $3.99 in the US store and it’s currency exchange equivalent in other countries.
Q20. Are there any plans to extend the platform to cover Android or Blackberry platforms?
A. Absolutely, Android is a big checkbox on our list. We haven’t discussed Blackberry as yet, but we will.
Update: Flud will be shutdown as of 8th August 2013 after building out a new reader application for iOS, Android and WindowsPhone. Read more about it on VentureBeat.