14 DAY TRIAL // Right after Apple rejected James Thomson’s PCalc widget, we took better notice of his work and even started following him on Twitter. He’s noticeably active on the microblogging service and vocal when it comes to code, the App Store, piracy, and other dev things.
Earlier this week, Mr. Thomson tweeted some numbers about piracy, and we wondered if it had anything to do with the newly emerged Pangu jailbreak. As it turns out, it didn’t. It’s just as likely that people are pirating apps using Enterprise certificates.
As the questions and answers flowed, we found ourselves touching on even more interesting topics, including the App Store’s discoverability problems, the Apple Watch, and even a potential mobile version of Xcode. All in the paragraphs to follow.
Tell us about yourself. How did you enter the development scene and how has it worked for you so far?
I've been developing for the Mac since I first encountered one at university in the early 1990s. Aside from a brief tour of duty at Apple from 1996-2000, I've worked on my own apps full time since then, and I have made a good living out of it.
You’re the author of a very popular and very scientific calculator app. How did the idea for PCalc come about?
Back at university in 1992, one of my favourite classes was the one on user interface design. We had an assignment to design the interface for a central heating controller in Hypercard, and I drew a number of buttons and a fake seven-segment LCD display for it. Later on, I was starting to learn how to program the Mac, and was looking for a small project to start with. I remembered I had the graphics I'd drawn before, and thought I could use them to build a simple calculator. So, that's how it started – a small test project to learn the Mac, which is still going 22 years later!
You recently said on Twitter (I quote), “according to my stats, around 70% of the copies of PCalc on iOS are pirated.” That’s a staggering number! Especially for a calculator app. Why do you think this is happening? Could it be the $9.99 price tag?
It's certainly higher than I thought it would be, but it's certainly not unusual. I've heard of people who develop games who are seeing more like a 90% piracy rate! I think there are newer ways to pirate apps that don't necessarily require a jailbroken phone, and there will always be people who don't want to pay for things. PCalc has had a lot of positive publicity over the last few months, and I think that's probably contributing to it getting pirated as well. I don't think it's down to the price though – people still pirate 99c apps.
But the other thing is, a 70% piracy rate doesn't necessarily mean that I'm losing 70% of my sales. Most of those people wouldn't have bought a copy in the first place, so while it still bothers me on an idealogical level, I am not too worried yet. But, if that number continues to rise over time, then I think it indicates a cause for concern.
Do you think the Pangu jailbreak contributed at all to that high number of pirated copies. Was there ever a time when you noticed a spike in your piracy stats?
I don't know to be honest – perhaps, but I don't keep an eye on the stats. I only looked this week because I'd seen an article on high piracy levels in the game world and was curious. I was surprised it was so high, hence my tweet.
Spending time fighting pirates as a developer is generally a waste of time, better spent on new features.
— James Thomson (@jamesthomson) November 17, 2014
The iTunes App Store used to be a heaven even for small devs. Now it’s pretty crowded. How hard is it for a developer to make a good living in the App Store these days?
I think it's still possible. Discovery of apps remains a problem, especially if you are in a category that's already completely saturated like games, but a good app – with a sustainable price tag – can still be profitable. I'm lucky with PCalc, because it was already well known before the iOS version came out, and it's been in the store since day one. But there's always still a market for well-made apps – the trick, I think, is to not try and sell to the mass market, but to target a niche that's big enough to have a sustainable business.
Any new apps from TLA Systems on the horizon?
Right now, the next thing I'm looking at is an update to PCalc on the Mac to add layout editing, and then I'll probably do something with PCalc again for the Apple Watch. Really, it's a full time job just to keep up with Apple's new releases, and I haven't had time to think about something new.
Not a product announcement. pic.twitter.com/m4zN8icoTC
— James Thomson (@jamesthomson) November 19, 2014
How do you see mobile app development and consumption evolving in the next 5 years?
I'm interested to see how the Apple Watch changes things. I think it's too early to say if it's going to have as much impact as the iPhone did, but that's a possibility. Other than that, I hope to see bigger pro apps coming to iOS, focusing on creation rather than just consumption. Maybe we'll see a version of Xcode that runs on iOS within five years, allowing people to build apps directly on the devices themselves. In five years, we'll be using phones that are significantly faster than our laptops are today, so I think anything is possible.
