Apple just made my app obsolete (again)

0:00 Apple have just made my app obsolete again iOS 18 comes with a brand new calculator with the ability to convert between currencies I also have an app in the app store that lets you convert between currencies I'm in danger but this is not the first time that apple have released a version in their OS that has made my apps obsolete my body measurement Tracker app measures body measurements and when iOS came out with all of these new tracker functionality in their default Health app I was concerned that this app that I'd built would generate less Revenue but it didn't in fact my app has had a 50% increase in downloads

0:48 and this weird phenomena isn't only restricted to my body measurement Tracker app apps like flashlight are still going well on the App Store even though the iPhone has had the built-in capability of being able to activate your flashlight from the lock screen from the control center from everywhere within the iOS so what's going on here I'm not quite sure if this is right but this is my theory these updates that get rolled out educate General users on the functionality that they can use on their phone you have a subass of users who want to access that functionality and go directly to the App Store to download an app app to make it happen then you have a subset of users who use this core

1:34 functionality like measuring body parts in the health app and they outgrow the features or the functionalities built into the OS and leaves them with a desire or the taste of what is actually possible so they search on the app store for an app that does what they want so in a way these iOS updates kind of educate the user on what's possible and what you can achieve on the iPhone and there's a part of me that's in total denial no this calculator app is crap n this calculated app is not going to have an impact on my currency conversion app I'm not going to use it I'm going to pretend it doesn't exist but this is kind of a bad a bad way to look at it so I delved into it and I used the built-in

2:22 currency conversion app within the calculator to test it and it works well it works well I have to admit it does live calculations it pulls the stats from Yahoo it's free and it just works and straight away I noticed an issue for my own use case I jump onto App Store connect the currency is in Us doll and I want to see what my daily revenue has been in Australian dollars so I jumped on to the iOS 18 calculator app I enter the sales amount for the day less Apple's fee and then I convert it to Australian dollars to convert it to Australian dollars I have to click on this little arrow here and go to Australian dollars and I can also do the calculations directly in the currency

3:08 converter but then next time I use the calculator app it's still on the currency conversion screen maybe I just want to quickly do some basic calculation like a measurement and now I'm stuck on the currency conversion screen I have to click the little arrow and turn the converter off and that's kind of annoying this gave me a moment of Rel all of a sudden I realized the use case for my currency conversion app is ease of use and speed open the app do your calculation you can switch between your calculator and the currency conversion and it works so maybe maybe it will increase the downloads like my other app maybe just maybe there's still a use case for this thing where people are still prepared to pay a Weekly

3:54 subscription fee to use it we shall see my business strategy is simple I Target a keyword build an app around that keyword release it and see if it gets downloads see if I rank for App Store optimization and if I do I monetize it and then start adding features that people have requested with a small little consumer apps there's only so far you can take them if someone's looking for a currency converter all you can do is provide them with an app that converts currency there's not a lot of innovation and there's not a lot of ways that you can build something around an app like this that makes you above and beyond your competition the power is in having your app positioned on the App

4:40 Store so that your app is the one that people will use when they're looking for that specific utility but the biggest issue is if I'm building just these small little consumer apps that are utilities will Apple continue to add new features to their iPhone that makes every single one of my apps obsolete in the future and the answer is probably most likely and this poses a problem because I'm not exactly branding the apps I'm not creating my own identity with the apps some are types in currency conversion they're not looking for a brand or a trademark they're looking for a utility this means brand loyalty is quite low a better alternative comes out or you get knocked off the App Store

5:27 rankings then you're not going to get a lot of people coming back to your app this is a flaw in my business model and I compensate by just releasing lots of these little apps so that if one disappears off the radar hopefully another one picks up and replaces it this feeling sucks it sucks to build something and then overnight for your dreams just to feel like they're fleeting and they're disappearing and it gives me thoughts I start to Cascade the thoughts in my mind and I start to think what happens if all of my apps become obsolete what happens when I no longer have apps in the App Store generating any Revenue what am I going to do for real work what am I going to do for real

6:13 real income I don't really have any personal skills that go outside of building my own products I'm not really a team player I don't work well in a development team I've never really done it but I like to just follow my own creative Direction I like to have my own autonomy and I like to build my own things the fact that I'm making money from this and the fact that I can make a lifestyle out of this creating what I want to create and working day in and day out on the things I'm passionate about that is my ideal life I'm living the life that I wanted to live and this is a reminder this this is like there's a part of this that digs into your brain and says this is not forever this is

6:58 going to end soon and what are you going to do about it the fear sets in and you start to think of the most the worst case scenario outcome as an indie app developer I've had this feeling many times anytime I have a setback or a failure I go straight to that alternative straight to that end point of you're a failure this is going to fail you have no skills that can turn into employment and you're going to end up homeless again but then I pull myself back and I always tell myself the best thing I can do today is create the best thing I can do right now is create I'm creating content for my YouTube channel creating my app later today and

7:46 sometimes that thing that I create will not go the direction I wanted it to go sometimes it'll be a flop the second I release it sometimes it'll be a flop a few years after I release it sometimes it will generate enough Revenue to pay my rent and thinking out loud that's the key the opposite of fear the opposite of anxiety the opposite of chaos is creating create something new create something positive create something to be cliche and like really boring about it create change