Archive for category Elegant Labs
Everybody Loves Robots
Posted by JJ Rohrer in Elegant Labs, Uncategorized on April 28th, 2010

Recently, while tinkering with spare electronic parts with my six year old son, I decided to try to get him involved in a local chapter of some robots-for-kids program, but I couldn’t find anything for him. Ok, you may not be surprised, but I was. After some searching, and researching, we ended up starting a Lego based robot club at his school, which, so far, has been very well received. My son is pretty lucky to have an opportunity like this, but I wish more kids, across the country, could benefit from a engineering-focused, after-school, program.
So, I’m kicking off, under the sponsorship of Elegant Technologies, the non-profit Everybody Loves Robots. Everybody Loves Robots helps kids gain the confidence, competence, passion, and resources to make robots, and other cool stuff. Students will work in small teams with like-skilled students and a grown-up coach to go through a set curriculum of foundation projects, with the coaches helping the kids when they get stuck, and helping the kids understand the more interesting parts of their creations.
Inspired by USFirst, the new organization is called Everybody Loves Robots. Enjoy.
PS – I’m taking donations to help scale the organization, so give until hurts and don’t be a wimp about it.
Making money on the iPhone App Store
Posted by JJ Rohrer in Business of Software, Elegant Labs on February 19th, 2009
If you haven’t read it yet, Pinchmedia recently release a good report/slideshow on the market dynamics of selling products on Apple’s app store.
You can see it here:
Title: “iPhone AppStore Secrets – Pinch Media”
Link: http://www.slideshare.net/pinchmedia/iphone-appstore-secrets-pinch-media
I have about 10 published mobile apps at this point, and although I think the Pinchmedia presentation is great, and validating, I still think that they see the world through a certain prism that filters much of reality.
From my own experience, I had created my deck on lessons and experiments of publishing on the app store. I’ve identified about, oh, twenty experiments that i’ve performed, with more to come, and put them into this short slidesow. Since it contains a lot of confidential information, I’m saving it for in-person meetings, so contact me if you’re in the Boston area.
So here are two charts from my deck:
An with pretty decent staying power.

An app with less staying power.

I’ve put about 10x the energy into the second app. The interesting question is, or maybe the next question is, “What make the linear decay app” vs. “What makes the exponential decay” app? I think I know the answer. I think other people know the answer, too. I think that the answer knowers aren’t talking.
Now, knowing the answer, and monetizing the answer, are, of course, two differing things….

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