I launched a Mac utility; now there are 5 clones on the App Store using my story
A few months ago, I built a simple macOS utility to solve a personal frustration: verifying the actual speed of USB-C cables and devices in the Mac menu bar. It is call USB Connection Information (usbconnectioninformation.com) and it supports macOS 13 and up. Before launch, there were no other apps in this specific niche on the Mac App Store. The app became unexpectedly successful, hitting the top 100 paid utilities and getting a good amount of organic press.
In the last two weeks, at least five near-identical apps have appeared on the App Store. The concerning part is that some of these clones have copied my App Store description, including my personal origin story about why I built the app.
A few open-source clones have also appeared on GitHub, which I see as a positive community contribution. My concern is with the commercial clones on the App Store that are engaging in plagiarism.
This raises a few questions I'd be interested to hear HN's thoughts on:
I've been transparent about my success on Reddit. How much are LLMs lowering the barrier to entry, allowing others to take a validated idea and marketing copy and generate a functional clone in a matter of days?
It seems that derivative apps with plagiarized descriptions and app elements are being approved without issue. Does this signal a shift in App curation?
My app's value is its simplicity. In an environment where simple, successful ideas can be replicated this quickly, what is the moat? Is it brand, speed of innovation, marketing, or something else?
Curious to hear your perspectives.
62 comments
[ 5.7 ms ] story [ 76.3 ms ] threadWhat's your definition of "successful"? Mac App Store volume is quite low, especially with upfront paid apps. You're likely averaging only a few unit sales per day, right? Maybe only one unit per day, and even that might be a generous estimate.
> A few open-source clones have also appeared on GitHub
Is your app open source? If so, that's probably why you're getting copycats.
> It seems that derivative apps with plagiarized descriptions and app elements are being approved without issue. Does this signal a shift in App curation?
No. Apple's so-called "curation" has always been terrible.
You could try and develop a brand and market it but I don’t think that would go well for something like this. Best case maybe you can game the rankings to stay number one but you’re probably up against professional app copiers.
So your moat is speed of innovation. Your basic app is copied. What new feature will enable you to stay ahead and drive sales? Or perhaps no feature can do that as the crowd grows so it’s on to the next app that doesn’t yet exist. What’s your new pain point?
With or without the advent LLMs, it's an uphill battle to build a moat around a small (but nice!) wrapper around the output of a command-line tool shipped with MacOS.
> what is the moat?
Increasingly, and sadly, it's online services with a monthly subscription and no data portability. Get users in with a generous free tier and pull up the drawbridge so they can't get out easily.
Study an audience for their pains and worldview and what they buy. Earn their trust through writing and freebies. Then they will want to buy because it's from you specifically.
I can recommend https://30x500.com/
Regarding Reddit, it's a great place to find users but also copy-cats. Stick to posting "I built a thing that solves a problem" and avoid the bragging "I made $N in N days" indie-hacker style. The latter doesn't help the app anyways.
Moat: there isn't one for a utility someone can build in a few days. It can still be a good business - you seem to have marketing savvy which is a big part of it.
One suggestion, on your homepage - the "See USB Connection Information in Action" the screenshots are much too small. Nice looking app!
And I completely agree about the moat. For a utility like this, it really does come down to marketing, support, and just building a better, more polished user experience than the copycats are willing to.
Also, a huge thank you for the feedback on the homepage screenshots! That's a good fix, and you're 100% right, they are way too small. I'll get that updated in the next couple of days.
Appreciate you taking the time to write all that out, and thanks for the kind words about the app's design!
So to answer your question, LLMs have lowered the bar substantially
IMO you should drop the DMCA hammer on the clones.
Just to explain, their app can be written in 24 hours, maybe in 4 hours with some vibe coding. This app does not provide more information than System Information app on macOS. And we are talking about it on HN. So yes, this is clearly to bring attention to the app, and get more installs.
I am surprised this submission has not been flagged.
If it really can be written in a couple days (with or without AI) I would say you're lucky to make what? A few thousand dollars? (I'm assuming a top 100 app that got talked about sold at least 1000 copies for at least a few dollars each)
You didn't invent the need for this info, you were just the first one to put it on the app store.
Copying your story and (I assume) graphics is definitely a reason to be angry. Like others have said, look into the possibility of DCMA takedowns.