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Ask HN: The experts told us soft-launch == app death. Does it?

6 points by urb ↗ HN
We have worked long and hard developing our mobile app. We think that it's great and has true value for users. We had planned to soft-launch and make it better as we learn from users. But every single app expert we had talked to has told us our success will be as good as the amount of noise we make when we launch. Death, they say, is a place in the long tail of the app store. What say you?

8 comments

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FroshKiller
I'm not a mobile developer, so take what I say with a grain of salt, but as a user, I don't care about an app's age or whether it had a soft launch. Most apps are little more than opportunities to provide a bad user experience to an impressive Web-based service. As long as your service is on point and your app on my device is better than just using your mobile website, do whatever.
urb
So, would you be as interested in an app even if it didn't have a lot of media references to show (articles in newspapers, tech site mentions and so on)?
FroshKiller
In this scenario, have I already discovered your service prior to the app's availability? If so, I (personally) don't pay much attention to media blurbs on the site of the service/app itself. If I'm already using Exemplr, I don't care whether Exemplr.com has a pull quote from Gizmodo about the new Exemplr app on the App Store. As long as your site/mailing list/whatever communicates why I might want to use the app for your service, that's enough for me to try it. A full-fledged review is a nice back-up for paid apps, though.

If I don't know about your service already and/or the app is not just an interface to a service (contrast an app that interfaces with a photo upload service to an app that actually manipulates photos taken by my phone's camera), then it's kind of a different story.

I feel like I'm coming across as a little difficult or that I'm being confusing. Does that make sense?

ulisesrmzroche
Consumer, yeah. B2B, not so much. The soft launch stuff is irrelevant (sounds made-up too). Marketing is an ongoing process. Those dudes need be thinking of a second campaign, instead of giving up once they see the churn after the hype.
alphagenerator
Your reply makes sense.

I just wanted to add that I think I see what the OP meant by "soft launch." I think the OP asked a good question, because most startup business guides say launch something minimal and iterate. Whereas, app-store gurus seem to place a heavy emphasis on the initial bump. (That is, they hint that you either succeed on the initial push or die.)

OP: Thanks for asking the question.

ulisesrmzroche
I see what you mean now. Odd that they think that way though. Sure, there's more clutter, and if your app contributes to that, I suppose the 1st bump is all you get, but if you have a quality product, the sales process is the same as in any other channel.
Mankhool
I've had no hype, probably because I'm boostrapped, but I'm in this for the long haul. What would be the point of giving up six weeks in because I only have X users and the experts say I should have 1000X? The experts are not financing me. If they were, then I could afford to create hype.
gyardley
You can find plenty of exceptions, but what the 'app experts' are telling you is generally correct, at least about the Apple ecosystem. Bunching up a lot of downloads into a small time period right after launch maximizes your chance of showing up anywhere users might actually browse to and discover serendipitously.

The Android marketplaces are a bit better for iterative learning. Although iOS then Android is the dominant pattern, you wouldn't be the first company to launch quietly on Android, iterate, and then come to iOS with a product informed by what they've learned from their Android launch.