First Week Analysis for news:yc (HN for iPhone)

I bought it from the iTunes store directly, after seeing the post and reading the comments (specifically, $5 isn't much to support a fellow indie-dev trying to make his way through the app store, for an app that I'll probably use every dayish). Next time I was out, had my phone, and was bored, I looked for the $5 app, because it had to be yours. It's really well put together, and I really like the features you added. My only complaint is that it goes to comments first, not stories first, but that's easy to get used to.

Hey Grant, I saw your news:yc app in Installous and see that it was submitted by you (chpwn). Usually when app-authors submit their own apps to Installous, it's to deter pirates by shaming them and disabling the whole functionality of the app until it gets cracked by someone else, or to log who actually pirates.<p>I haven't gone the Installous route, so I'm wondering what you've decided to do with the version on filedude and fileape?

You made something of value to people and put a price tag on it.<p>People bought it.<p>Nice work!

Your strategy involving submitting cracked versions of your app was quite interesting. It would be interesting to see the rate of the app store purchases vs. piracy for your app. I would expect your strategy would reduce the rate of piracy

I'm really surprised at the number of sales. Congrats!

Still waiting for that price drop. I understand if you have to wait a few weeks, to appease the buyers.

So did you get an internship already because of this? That would be another interesting story to tell