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Ask HN: What's your Mac OS App side project?

18 points laksmanv | 1 comments | 17 Oct 24 02:33 UTC | HN request time: 0.202s | source

I'm curious if any HN'ers here have any fun mac os projects they've built or even have an income from? I feel like we hear a lot about saas and iphone apps, but not mac os apps as much. I have a mac os app idea, and I'm also wondering if anyone knows of a good book on building a mac os app business? Or perhaps a book on building an iphone app company would be sufficient and applicable to mac os?
1. appsDev ◴[17 Oct 24 15:12 UTC] No.41870409[source]▶
I made a paid MacOS app called RestEyes. It helps users follow the 20-20-20 rule to help reduce eye strain when working on a screen for long hours, and provides a gentle reminder to look away instead of blocking the whole screen.

I have reached the top 10 in paid health and fitness apps a couple times. Revenue is probably in the low hundreds of dollars for lifetime, and the first year it was out it made very little. Second year it started getting some traction. (apple also takes 100 bucks a year to post an app, so first year basically lost money)

It's hard since I don't really use paid advertising. I made it in SwiftUI and used a channel called SwiftfulThinking to learn how to code it, besides that just other yt tutorials as needed :)

Link to SwiftfulThinking channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/swiftfulthinking Link to app for reference: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/20-20-20-rule-resteyes/id64493...

I think it is possible for sure to build a business around a MacOS app. It just has to be unique enough for people to want to pay for it, and you have to know how to get it out there (marketing). Kinda like the iOS marketplace, just smaller, but thats not really an issue if you're solving a relevant problem for Mac users. Lmk if u have other questions!