Skip to main content

iPhone App OZWeather - Tracking Weather Conditions in Austraila

Today we showcase the story of an entrepreneur with successful ventures under his belt, Graham Dawson from Sydney, founder of OZWeather - an iPhone application for weather tracking and forecasting in Australia.

In a candid interview with us, he gave insights into how he is managing and juggling. This is what he has to say in his interview with us:

• How long it took to launch
From idea to web app took about 2 weeks, although it used back-end infrastructure that was already in place. From a web app to a native iPhone app in iTunes took a further 10 weeks or so.

• Stage of Venture
The product was launched on 1st Nov 2008 and has had several incremental updates since.

• Which Market Segment
Aimed at the general public - Anyone with an interest in the weather.

• Customers
Aimed at the general public, iPhone or iPod Touch owners. Anyone with an interest in the weather.

• Targeted Age Group
All ages.

• Users Using Service
Currently about 30,000, typically increasing at a rate of 1500 per week.

• Marketing Technique
Relies solely on listing in the iTunes app store, and maintaining a high ranking for visibility to prospective customers.

• Measuring Success
Breakeven occurred less than 2 months after the launch of a native app. Apple supplies daily stats on sales

• Monetizing/Revenue Model
Sells for AUD$2.49 per copy - of which Apple keeps 30%. Apple forwards payments every month.

• Main competitors
Pocket Weather, BOM Radar, AUS Weather and others.

• Technology Stack used
Backend - Linux server (hosted account), PHP. The app runs natively on iPhones.

• How Much Money is Used/Reqd.
Development costs: until the launch of the first version approx AUD$15,000. Subsequent revisions have required approximately AUD$10,000.

• Main Barriers
Learning curve on iPhone O/S, Objective-C. Registration/approval and compliance with Apple's requirements. Increasingly crowded space. Downward pressure on prices.

• Advice For People
Carefully polish your app before initial release, as early bad reviews can kill an app

• Your Education/Professional Background
B.Sc. Physics & Meteorology, Ph.D. Dynamical Coastal Oceanography. Career in IT in the oil & gas industry. Owner of small business developing Windows consumer desktop application.

• External Funding
No

Note: For the Video demo click here and the iTunes link can be found here

Ongoing coverage on Australian startups, innovation, business and tech trends, and interviews with experts in various domains can be found here
Labels:

Comments

Anonymous said…
Broke even in 2 months. That's a nice success story.
March 5, 2009 at 7:56 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Sensis and the Australian Search and Directories Market

Background: I have undertaken this report to explore, learn and analyse the local online search and directories market to understand the developments that are taking place in this area. There are more than 18 players, from small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to large corporations trying to get some share of this market. The main focus of this report is on Sensis and its competitors and how it can reinvent itself in a rapidly changing local market. Note: This report can be downloaded as a PDF from here . Introduction: Australia’s online search and directories market is rapidly growing and to this date, there are 18 players in this market segment , worth $235 million as reported last year (2007). It is expected to reach $532 million by 2010. Sensis, (owned by Telstra) is a dominant player in the directories market and Google in search. The online search market only represents a portion of the much larger local online advertising market. The local online advertising marke...
10 comments
Read more

Growing List of Australian Startups

Today I'm publishing the list of Australian Startups that have surfaced on the global map in the last 3-5 years and got coverage on our Startups Portal . This is an ongoing endeavour to learn more about new technology-based startups in IT (Enterprise, Product, Open source, SAAS, eCommerce, Web 2.0/3.0), Telecom (Mobile, OSS/BSS), Media (News, Social Networking), Marketing/Branding, Green Tech (Sustainability, Carbon trading), R&D. The following list will be updated regularly as we learn more about startups and cover it here. If you know any new venture or startup which we should know then please feel free to contact us . Let us look at the list now: Adimade Agents of Cha nge Ankoder ApartmentReviews AppleBox Australiaforum BeamMe.Info Booktagger Boozle Brownbook Buzka Cinergix Clickfind Clivir Coastal Watch Community Enabler Confer Debenu Docoloco Etradesman Flogd FreeConnect Front Foo...
6 comments
Read more

Results

This has been an incredible experience and journey for all of us. This is the first time in Australia that a carnival showcasing profiles of new business ventures from different domains was covered online. In a world that is becoming flat day by day, as explained by Thomas Friedman, we will see more and more new ways of doing traditional things. Our local VCs on contact couldn’t understand what we were doing, just showed the state of affairs to our VCs. Today we are happy to announce the winners of this carnival. We have already published the feedback and how Judges have marked the participants. If you have missed that please read it here , as it will describe how we have marked all the participants. We have declared our first prize and now updated the page with 2nd and 3rd prizes. We do acknowledge that in comparison to the first prize 2nd and 3 prize winners don’t get much value. But this was our first event and we tried our level best (it was an understatement) to get as many ...
6 comments
Read more