carpeaqua

I’m pleased to announce that BitBQ, also known as the corporate entity in front of Mr. Patrick Burleson (@pbur), has acquired both FitnessTrack and Emergency Information from my company Second Gear.

The Backstory

Back in July I wrote:

I no longer enjoy building software for the iPhone because of the bureaucracy and infrastructure that surrounds it. I can build great software for the Mac without the headaches and bullshit of dealing directly with Cupertino and their AppStore.

After my rant, Patrick contacted me asking if I was serious about selling off my iPhone business as he was looking to get into the Indie development world and was a fan of both of the products. At the time I was half-considering it, but the prospect of someone excited about taking over the products was too good to pass up. We ironed out the details, signed a few contracts and now everything is ready to go¹.

As with most things in my life, I have to be fully committed and passionate about something, or I can’t do it at all. While I loved the iPhone applications I had built, I couldn’t bring myself to invest time and money in a platform where I was constantly questioning and second guessing.

The biggest thing I took away from my iPhone development experiment is how different both the Mac and iPhone platform are. While they share so much in common on the technological side, the marketing aspects and user base are such polar opposites. As a one-man show, it seems almost too daunting to try to juggle between two polar opposites like the Mac and iPhone market.

Just because I didn’t gauge my iPhone development experience as a successful doesn’t mean that others can’t succeed. In fact, I think Patrick is going to do an excellent job bringing both FitnessTrack and Emergency Information. I’ve got an idea of the roadmap he has for both products and I’m confident this will be a successful venture for him and for all users of both applications.

Moving Forward

As for me, I’m back to focusing exclusively on the Mac platform improving on Check Off and Today while also working on another larger scale project in the garage. I won’t rule out a return to the iPhone platform in the future, but it won’t be before Apple changes more of their policies and behaviors towards their development partners. The in-app purchases announced recently are a start, but there’s still miles to go before it’s anywhere near where I want it to be. Until then, I’ll enjoy using things like blocks, GCD and garbage collection while everyone else toils with memory warnings.

Good luck, Patrick and welcome to the Indie development community!

The Fine Print

• BitBQ - Acquisition Press Release
• BitBQ - FitnessTrack
• BitBQ - Emergency Information
• Second Gear - BitBQ Acquires FitnessTrack & Emergency Information

∞ Posted on October 16, 2009