Appspiration

In my first post , I mentioned how I got started with the first App idea. This was pretty much the first step in my long entrepreneurial journey which was to follow. I just didn't know it back then! The year is 2008 and the first App "iChess" for Java/Symbian was almost ready. It was time to get it in the hands of the chess users out there. iChess Java - ready for launch! How do you know when the app is good enough for a public release? The User Interface (UI) and the User eXperience (UX) was decent for the first version and I like to make sure these two things are well in place before any release. Being a user myself, I knew the UX was fine. Being a chess player myself helped. And a decent UI made sure users don't fall off immediately. This means no outright spelling mistakes, mis-aligned items, messy layout or glitches. I have followed these two principles all these years. Never release anything till I am myself satisfied with the look and feel of what I am making...

Quick story of how I took that first baby step towards building my App business (MyChessApps.com & FollowChess.com). For this, lets rewind to the year 2007. I was posted in the US from my first job. I was already 4 years into the job as a Java Software Engineer. Back then, the  Symbian  OS platform was very popular. This was much before Android & iOS gained popularity. Being a chess afficionado, I used to learn chess and participate in chess tournaments. Learning was mostly via software on the laptop. However, when it came to mobile, there was hardly anything. I owned a Nokia Symbian S60 device and could find only on good chess app called Chess Genius. But it was mostly for playing vs the AI whereas my need was of an app or tool to help in my learning process (i.e. solve chess puzzles and view games of past chess masters) Seeing this void and trusting in my tech skills, the idea to develop something on my own popped into my head! This is when I started exploring ...