Interview with Application Developer Yves Gonzalez (Part 2)

TPT: Are you planning to go full time?

YG: This year, not yet, because I am still trying to adjust here in the government office, but I already want to have my own office space instead of going to Starbucks. My vision actually is to build a school one day where you can train iOS developers. There’s good money in iOS only if you will shift that call center mentality by teaching these young people to develop an app, which is not that hard. Just give them the vision and direction, set the quality, and if that happens, for sure, you would be able to help a lot of people.

TPT: Do you need to be an IT or a graphic artist?

YG: There are different roles, like in advertising, you need to have an artist, otherwise you would come up with a substandard looking apps. There was no app that became popular without a graphic artist. As you go along, if you want to excel, you need to have a graphic artist because not all of us are artists, but there are less developers and more artists. I know someone locally, she designs apps for foreign clients, just graphics, and she is earning well. In general, the weakness of developers all over the world is in the interface design. They do not have in-house designer, and I think this is also one of the advantages of Giro Apps, who does not only concentrate in the development but also in design. Just before spending a single day on coding, my designer already has the design so that the client would already know how it would look.

TPT: Barrier to entry?

YG: Actually, the number one barrier to entry is you need to have a Mac. Still minority are using Mac. Number two is the US$99 (PhP4,290) to download the SDK or the Software Development Kit. There are a lot of Filipino youths, I think given the proper training and direction, would be very good developers and they would really earn from it. In our case, we are turning down projects left and right because we do not have time, but imagine if there are already pool of developers. Let’s say the client only wants a very simple app, just spend one week on it and earn at least US$1,000. So the more the market matures, like more iPads and more iPhones, a lot of very good apps would come out.

TPT: Would that mean, the market is not yet matured in the Philippines?

YG: In iPhone, the market is already matured but not yet in iPad. If you are going to build an iPad app, the market is still small. In our case, we are planning to make a Law App but we are still waiting for that market to mature. You can only launch once and when you launch, that is the time that you can sell a lot, but if the market is not yet matured, you won’t make that much. If most lawyers and justices are already using iPads, then we can release the Law App. Since I myself is a lawyer, I already tasked myself to do the Law App and nobody else would do it because for sure, others would do different apps. The Law App is one of my visions ever since I was in law school.

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TPT: How much is the cost to develop an app, like if I would want to get your services?

YG: The cheapest would be US$1,000 and that is at least two to three functionalities. There is an application that we did, Golf Philippines (see image 4), that one is US$1,000. It has searchable table, you have the detailed view of the establishment, and you have the mapping. But that would also depend on who is doing it. Others may charge you for PhP30,000 or PhP20,000, I do not know.

TPT: How about royalties? Let’s say the app was placed in the iTunes?

YG: I have not yet done client app that is being sold in the iTunes and probably would not accept it. Most of our clients just want to have an app for promotion purposes only. We’ve not yet done an app for profit sharing. With regards to our process, I would give you a quotation, included there is the six months support, meaning, minor updates, tweaks or some minor problem. But if you want to have additional new features, let's say an Augmented Reality feature, we would have an expansion contract. But within those six months, if the users of your app would have problems, the email support goes directly to us and we’ll take care of the troubleshooting. A good app with a very rich content can cost you about PhP200,000. In the U.S., the minimum charge is at US$5,000 and this is just an acceptance fee. We only cater to local clients because we tend to really talk to them and get the feel of what they want. We had inquiries from international clients that we had to turn it down because we are having a hard time talking with them.

TPT: Your company is already formalized?

YG: We are SEC registered, we issue receipts, we are a formal company. We have investors and there is somebody who is willing to invest big. But my advise is not yet, we have to wait for the market to mature and if we launch, we will launch big.

TPT: Yves, what are you doing here in MMDA? Are you an IT guy?

YG: When I got here, I was a spokesperson but now I handle multiple functions. I am in-charge to resolve the traffic in EDSA and fortunately, I am also in-charge of the technology, I call myself the technology evangelist, meaning, I am the one who is always advocating the use of technology to make our work better. For example, the CCTV’s, without it, I would not know what is going on. If you are in-charge of EDSA, you cannot be God who knows what is going on everywhere, so you have to use the technology. Now, I can see what the traffic situation is, if there is traffic, I know where it is and who to call. I am also in-charge of the MMDA twitter team, that’s a mixture of two duties, traffic and technology. I am also in-charge of emails, communications with the public handling complaints. In a way, it all works together, for example, this app that I am doing for MMDA which our company is developing for free, is actually useful for me as a person who is monitoring EDSA. Again, we will go back to the mentality that we make apps that we want for ourselves. If you don’t make it, no one else will. I conceived this traffic app two years ago when I was still not connected with MMDA. When I got here, I found out that they have traffic data but only written in a white board. So when somebody asked for a traffic update, they would just read the data from the white board, but that is not good. The moment you erased it, it’s gone. So I immediately started working on a project that would digitized the traffic information and we are about to launch that very soon. So when you digitized that traffic information, you already have that underlying data which is what you need to create the app or website that would utilize that data and present it to the end users. A paradigm shift would also happen to the traffic reporters of networks and radio stations, instead of calling MMDA and asked for the traffic updates, they would just read the traffic app which is actually updated every 10 to 15 minutes.

TPT: Would you have a company in mind, probably in the U.S. or in other parts of the world where you look up to as a model, for example, with best practices?

YG: In the development industry, well first there is Apple. I think that company is Tapbots. When they make an app, it is all down to the very last detail. They make a lot of money in apps, because everyone knows that they make quality and useful apps. The design elements even have sounds to it. Like when you press a button, you would hear a hissing sound. They really spend time on developing the apps and we are trying to emulate them as much as possible.

TPT: The school that you were envisioning, probably, you can inject Apps Development course in La Salle (College of St. Benilde) for example in their Multimedia Arts?

YG: I think U.P has, probably the old school route would also be fine. But for me, I was thinking that with the school establishment comes with a baggage. I am more of a believer that this is something new and you are not supposed to rely on old schools. Otherwise, you will carry the baggage along with that old school mentality. So, probably every once in awhile, you would invite international resource person to give lectures on apps development. These developers are very helpful anyway, what you have to do is just to fly them here and provide the hotel accommodations. It would be an honor for them as well as bragging rights that they were able to give lectures internationally. It is very good to imagine that in the future, you have this school of developers and just for a year, the first graduates would compete each other to develop very good apps. The more they compete each other, the quality of the apps would keep on improving.

TPT: How did you get into developing apps and your advise for would-be developers?

YG: Well first, I started out as an Apple user, then here comes iPhone 1, where my best friend who became my partner will purchase a unit which I myself would unlock. Since, I was the one delivering the unit, my client would ask me, what if it stopped working, who is going to fix it? So, eventually, I made my career out of it and in 2007, I made my first million just unlocking iPhones, spending my whole day at the Rockwell. So when the iPhone became official in the Philippines, my career died down, then by that time, the SDK (Software Development Kit) was also released. I have not yet started with that until at certain point in 2009, while I was studying for the Bar Exam, I concurrently studied the iOS. So I did the basic zip code app, I was doing that during the bar review, so that after the review, I would have something else to do. Well, you need to start somewhere, learning the components one at a time, like the tables, scroll view, then if you have already mastered that, then go to mapping. In 2010, after my Bar Exam, I released Tawag Pinoy. The Giro Apps was incorporated in that same year but prior to that, we have already released the ZZips and Enjoy apps. These are free apps which started out as our practice ground. I am just lucky that Greg (Reichow) was there who became my mentor. If I am encountering some roadblocks in coding that I can no longer solve through googling, he is the one whom I approach by email. Then he will email back with the solutions and I think that is my advise for the developers, you need to have a mentor, someone who will get you through those moments that even Mr. Google cannot answer and that is a very important factor.

With Yves Gonzalez at his MMDA office in Makati City

For more information about Giro AppSolutions, Inc. and their products, you may visit Giro AppSolutions, Inc.