Buy My Apps, Help Me Buy a Duo: Introducing GoPhoneMe
The iPhone Duo is priced like a laptop. So I built a Fun Raiser.
I’m the maker of the Apple TV party game SketchParty TV, and I’ve been an indie iOS developer since 2008. I’ve also been buying an iPhone every year for just as long.
Which brings us to now, and the iPhone Duo.
I think the Duo looks like a pretty amazing phone. A foldable iPhone is a new paradigm for iOS, and it’s already given me a lot of ideas to explore. But Duo is priced like a laptop - the model I want is $2,599 - and pre-orders open October 16th.
It also doesn’t have the camera system of the 18 Pro Max. I’ve been buying the Pro Max models since the 11 specifically for the camera, so picking one or the other is a nearly impossible choice.
Which made me think: what if I didn’t have to compromise? What if everyone just… bought my apps?
So I launched a pseudo-parody of GoFundMe called GoPhoneMe. You could call it a Fun Raiser.
How it works
Every app of mine that someone buys between now and October 16th gets added to the meter. When it hits $2,599, I order the Duo.
There’s no donate button, because this isn’t a GoFundMe. You buy an app of mine on the App Store? You get the app, and Apple sends me a cut a little later. The interesting thing is that the site has a progress meter toward the goal, and I’ll update the numbers by hand every morning. This is something I’ve never done before.
The links on the site carry a campaign tag, so I can tell which sales came from GoPhoneMe. Hopefully a lot!
Most of my apps are free to download with in-app purchases. The one that’s paid up front is SketchParty TV, so if you want to move the meter the most, you should buy that one.
The stretch goal
While the Duo does have great cameras, the camera system with variable aperture and a telephoto lens is only on the iPhone 18 Pro Max (1TB). That one is $1,899.
If sales go past $2,599, whatever is left over goes toward the Pro Max. Both phones together come to $4,498. I don’t know if we’ll get there, but I can dream.
The apps
GoPhoneMe is a showcase for my iPhone apps and games, like SketchParty TV, which a lot of people still know me for. But please check out the newest, Stare Master, a staring contest game, and ProofRoll, photo checklists with authenticity sealed photos. If you buy or download one of them, you get the app and I get a little closer to the Duo. It’s a win-win.
Here’s the lineup:
- SketchParty TV: the Apple TV party game. Draw on your iPhone or iPad, guess on the big screen. Teachers have been using it in classrooms for years.
- Stare Master: a staring contest for iPhone. Don’t blink. Read the making-of blog post.
- Waypoint EDU: educational scavenger hunts with an AR twist, built for classrooms.
- MASH: the paper-and-pen game from the back of the school bus, now on iPhone and iPad (and Apple Watch). Mansion, apartment, shack, or house?
- Four in a Row: Time Attack: connect four in a line, fast, with a clock breathing down your neck.
- Tic Tac Toe: Time Attack: tic tac toe under serious time pressure.
- Truth Truth Lie: two truths and a lie, for iMessage. I wrote about launching it back in 2016.
- ProofRoll: photo checklists, before-and-afters, and photo reports for your business.
Where it stands
As of this morning the meter is 13% of the way to the goal, with 32 days left. I’ll post a daily update on the GoPhoneMe site, and I’ll write a follow-up here once pre-orders open, whether or not the meter is full.
If you’ve ever gotten a laugh out of SketchParty TV at a holiday party, or your kid played MASH on your phone in a waiting room, thank you! And maybe this is a good time to grab a new app and share with friends.