Hello friends,

I wanted to share with you my "process" of creating magic apps.
I know this is a long post, but I wanted to share with you what it takes to make an app.

In this case the development of iPredict Pro.

In the fall of 2009, I called my buddy Randy Croucher with a crazy idea of making magic apps for the iPhone.

At the time Chris Kenner's Rising Card app had not been released and there were a handful of simple magic apps on the market.

Randy and I started developing a "Doodling" app that relied on a one-ahead principal to achieve the magic.
We were almost done with that app (we might still release that app some day), when one night I called Randy with a really CRAZY idea.

I told Randy that our one-ahead trick was no where as good as my new idea which is now iForce.

We then spent the next three months working late nights to finish iForce and then it was released on Oct. 20th 2009.

As we where developing iForce, I recognized everything that was WRONG about iForce . . .
"If you can read my mind why don't you use pen-n-paper, why don't you just tell me, why do we need this "Doodle" app?"

Hence, from a very early stage I started thinking about EVERYTHING that would REALLY motivate why the phone was being used.
I remembered the old "calling Mr. Wizard" trick. I always wished I could do "Mr. Wizard" without relying on someone else.

That was the birth of iPredict . . . but then what's the method? What if you could communicate a lot of variables with ONE motivated touch!!

From a very early stages I knew what I wanted . . . I wanted the ultimate version of calling Mr. Wizard!
I could fake the calls and voicemail message but, I really wanted to push it further . . . what if the spectator could call from their own phone?!

I looked into SEVERAL telephone services that would allow me to customize the voicemail messages. All of them were expensive and difficult to program for.
I even looked into real humans in calling centers answering the phones . . . but that was a little expensive too.
I really wanted to do it with ONE phone number but I couldn't.

I realized that I had to use 53 different phone numbers for each card? Can I purchase 53 different phone numbers that wouldn't expire.

After more research I found a way of getting the phone numbers . . . and once again a lot of late nights from Randy and iPredict was out.

After the release of iPredict, I still wasn't satisfied . . . What if you could call or TEXT that number?

I started searching for solutions online, when I was lucky enough to find my genius friend Hani. Hani had created a way for automatic text message replies online.

After working with Hani for a few months we had a solution for having iPredict work with both calling AND TEXTING . . . and the code was completely in the cloud.

Hence I got together with theory11.com and released iPredict+.
iPredict+ at first sold for $9.99 . . . we soon realized the app market wouldn't pay $10 hence we dropped the price to $2.99.

From that $2.99, Apple keeps $0.90.
T11, Randy, Hani and I split the rest of the $2.10 . . . If you can do the math you probably realize that's not a lot of profit. We'll get back to making money a little later.

But I still wanted MORE . . .

I want the spectator to call only ONE number, I wanted the magician to customize their own voice/text messages. I wanted the phone numbers to be available ALL over the world. What if the spectator could call the magician's REAL mobile phone number.

As I was looking for solutions, one night Hani called me with a solution that would make iPredict Pro possible. That solution was TWILIO.COM

After working on twilio with Hani for about two months, we had iPredict Pro up and running on Android.

I then got Randy involved in changing the existing iPredict+ app so that it would do everything we had built for iPredict Pro.

We launched iPredict Pro on Android on Nov. 2012.

But Apple rejected iPredict Pro because they didn't like the price of my app at $100.

Hence, after 2 months of rejections from Apple, and several emails to media and the management of Apple, iPredict Pro was FINALLY approved in early Feb. 2013.

After this LONG journey (the above is a super short version) . . . I knew I didn't want to make pennies per sale, hence the reason why iPredict Pro is called PRO and why it's sells for $100.
It's exclusive . . . it's limited . . . it's super high-tech and It's PROFESSIONAL!!


And THAT'S the story of iPredict Pro.

cheers,
Greg Rostami