Show HN: My new running app, Vima

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/vima-gps-run-tracker/id871857373?ls=1&mt=8

by clarky07 • 12 years ago

25 22 12 years ago

itunes.apple.com

clarky079• 12 years ago

OP Here. Feel free to ask any questions. I'd love to get some feedback on it from anyone that runs or bikes etc.

If you're curious, Vima is Greek for "Pace"

omarforgotpwd• 12 years ago

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clarky079• 12 years ago

Thanks, glad you like it. I'm not looking for anything right now, but that looks pretty sweet. Best of luck to you.

auston• 12 years ago

Why should I use this over Strava?

clarky079• 12 years ago

That's tough, because Strava is a great app. In our mind though it has a lot of stuff that isn't really needed that complicates things. If you like that stuff, you might as well stick with it. The selling point of our app (at least in my mind) though is the simplicity and ease of use.

There are a lot of people who like Strava and RunKeeper and the others, but there are also a lot of people that don't want to login to run. They don't want to have their run data on a server somewhere. They just want a great app that lets them keep track of their exercise progress. We are hoping to carve out a niche for those people.

Hopefully keeping things as simple as possible while still providing as many of the other great features we can. Things like the voice updates while running are a good example. It's a great feature that a lot of people love, but it doesn't change the interface one bit.

davkal• 12 years ago

Nice app! I'm a Runkeeper user and I'm missing two things there: track your friends in the same map when meeting for a run (useful if starting point is not the same), and some sort of soundcloud integration (the track could be included in the facebook post after the run). The graphics look very good and the color scheme is well balanced. Is this native or html5? Any particular UI framework used?

clarky079• 12 years ago

Thanks. It is all native. No special UI frameworks.

andrewljohnson• 12 years ago

I don't consider this an "MVP" for a running app. The market is too far along, and I think this lacks a certain kernel of innovation that would set it apart in spite of lacking features.

It has a nice, kind of Yahoo-weather like feel to the app. For a commercial success, I think the app does not even embody 1% of the necessary work:

* Without some sort of web+mobile experience, you are way behind everyone else that is established in the space (runkeeper, runtastic, strava, mapmyrun).

* The competitors are well-funded and start-uppy - so, even as you perhaps start to add necessary features like route-making, elevation-correction, etc - they will still be innovating and making new stuff.

* You integrated with Pebble, but the other hardware in the space probably makes more sense (like heart rate watches), so that's more work. Or nutritional stuff like MyFitnessPal.

For the marketing, I'd say:

* The app ends up being a demo because of the restriction on number of runs, while the competitors offer something fully functional, including Vima's paid features, for free. Is this going to work?

* The name is probably bad - take it from the guy who likes greek mythology for names. If it's a running app, you might as well say so. Runtastic, Runkeeper, MapMyRun - there's a theme here.

* I don't see any way I can join the community, so Vima can email me later and follow up to see why I'm not using the app after I downloaded it.

I've thought about making a fitness app, and I have some infrastructure such that I can get to market with a more feature-complete product than Vima, in just a few weeks. It's a big brawl to walk into though.

clarky079• 12 years ago

Thanks for the brutal honesty.

Without some sort of web+mobile experience, you are way behind everyone else that is established in the space (runkeeper, runtastic, strava, mapmyrun).

perhaps, but I'm not convinced the web features are that exciting or necessary for success. (Note that I make apps for a living, but I don't need 1 app to carry all of the weight. It would be nice to have a huge success that turns into something more, but it isn't required)

The competitors are well-funded and start-uppy

Yeah that sucks. I agree.

The app ends up being a demo because of the restriction on number of runs, while the competitors offer something fully functional, including Vima's paid features, for free. Is this going to work?

I have no idea honestly, but I've had success with this style of limitation in the past. I STRONGLY considered no limits, but I wanted to do it this way to start. I can remove the limits later and only make people happy. Can't start with no limits and go back easily.

Also, I hate banner ads. So ugly. So not useful. With no limit I'd really have to put ads in it. which may happen, but I'd love for this to work. It's an experiment.

The name is probably bad - take it from the guy who likes greek mythology for names. If it's a running app, you might as well say so. Runtastic, Runkeeper, MapMyRun - there's a theme here.

Possibly, but you've also got Strava and Endomondo as counterpoints

I don't consider this an "MVP" for a running app.

I think that's pretty harsh. We are obviously competing against mapmy and runkeeper etc, but that doesn't mean we have to make the same app. I believe that there is a market for a simpler version that does the basics (time, distance, maps, etc.) with an easier to use interface. We have some more advanced features planned, like interval training and more charts etc, but the idea we were going for was the simplicity. Now, the monetization strategy was an entirely new experiment that may or may not work. It's a lot cheaper than the competitors options, but as you pointed out doesn't do as much.

__xtrimsky• 12 years ago

I'll add just one thing to this.

For me the web interface is essential and I think it is for a lot of other people. People like to share their life with everyone. When I go running, I post a live tracking to facebook (not necessary), and then when I finished running I post automatically the data to Facebook. I want everyone to know I just spend X calories and ran for X miles. I enjoy the fact that everyone can click on the link, and view the map of where I was running.

I'm sure this is not a requirement for everyone, but a web interface is for me.

davidcollantes3• 12 years ago

I agree that the web features are not needed. I do not want them, for example. I don't want logins, relying on a server backend, etc. I want a simple app, and yours seems to be. My only complain? Subscription. I do not mind paying a fixed amount one time, but the subscription method kills it for me.

irongeek• 12 years ago

Personally I want access to my running data in json or rss. Without that I would not consider using a new app.

geff82• 12 years ago

The most important small feature for me in Runtastic is that it tells me how many calories I've burned. As I try to lose some pounds I run until I burned 1000 calories (or whatever the goal of the day is).

fataliss• 12 years ago

"Metric" is the standard unless the target for your app is only the US market...

Show HN: My new running app, Vima

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