• Post Reply Bookmark Topic Watch Topic
  • New Topic
programming forums Java Mobile Certification Databases Caching Books Engineering Micro Controllers OS Languages Paradigms IDEs Build Tools Frameworks Application Servers Open Source This Site Careers Other Pie Elite all forums
this forum made possible by our volunteer staff, including ...
Marshals:
  • Campbell Ritchie
  • Tim Cooke
  • paul wheaton
  • Jeanne Boyarsky
  • Ron McLeod
Sheriffs:
  • Paul Clapham
  • Liutauras Vilda
  • Devaka Cooray
Saloon Keepers:
  • Tim Holloway
  • Roland Mueller
Bartenders:

Unimaginative developer

 
Greenhorn
Posts: 14
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator


As a Java developer that's looking for 'new territory' I'd like to start developing some Android apps.
My problem though is my apparent lack of imagination - I can't come up with an idea for an app that hasn't been previously developed.
There are calendaring, financial, search, entertainment, social apps and so on. Where does someone go to find a niche or mainstream opportunity?
Or do I build apps with little commercial value, or apps that have already been done, or do it just for fun?
Oh, wait a sec - here's an idea. What about a web app that 'directs' people to web sites that would pay to have people directed to them. These exist in the 'desktop' world eg; Google Payday, but maybe not in the micro-platform world.
 
Ranch Hand
Posts: 37
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
First you have increase your imagination ..... there are several ways ..........

1) You can read HD ... I expect you to know atleast what HD ...if you dont then you totally lack imagination ....
2) Perceive and Visualize .....

You might increase what is called CQ creativity quotient ......

You can then make new Andriod and sell it to google itself .... or atleast you can sell it even if you cant make one
 
High Plains Drifter
Posts: 7289
Netbeans IDE VI Editor
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
Hey Bruce -

There really are a lot of fun ways to stir the imagination on a subject like this. Here's what I recommend:

1. Forget what anyone else is doing. If you can think of it quickly, and it doesn't impress you, write it down and let it go. Someone's already coding it, almost certainly. If you want to build a better-than-X application, great. Otherwise, put it on a list of ideas you thought of but don't care about, and move on.

2. Ask yourself what an Android phone *could* do, given the resources/services it offers, and play! Do you know the game where groups of people are given a simple object -- a carrot, a slinky, an unidentified desk thing -- and have to "make" something of it in a few seconds? Do that. Don't record ideas, have one. If you come up with something brilliant, it will stop you and make you take notice.

Example: have you seen the iPhone/iPod touch commercial where they use the unit itself as a game control? You "steer" the appliance itself and the game responds to the change. That's so brilliant, so *simple* and yet so...obvious, in a way. People wonder they didn't have it before. That's the result of a little imagination, a little observation, and absolutely no worry about "wasting" time doing something people haven't thought to do before, or didn't have the technology to make happen.

3. It's important to have fun. Give your license to be lame. One person's lame is another person's accident is another person's idea is another person's blank stare. Don't ask how it is useful. Look, and don't ask. Make up.

Although you may not feel you're very good at imagining in a constructive way, it's not about skill. It's about learning to let go and work with what you have, not think about what you want. Don't try to fill the box! Just play with it, and see what happens.
 
Author
Posts: 131
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
There are calendaring, financial, search, entertainment, social apps and so on. Where does someone go to find a niche or mainstream opportunity?

Android is a tool. It is not a market. Find people with a problem, then solve that problem, perhaps using Android as a solution.

For example, civil engineers need to perform a lot of calculations. Right now, they need to drag a notebook PC out in the field to do much of that work. If you know a bit about civil engineering and know some civil engineering firms, work with them to figure out what calculations could best be done on a mobile device, then sell an app to civil engineering firms worldwide.
 
Greenhorn
Posts: 18
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
I wouldn't worry about originality. Too many people in the world with too many ideas. Just find one you like and stick with it. I'm glad there's a lack of originality because it gives me choice. I don't have to use one particular product. Someone else thought they could do better, and maybe they did.
 
It's a tiny ad only because the water is so cold.
Smokeless wood heat with a rocket mass heater
https://woodheat.net
reply
    Bookmark Topic Watch Topic
  • New Topic