[joeld42]

Hello! I'm an iOS dev at Smule, and also develop my own apps on the side as an indie. Here's my thoughts:

First, I probably wouldn't use a framework like this unless it was really compelling. There are plenty of free versions of most of those components on cocoapods or github. I'm sure yours are better, but I can just pod install one of those and not have to worry about buying a license and get my task done. Would strongly suggest that you have some way to use parts of the framework incrementally, and maybe have some of them free and others of them "premium".

Also, cocoapods. If I can try out a component from a cocoapod, that means I can probably drop it into my app in 5-10 minutes, then if it's interesting spend a few hours seriously evaluating it. If I have to run some kind of installer, and then start a new app with a strange xcode template, I'm just not going to do it. Maybe that's just me, maybe other devs will.

I would suggest a non-invasive, per-app license, along with an expensive option for the perpetual license for enterprises or very prolific freelancers (or agencies).

Don't do any complicated nonsense with license keys and BS like that. It's a huge headache for you and for the developers, and pirates are going to get around it anyways. Just let anyone link your sdk, and have a way to identify apps that use your components (e.g. print [Trial Version] or something to the console). If someone uses your components on a popular app, check if they have a license and let the lawyers handle it. If small developers use your components just don't worry about it, it's more trouble than it's worth to go after. Offer a very generous discount for small devs to put your logo on their splash screen, that might convert some would-be pirates to organic marketing.

[tag2]

Thanks for the detailed feedback joeld42. Much appreciated. Of course we do feel our Framework is compelling but it's just about getting that across to other devs in a clear manner in our marketing. We've found that whenever we've started a new project and we've needed a particular a set of components, it's been a pain trying to find the correct one to use, ones that have been kept upto date and then also ensuring they all work seamlessly together. Developers will of course have their own coding styles etc and trying to make each one work nicely in our projects is never easy. That's why we've tried to make everything in our framework absolutely consistent. Everything has the same coding style, is fully themable etc

It's a good point on cocoapods. It's something we'll definitely look in to thanks. We'd created the template as a way for newbie devs to have less hassle when trying to get a project started with our framework. I think another point we need to try and get across better on our site is how existing apps can use our framework.

On licensing, yep it'll just be a downloadable file that developers will need to just drop into their project somewhere. That will allow them to build the app to a device rather than just the simulator.