Oliver Breidenbach
Born in 1969. First Apple in 1976 (Yes, it was an Apple I). First
program developed in 1978 (on Apple II). First commercial
development in 1986 (on Atari ST). First Mac in 1989. Started
company in 1992. Got lured out of university with money halfway
through a Master's degree in Informatics in 1993. Founded Boinx Software with my brother in 1996.
Had to write off cool OpenDoc products in 1997. Got into Web
development in 1998. Started my
weblog (now all but abandoned) end of 2000. Managed to avoid
getting rich in Internet Bubble of 2001. Managed to avoid going
broke in Internet Bubble of 2001. Worked as Mac journalist and
trainer in my spare time. First commercial Mac OS X app shipped in
2002. My team won the O'Reilly Mac OS X Innovators award in 2003 (for
a stop motion animation app) and
2004 (for a way cool Mac slideshow
app). Would have won in 2005, too (with an undisclosed app ;-).
Did a couple of things I can't really talk about. Google claims to
know 18,700 pages about me. Probably nearly all of them are irrelevant.
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Oliver blogs at:
December 15 2008
Aargh! Now I have Microsoft software on my iPhone. And of course it is as ugly as something designed by a city council commitee and totally unintuitive. But don't send in the Knights just yet: what Seadragon does is pretty... read moreDecember 15 2008
Aargh! Now I have Microsoft software on my iPhone. And of course it is as ugly as something designed by a city council commitee and totally unintuitive. But don't send in the Knights just yet: what Seadragon does is pretty... read moreDecember 11 2008
I've kept quiet for some time now, waiting and seeing what happens in the iPhone app market, making up my mind on how to get into the game. From the beginning I thought the environment that Apple created was not... read moreDecember 11 2008
I've kept quiet for some time now, waiting and seeing what happens in the iPhone app market, making up my mind on how to get into the game. From the beginning I thought the environment that Apple created was not... read moreSeptember 19 2008
Just a quick link: Mike Ash tells the story of how he got started developing for the iPhone and his app NetAwake on the iPhone App Store.... read moreSeptember 17 2008
After about 2 months of the App Store, Games clearly dominate the market place. From the 10 Top Paid Apps, 8 are games and the 2 remaining are in the category "Entertainment" which is really just another word for "Games".... read moreIndie Fever - the culture of independent Mac software developers
July 24 2008
A guy named Michiel van Meeteren researched and wrote a thesis paper for the University of Amsterdam looking into the world of independent Mac software developers. The research was sponsored and now published by Mac developer MadeBySofa. You may ask... read moreJuly 24 2008
Shortly before the launch of the iPhone 3G, Nielsen Mobile published iPhone statistics they aquired through their "audience measurement and wireless market research" activities. Their press release apparently went mostly unnoticed until now. According to their data, the iPhone users... read moreCirculator - An iPhone Developer Success Story - Episode 3
July 16 2008
The anti-climax. After the exciting frenzy of the pre-opening weeks, our two heroes Martin and Dominik of TheCodingMonkeys have cooled down quite a bit. Since Apple does not provide any statistics and the download counter in the App Store still... read moreJuly 15 2008
Apple claims that there are more than 800 apps listed in the App Store. Looking through the offering, I am wondering if more isn't less. Not only does developing an iPhone app become less appealing with prices approaching zero under... read moreJuly 14 2008
Holy cow! Apple just announced 10,000,000 downloads from the App Store which contains 800 apps. That is an impressive 12,500 downloads per app for just three days. Pity that iPhone developers individually have no clue as to how well (or... read moreJuly 14 2008
So, iPhone developers have woken up and noticed that being in the App Store alone is not going to drive sales. Some developers are reclaiming their 30% listing fee worth by naming their Apps with obscure characters up front so... read moreJuly 11 2008
If Steve Jobs is as impulsive as his reputation, heaps of heads should now be rolling in Cupertino... About an hour ago, iPhone 2.0 finally showed up in my iTunes. Optimist that I am, I clicked "download and install". Download... read moreCirculator - An iPhone Developer Success Story - Episode 2
July 10 2008
Martin and Dominik got excited about a week before the WWDC when both found themselves with a bit of time on their hands having come to the valley a bit early now waiting for WWDC to start. "We decided to... read moreJuly 09 2008
My good friends Martin and Dominik, aka TheCodingMonkeys of SubEthaEdit fame, are poised to release their first iPhone app on the app store on friday. Since TheCodingMonkeys share our offices and cooperate on a project with us at Boinx Software,... read moreQuick Tip for Non-US iPhone Developers
June 24 2008
Here is a quick tip for non-US iPhone developers who want to sell their apps through the Apple App Store: To make sure that everybody can pay the taxes from business conducted, the US has a concept called Withholding Tax.... read moreBusiness for iPhone Developers 101
June 10 2008
The WWDC 2008 Keynote hat a number of good messages for iPhone developers. Among others: Developing for the iPhone is easy and it is a more pleasant experience than on any other mobile platform. Attendees were given an iPhone Developer... read moreGreetings from across the pond
June 04 2008
I am Oliver Breidenbach, CEO of Boinx Software from Munich, Germany, where we make excellent Mac Software that's fun to use for the creative users. Since the OS X platform that powers the iPhone shares a lot of concepts and... read moreGreetings from across the pond
May 22 2008
I am Oliver Breidenbach, CEO of Boinx Software from Munich, Germany, where we make excellent Mac Software that's fun to use for the creative users. Since the OS X platform that powers the iPhone shares a lot of concepts and... read moreMarch 06 2008
The iPhone SDK is here (sort of) and that's certainly no reason to whine. But it has a few ugly dents in its shiny new coat: Apple takes a 30 percent cut from developers selling apps. Imagine what would happen If they would do that to artists in the iTunes… read moreRecent Posts | All O'Reilly Posts
