

IPad App Idea - You are free to take it - marcamillion
http://marcgayle.com/2010/04/23/iphone-and-ipad-app-idea/

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Sam_Odio
No comment on this idea, but I'd love to see more of this (vs Ask HN or Tell
HN about my startup).

If you're not going to implement something tell the community. Let us vote it
up if we think it's good.

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alain94040
_The trick is to start with a bang, say giving away 500 – 1,000 iPads in the
first 48 hours._

Hi, the 1990s called, they want their dot-com bubble back :-)

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hugh3
I'm going to assume you couldn't charge to play, otherwise you'd certainly run
afoul of gambling laws, so it'd have to be funded by advertising revenue,
right? Perhaps show a full-on thirty-second video ad before you get to play?

If the economics of that work out, then why should it be an iPad-only affair?
Why not do it web-based so everyone can participate (and also avoid whatever
issues Apple might have with it being in their app store?)

Now I'm not sure the economics of it could ever work since the amount an
advertiser will pay is pretty small meaning the prizes are either too small to
bother with or too rare to have a significant chance of winning regardless of
how popular the site gets, but hey, if you can figure out a way to do it...

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prawn
Could have the interstitial ad after the scratch but before the result is
shown? People would be paying more attention then. Work in a survey question
even.

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hugh3
Hmm, well I looked up the cost of video advertising and if this three-year-old
article is to be believed:

[http://adage.com/webvideoreport/article.php?article_id=12851...](http://adage.com/webvideoreport/article.php?article_id=128516)

then the prices are somewhat higher than I thought -- anywhere from $15 to
$100 CPM, or between 1.5 and 10 cents per ad view. I suppose if you were
selling at the high end of this range you could fund some reasonable prizes --
how about a one in ten thousand chance of winning an iPad and a one in ten
chance of winning a voucher redeemable for a chocolate bar at your local 7/11?
At the low end of the range the value proposition becomes a lot iffier,
though.

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run4yourlives
The legalities around running lotteries and/or contests might come into play
here... do your research if you feel like venturing down this path.

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nanexcool
I like the idea but can't help thinking someone somewhere will use an actual
coin to scratch...

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joeld42
I think app store prohibits gambling games, so you couldn't actually give
stuff away.

Good idea tho.

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wyclif
I think the App Store also prohibits "giveaway" apps (see the comment on the
blog).

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Zev
Couldn't the issue mentioned by the comment be addressed pretty easily? Just
have a blog or twitter client that announces the giveaways as well; "Giving
away: A shiny foo! To enter, use our iPad app!"

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faramarz
Why don't state lotteries do this? no more paper waste

maybe build a product and go pitch it to them.

~~~
roamzero
Are the iPad people really the type of demographic that buys state lotto
tickets?

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marcamillion
FYI: Seems someone has launched almost the same thing just recently:

[http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/lotto-
tickets/id360953651?mt=...](http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/lotto-
tickets/id360953651?mt=8)

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acgourley
Feels like a better Touch app, especially because anyone who has the
disposable income for an ipad probably isn't a huge fan of lotteries.

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madprogrammer
That's a cool idea

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TheSOB88
This sounds too much like GiveawayOfTheDay.com. They don't charge, so all they
can give away is pure crap software.

