This weekend has been a tough one.  From finding out about a newly filed patent from Apple that directly conflicts with what I’m doing, to a demo/survey that I made which suggests users don’t find my product appealing enough, and then finding out there is a competitor that is doing 2/3′rds of what I have planned.

Now, I’m not too worried about the patent because there is a ton of prior art in various formats making the patent a huge waste of companies time/money in the end.  I’m not worried about competition since that can be a good thing and they aren’t focusing on the consumer like I had in mind.  The biggest concern I have is the “quality” of the product.  Safe to say, I’ve saved myself and others a lot of time and money by backing out now.  No sense in having a grand opening if everyone comes inside and doesn’t buy anything.

I was about 25% complete with the business plan, it was coming along well.  One fact does remain, Internet news junkies (like myself) are left with a disservice when it comes to offline news, or better put, the ability to get their online news while offline during a commute or exercise.

You may be saying “what are you doing telling everyone what your doing, just wait, the technology will get better”.  Well, I’ve talked with the vendor that makes this product in particular (mostly a B to B product) and there is no road-map currently or planned to improve their product in the way that it needs to.  And while I’m a web application developer it’s a far cry from being a computer scientist that can actually create a better product from scratch.

So, on to the next “idea”…