Iconfactory design and development store sells some applications – A AI is partly guilty

At some point, the TwitterRIFIC application was one of the most popular iPhone applications to browse Twitter. Nowadays, the company standing behind this application and many of the following applications are fighting. And AI can be partially guilty.

On Wednesday, the company known as Iconfactory admitted that she was at a crossroads and put up several applications for sale due to a lack of resources. While announcement The case was placed as a situation in which the catalog of the iConfactory application simply grew to contain too many applications, to keep up with this to do this, in fact today's company has no other choice but to focus on applications that offer a better return on investment.

Side products can no longer be maintained, even if they have “plenty of happy and loyal customers”, as the co -founder of Iconfactory, Ged Maheux says.

The company claims that it will continue to work on such applications TapestryIN Sketch of the lineIN CoupleAND Downas well as a new project covering Retro pixel portraitsBut he accepts “serious offers” for other applications. This sales will include intellectual property and source code.

It is particularly interesting that the company indicates AI significantly affecting its activities as a cause.

“Chatgpt and other AI services basically kill @iconfactory, and I don't exaggerate or I'm hyperbolic,” Ikonfactory developer Sean Heber he said in Mastodon Post at the beginning of this month.

It is not that people use artificial intelligence instead of mobile applications, but how climate coding affects the need for project companies like them. In addition to building your own applications, revenues generated iconfactory, offering the application design serviceswhich include such things as icon design (hence the name), application design, creating marketing resources as well as branding and consultation services.

These services have helped to drive activities that are currently destroyed by artificial intelligence. “Nothing I am talking about will not force anyone who stops using ChatgPT and generated a new application icon in 5 minutes for the application, which you also had chatgpt for you in a few hours, but I'm not sure what the rest of us should do to earn enough money, you know, live,” wrote Heber.

Another problem for long -time application manufacturers in Iconfactory was the closing of the most popular application, Twitterrific, which was killed by Elon Musk in 2023, when the company (currently known as X) officially banned all external customers. Move TwitterrificIN TweetbotAnd other applications almost do not work, which leads iconfactory, begged its users to reject phrases in the application store to help them stay on the surface.

This also influenced the future of iconfactory, he admitted Heber in his positions.

“First, Twitter/Elon killed our main revenues from the application, which kept the lights here, and then generative AI exploded to get the last blow to design revenues,” he wrote. “I think maybe because @iconfactory is quite good people have the impression that we are sitting here on a pile of money or something and great power – no. We barely do it from Elon/Twitter. There are only 6 of us and there is no war chest.”

After closing, Twitterrific Ikonfactory turned to the open social network as a way to generate a new revenue stream. He launched an application called Tapestry, which allows users to track sources in the open network, including RSS, YouTube, BlueSky, Podcast, Mastodon, Reddit, Tumblr, Micro.blog and others. The application offers various clever tools for organizing sources, creating channels, calm down and hiding content you don't want to see, and much more. He also assured for the creators of third parties to expand the tapestry with accessories called the connector, enabling users to add even more open channels.

For now, this application will remain part of the company's efforts – the Mac application is at work – but even its future can be uncertain. First of all, open social media platforms, such as Mastodon and BlueSky, are still overshadowed by technological giants, which means that consumer demand for something like a tapestry is quite niche.

As Heber commonKickstarter of the application was a bit “Hail Mary” on the part of the company, but people do not subscribe enough to compensate for the revenues that Twitterrific once brought.

If AI continues to create the activity of creating applications, the iconfactory will not be alone suffering from consequences. But applications coded by the climate do not necessarily need consumers, not only because of the lack of human contribution, but also loose security that some of these applications offer.

He arrived for a comment, Maheux agreed that AI “definitely weakened the design side of our services”, although it has not yet “killed” the company.

“Many independent programmers have accepted artificial intelligence to an inexpensive or free solution for graphic work, such as application icons, which was the basic part of the services we offer. We are still doing, but the frequency of future programmers coming to these services has fallen significantly in the last few years,” said Techcrunch via E -Mail.

He also cited other factors affecting business, such as the Apple graphic system, SF symbols, which developers can use instead. Consumers tiring subscriptions for everything. In addition, he points out that the cost of everything has increased over the years, while the cost of the application is not difficult to earn on life as a developer of small businesses.

“We had to expand our offer to other areas, such as UX consultations, consultations with coding and side revenues to try revenues from this lost design work. The introduction by Apple Liquid Glass offered new designing and consultation opportunities, and we worked with a handful of companies, so it was hope,” he noted.

It was updated after publication with the company's commentary.