We love Unread, an RSS reader by developer Jared Sinclair. We’re also big fans of Castro, an exquisitely beautiful podcasting app by Supertop. So we’re delighted to hear that both apps are under the same roof, saving one developer from poverty and frustration while making another developer’s catalog ever stronger.
Let’s rewind for a second. Earlier this year, Unread developer Jared Sinclair gave a sobering postmortem of Unread’s first year of existence. After detailing all the stress it took to create Unread, and the toll it took on his personal life, Sinclair said that Unread simply wasn’t bringing in sustainable revenue, and that he simply wasn’t making enough from Unread to make it worth what he had invested into it.
Sinclair was considering quitting Unread, ditching the app. But all is well that ends well. Castro developer Supertop swooped in and made Sinclair an attractive offer:
We met Jared at WWDC and discussed, among other things, the difficulties of running an indie app business. It was sad to read, a couple of months later, that he wasn’t making enough of a living from Unread and had concluded that it was time to move on. We decided to get in touch and see if he would consider selling Unread, so that development could continue
In the next few weeks, Supertop will take ownership of Unread. They will then republish the app, requiring a new download, although they assure that they will work so that all current customers get the new Unread full of charge.
I wish more stories of app developer failure ended this happily. Here’s to many years of Unread (and Castro!) updates to come.
Source: Supertop
