Exclusive Interview With PadFolios iOS App Developer, Juan Pablo Mazuera

1    Please explain how your app was originally thought of and what were your thoughts behind the marketplace, specifically?

As soon as the original iPad came out on April 2010, as a faithful Apple fan, I ran to order it. I live pretty far from the USA, but I made it possible to be one of the firsts, if not the first one, to have it in my country, Colombia – South America.

I was really amazed with that device, but there was something missing. I am a Photographer and a Graphic Designer, I saw in the iPad the perfect tool for showing all my professional work, but the Photo app included originally did not fulfill my original idea of a digital portfolio on my new iPad. I needed to show my work, but also keep track of my name and my brand. Here is when I came up with PadFolios, a simple tool to create a simple but elegant gallery of my work allowing me to add also a background with my brand. Started as simple as that and became what it is now, one of the best portfolio applications for your iOS devices.

This was my first app and I was not certain about how the market was, but what I really knew is that was a huge market but with still a lot of space to grow and the final user wants great level apps.

2    Explain the design, how you came up with the colors and themes.

I wanted to keep it very simple, but very elegant and easy to use, and always wanted to avoid having some preset style app (ex. Split view like in Mail app) everything with visual enhancements, and very intuitive.

3    Who do you see as the main target market for this app in terms of age, genre and expenditure?

I think it’s not a limited target, PadFolios can be used by any artist like photographers, graphic designers and also for any person who wants to create an album about some event or family reunion.

4    How long did it take from the original planning to the production process of this app?

It took me about 3 months from scratch to PadFolios’s first version (working only at night and weekends, while still working as photographer), but it is still in work, It is still not perfect, and far from it, but every day with the users suggestions and comments I’m working on make PadFolios the tool that everybody wants and needs. It is not easy to fulfill everybody’s needs but I’m trying to give the user as much options as I can and the user decide to use them or not.

5    How do you predict sales to be, is there a good solid market for this style of app?

The sales are good, but with time starts to decrease, it is up to us developers to don’t let die our apps keeping them fresh. The best market is obviously the USA market, including that a lot of people over the world that doesn’t live at the USA have their account there (like me). But every artist and photography fan can use PadFolios.

6    What has been the hardest obstacle you have had to overcome regarding this app development?

I live pretty far from the USA, buying this devices as soon as they come out, and keeping me updated with everything related to applications development, has been the difficult part, because here where I am there is no easy way of learning this kind of development, but actually I solved this with one of my best buddies all over this development process: Google.

7    Would you consider developing apps for third parties?

I have already considered it and I think this is not the best option, especially in the market I live, but depending of what can happen, maybe a nice proposal, I can change my mind.

8    What have you learnt from the App Store?

Actually I have learnt a lot of things, it is a great place, with huge competition and amazing apps, the users are always wanting better and better apps, and we developers need to make them, the big companies are doing it great building great apps and the most important thing is the App Store is the future of application market, the future that we are already living.

9    Have Apple supported you well with your App development?

Yes, I have had some minor problems and they helped me, the way I needed.

10     What next, are you developing another app, would you go for the same genre again, if not which?    

First of all, continue making better every day PadFolios and I’m starting to work on a couple of apps, nothing still created but all in the paper, one of them is still a photography and image manipulation app, and the other maybe a painting app.

11     What do you think about TheAppWhisperer.com? Have we helped you? Would you recommend us? Have we been supportive?

I think it’s a great webpage I use to check it out, with a great presence on Twitter, and amazing apps to show to all of us, and I would definitely recommend you.

This app is available for $9.99 in the App Store and you can download it here.