My Delphi App made it to #1 on both the Apple App Store (iOS) and Google Play Store (Android) charts last weekend! (12 to 14 April 2024)
I was blown away by the response to my RAD Studio / Delphi Application, written for iOS and Android after I published it to Google Play and Apple AppStore. The app helps go karting mechanics and drivers quickly get answers to setup questions and understand the difference in their gearing ratios, and how that translates to speed on track.
Despite being for a niche market, it raced (excuse the pun) to the #1 Paid Sports App for both app stores within two days of launch.
About the App
As with any good app, you need to bring something of value. Since my son started Karting in January, I’ve been struggling to get good explanations from experienced people about how the gearing ratio impacted the speed on track.
There are several gearing tables available in books, but these take time to look up and cross reference, and none of them include extra setup information (such as chain length) as each kart brand and engine is different. But that kind of stuff is doable with software!
Watch the app in action!
The App is a native app written in Delphi from a single code base, compiled for each platform. This allowed me to get it onto iOS and Android about the same time. The Apple app review process was a lot quicker than Googles this time. but within 2 days of each other, both apps were ready for launch.
Listing the App
One of the things that always took me a long time in the past with other apps I’ve published was getting the App “Store Ready” and getting the store listings sorted.
One thing I will say, is that RAD Studio 12 has made great steps forward to help make the icons and artwork ready for the store. In the past, this was a real pain as there are loads of different sizes required, however now, the new Artwork Generator has simplified this drastically. I’m not joking when I say it saved me 4+ hours in getting the App store ready for iOS and Android.
Skia for Delphi in action on Mobile
I’ve had a lot of happy feedback from users about the animation in the app. One person even said they purchased it just for that! The cool spinning cog uses the new Skia framework and changes speed based on the gearing ratio. This is all controlled from a single property making it really easy to speed up and slow down. I created the animation using lottielabs in a few hours without previous experience in animation creation. – See behind the code in an early prototype.
Final Comments
RAD Studio 12 has enabled me to bring an app to market that is far more interesting than I could have easily done before. The native speed and performance from a single code base, integration with Skia, and the new Artwork generator have all come together to make the entire process easier than ever before.