1) Tell us a little bit about your company
Sooner is a project of i-Free Innovations, one of the largest mobile applications and games developer and publisher in Russia. i-Free Innovations, producer of the app, makes its products available in more than 100 countries, grossing over $200 million in sales in 2011. Headquartered in St. Petersburg, Russia, i-Free also successfully operates offices in India, China, Brazil and CIS, employing over 500 staff. For more information, visit www.i-free.com/en/.
2) How did you get into the business of developing iPad/iPhone apps? And, how did this Sooner app come about?
From the early days of App Store I always thought that mobile will transform the world and increase human efficiency by providing new useful tools. For me the main purpose of starting apps development was to join this revolution. Basic idea behind Sooner was to develop a revolutionary easy and agile app for planning time and tasks with two main characteristics: great design (as we also believe that design will save the world) and intellectuality (though it is not yet completely implemented, but we have great plans for it).
3) What makes your Sooner app stand out from similar apps?
Great design and usability. Also the intuitive mixing of two paradigms in one app: a list of items paradigm (tasks, ideas, items segmented by groups) and schedule paradigm with precise time planning features.
4) How does the Sooner app help users get more organized and be more productive?
There are plenty of techniques you can use to become more organized with Sooner. Some of them are pointed out on our site www.dosooner.com (See Productivity tips section). Sooner is very agile, and first of all, it allows you to capture tasks and events, set reminders to free your head from unnecessary must-not-forget worries and plan deadlines. For those who want to become extremely efficient, it allows easy but precise time planning of the working day. With the use of time-boxing technique, you can schedule your focus up to minutes.
5) What features warrant the price tag for the Sooner app? And do you plan on adding more features or functions in the future?
Sooner includes an unlimited number of colorful lists/projects and a schedule planner (with quick jump between days of the week or a month). There’s drag-and-drop support for scheduling, so you can drag a task from the list and plan it on any precise day and time. You have the ability to set deadlines, priorities and multiple reminders. Recently we've implemented iCal sync.
We have big plans for further development of Sooner. They include a version for iPhone 5, integrations with other solutions like Reminders, Cloud sync, desktop version and intellectual features (we'll start with recommendations of the most important tasks based on user's priorities and deadlines).
6) What's the thought process behind offering Sooner at such a great discount upon the app's release?
Though Sooner is a premium product, we provide discount on start to get visibility and receive feedback from the larger group of early users. Feedback on the initial stage of the app development will help us become even better.
7) Tell us a little bit more about some of the other great apps your company has already released? Any new apps coming out in the near future?
Personal finance tracker CoinKeeper for iPhone, iPad and Android is another great example of a user-friendly interface design.
Relevance is a smart aggregator of Facebook and Twitter feeds that intellectually personalizes newsfeeds, so that users can focus on the most important things.
Our recently released app Listick is a cloud-based grocery shopping list app that’s also beautiful and user-friendly, yet rich in features.
Currently there are about 30 apps and games developed by i-Free Innovations.
8) What's some of the general feedback you have received from users about the Sooner app?
In general users are impressed with the design and delighted with performance.
9) Did you have to make any changes or updates when Apple's iO6 came out?
Actually, at this point in time Sooner hasn't yet been released.
10) Other than your own apps, what is your favorite app?
I'm a big fan of apps. Among my favorites are Flipboard, SnapSeed, Simplife. Stamped is also among them, it’s a pity they are closing.
