Will this sell?

[rajat.vaghani37]

Gimme your frank opinions about it..

Ive developed a software which solves sudokus for you.. ( check Wikipedia or Google it if you dont know what they are)..
It uses 8 algorithms to arrive at a solution, and if that fails then brute force method. So guaranteed 101% results.
I plan on selling it.

What do u think?

[essellar]

I don't know if it will sell as a product, but it may sell you as a developer. It depends on the algorithms you're using, how you're deciding when a search fails, and so forth. Solving sudoku puzzles has a lot in common with solving other sorts of problems, particularly in inventory management, fulfillment, transportation and logistics, fleet management and so forth. If your approach is efficient and fails quickly, it makes you more valuable.

Then again, it's really hard to figure out what will be successful commercially. One of the very successful people I "know" online (we both hang out at Y Combinator's Hacker News aggregator) is making a very good living with a bingo card creator, which is nothing more, really, than shuffling and dealing a large deck of cards algorithmically, then arranging the numbers (or whatever you're categorizing) for print. But he's found the perfect target market -- schoolteachers who are willing to pay a little out of their own pocket to make the learning experience fun for kids -- and that's what it takes to turn something simple and even of limited utility into a money printer.

Who knows? There may be enough people who can't wait for tomorrow's newspaper to find out where they went wrong. But I think you'll find there's more value in the source code than in the running program.

[rajat.vaghani37]

I don't know if it will sell as a product, but it may sell you as a developer. It depends on the algorithms you're using, how you're deciding when a search fails, and so forth. Solving sudoku puzzles has a lot in common with solving other sorts of problems, particularly in inventory management, fulfillment, transportation and logistics, fleet management and so forth. If your approach is efficient and fails quickly, it makes you more valuable.

Then again, it's really hard to figure out what will be successful commercially. One of the very successful people I "know" online (we both hang out at Y Combinator's Hacker News aggregator) is making a very good living with a bingo card creator, which is nothing more, really, than shuffling and dealing a large deck of cards algorithmically, then arranging the numbers (or whatever you're categorizing) for print. But he's found the perfect target market -- schoolteachers who are willing to pay a little out of their own pocket to make the learning experience fun for kids -- and that's what it takes to turn something simple and even of limited utility into a money printer.

Who knows? There may be enough people who can't wait for tomorrow's newspaper to find out where they went wrong. But I think you'll find there's more value in the source code than in the running program.

Its definitely efficient.. It solves in less than a second, no kidding..
Hmm, you've made a very strong point, and made it very clearly.. thanks for that!

What would you suggest i do with the software(or its source code) then?

[matt24]

It may be a cool little free gadget. Keep working.

[SJ.Wolfe]

I would suggest adding it to your portfolio if you have one or ever do make one, and present it to any potential employers if you start searching for a job in the programming field. Go ahead and see if you can sell it, as well. It wouldn't hurt to try ;)

[anatoly-usa57]

It might, but I don't think it will be that popular

[brunildagytn93]

Anything will sell with the right marketing

[rajat.vaghani37]

Yeah, I guess I should do what Sj.Wolfe said. I could include it in my portfolio(have to make one) and keep trying..

One more question though, should I sell it to other people who buy softwares and sell it or should i sell it directly in the market? o.O

[ChatIndia]

I Googled and found several sudoku solver program. I haven't tried them yet tho. Is your program very unique?

[whooophats67]

make it for an iphone and maybe you've got something there. on a PC, not really.