This Chinese App Developer Has Created Some Awesome Handmade Merchandise

You’ve created a popular Mac app that has a strong cult following, but you fancy a new revenue stream. What to do? One of the less obvious answers (unless you’re Rovio) is to sell some merchandise. That’s what the Chinese creator of Mou, the writing app for OS X that supports Markdown, has done. The developer has recently launched such products as a tablet stand, beer bottle openers, badges, and stickers. All the merchandise features the distinctive “M” logo that forms Mou’s icon.

The flagship new physical product is MouStand (pictured below), a funky and minimalist tablet stand made of magnesium alloy. The man behind the startup, Chen Luo, explains to us that this particular product is half handmade, involving a CNC cutting machine he has rented, then a whole lot of polishing and bending, followed by a bit of sandblasting to create the matte effect, then they’re anodized and colored.

Chen admits with candor that the item is not perfect due to it being largely crafted by hand – and by Chen himself. That’s a lot of elbow grease involved. You can either buy the color pack containing four of these iPad stands for US$116, or the black-and-white pack for $58:

Developing on a need-to-have basis

Chen says that he first (and unintentionally) prototyped MouStand last year as a mini comb shelf made of pure silver. It was only when he bought an iPad in January this year that he felt the need for a solid stand. That’s when the previous creation became enlarged to support anything from a smartphone to any brand of tablet.

Indeed, Chen says he often develops things on a need-to-have basis – either in terms of the skills required or a particular resource needed. That happened with this merchandise. He explains:

I’ve learned everything needed to make this happen, CAD mechanical drawing, packaging design, cutting machine operation, the necessary knowledge of kinds of metal processing techniques, woodworking, and printing. I feel lucky that I’m already skilled in photography and web coding, as they are useful for building the online store. It’s not easy, but finally, I accomplished all the stuff and brought MouStand into reality.

Prior to making Mou app, he also made apps when he encountered things he needed for his web and software development work, such as Smaller app and the Resize extension for Safari.

Mou for iPad?

Mou for Mac is a great-looking and very stable writing app considering that it’s still in beta – and therefore free. Chen says that he’s still not sure when Mou will mature to the point, as he sees it, that it’s ready to hit the Mac App Store with a price-tag. Other Markdown-oriented Mac apps like iWriter and Byword cost $2.99 in the store, though they don’t have as many features as Mou, such as the latter’s live HTML preview.

But he says that he’s now focusing on the Mac app – which is proving most popular in the US, China, and Japan – with only a little thought given to a Mou for iPad version: