Patronage works because he has a huge audience giving him some money. Without a huge audience, it doesn't work. He's one of the most well known developer in the world.
His situation only applies to him. Not anyone else.
Pragmatic app pricing
21–30 of 33 posts
Re: Pragmatic app pricing
#22Marco says "I’m not doing anything that other developers can’t do" a few times in this post, and sadly I think it's disingenuous. I believe Marco got at least a couple million dollars from the ~$1B sale of Tumblr (dilution, not clear how much he started with, etc.). That's actually a lot of padding, and means that he can get by for a year or so to try out this free + patronage model. Someone that needs an income, doe…
Still, it does the world no good to refrain from using one's advantage because other people don't share it.
Re: Pragmatic app pricing
#23Marco says "I’m not doing anything that other developers can’t do" a few times in this post, and sadly I think it's disingenuous. I believe Marco got at least a couple million dollars from the ~$1B sale of Tumblr (dilution, not clear how much he started with, etc.). That's actually a lot of padding, and means that he can get by for a year or so to try out this free + patronage model. Someone that needs an income, doe…
He also sold Instapaper to betaworks for an undisclosed sum of money.
Re: Pragmatic app pricing
#24Marco says "I’m not doing anything that other developers can’t do" a few times in this post, and sadly I think it's disingenuous. I believe Marco got at least a couple million dollars from the ~$1B sale of Tumblr (dilution, not clear how much he started with, etc.). That's actually a lot of padding, and means that he can get by for a year or so to try out this free + patronage model. Someone that needs an income, doe…
Indeed, thinking of Marco Arment as an "indie dev" is sort of like thinking of Minecraft as an "indie game." Regardless of roots, at some point, they both crossed a money line. That being said, assuming he is somewhat financially prudent, Arment probably has enough money to just drop into mutual funds and live off the interest, so I guess it says something about his passion as a developer that he's still coding and t…
This comes a month after he released a content blocker (Peace), it topped the iOS App Store paid charts, and then decided to remove it from sale and issue a refund to everyone.
Topping the charts for a day amounts to tens of thousands of dollars. To most people that's a non-trivial amount of money to toss away to maintain one's sense of morality.
Re: Pragmatic app pricing
#25The article's premise is that Big Money is rushing into podcasts but without giving details what that is. Maybe this is bad for Overcast and other clients, but it could mean that popular podcasts can make more money. Marco is definitely invested in that side of the equation, too, but doesn't talk about in this article.
I think the idea is exclusive content that you have to download "shitty apps" to listen to would be a bad trend for consumers, and probably all around. Sure some popular podcasts can make more money, but at what cost?
Re: Pragmatic app pricing
#26Looks like he still cannot get over with Pocket. They were supposed to clone features from Instapaper etc. I paid for both Instapaper and Pocket (when it was still named Read It Later and had paid version on Android). I stopped using Instapaper and used Pocket exclusively because Pocket is simply much better piece of software. Period. On iOS and of course on other platforms Pocket can run but Instapaper can't.
He wrote "They’re coming with shitty apps and fantastic business deals to dominate the market, lock down this open medium into proprietary “technology”, and build empires of middlemen to control distribution and take a cut of everyone’s revenue."
Well, what if they are coming with _better_ apps and fantastic business deals.. ?
Being an indie dev (or a small indie company) does not automatically make you a better developer / software maker than anyone else. Part of that may be lack of resource, but maybe just maybe you're competing with someone better.
Re: Pragmatic app pricing
#27Marco says "I’m not doing anything that other developers can’t do" a few times in this post, and sadly I think it's disingenuous. I believe Marco got at least a couple million dollars from the ~$1B sale of Tumblr (dilution, not clear how much he started with, etc.). That's actually a lot of padding, and means that he can get by for a year or so to try out this free + patronage model. Someone that needs an income, doe…
He also made close to a million on the sale of instapaperfeed to Betaworks...so yeah, he's def. not in the same boat as many independent devs...
Source?
Re: Pragmatic app pricing
#28Don't get me wrong but I have to say it: I kind of like the guy and what he does but it is getting closer and closer to not be surprised if he shoots belfie one of this days. Whole Peace drama and how it was performed is something I would expect Kardashians to do.
Re: Pragmatic app pricing
#29> But imagine you’ve been working on Castro 2 for the last year, betting the company on a big launch and a sustainable income. Sounds like the Castro 2 dev(s) made a bad bet if their success hinges on the available of a free alternative :(
the quote was from a 3rd party; the castro devs said nothing about Marco going free.
edited to add: rather, after people assuming the quote was from them, the developers of Castro issued a statement of "Castro 2 is coming along wonderfully and we're not worried about Overcast going free. "
Re: Pragmatic app pricing
#30Don't get me wrong but I have to say it: I kind of like the guy and what he does but it is getting closer and closer to not be surprised if he shoots belfie one of this days. Whole Peace drama and how it was performed is something I would expect Kardashians to do.
Don't forget when he banned 9To5Mac from Instapaper because they called it Instascraper: http://www.buzzfeed.com/mattbuchanan/how-to-get-banned-from-...