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Why Instapaper Free is taking an extended vacation

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Re: Why Instapaper Free is taking an extended vacation

#61

Post by akeefer »

jcampbell1 wrote: post #13

As an alternative viewpoint, his thinking seems incredibly shortsighted. When it comes time to launch "InstaAlbum, share your family photos", he is going to have 1/3 the potential audience to draw customers. 3x the existing customers could make the difference between the top of the charts and the press recognition that goes with it. Part of his rational is that some tiny percentage of the free customers complain, and…

Of course he has to care about the haters if they leave negative reviews of his apps: negative reviews will directly hurt future sales. If people see the free app with a bunch of negative reviews, that can harm the overall brand, even if the paid app has a bunch of good reviews. I didn't hear him saying it hurt his feelings that he got negative reviews; it's simply bad for business.

Re: Why Instapaper Free is taking an extended vacation

#62

Post by tomg »

napierzaza wrote: post #46

I like his arguments since they are logical and backed up with data. But at the same time I never would have bought the app if I didn't use "free" for several weeks and got the idea it was useful. This is after reading about Instapaper everywhere and hearing from close friends that it's almost the main reason they even have an iPhone (which was probably an overstatement on their part). Edit: Can we please stop the ti…

> But at the same time I never would have bought the app if I didn't use "free" for several weeks and got the idea it was useful.

There's a middle ground between only having a Paid app and giving a way a full featured, Free, ad-supported version. For example, you can create a Trial version that stops working after a certain amount of time. If you're making a game, you can only have the first few levels in the Free version. If your app creates content, then you can make a Free version that works exactly as the Paid version but does not allow for saving the users work. [I'm assuming these tactics are not forbidden by some EULA or whatever.]

Anyway you get the idea: there are alternatives that let the user see if they think your software is worth buying that don't involve giving the entire thing away and hoping to get enough ad impressions / conversions to make it worth while. Why so many iOS developers go this route instead of the above and just give away their app with some low eCPM ads is beyond me, though I've only dabbled in iOS development so maybe that's just what works for people :)

Re: Why Instapaper Free is taking an extended vacation

#63

Post by mbateman »

JonLim wrote: post #43
patio11 wrote: post #36

I second, third, and fourth the notion about pathological customers. iOS is practically training a generation of them. I'm glad they are far away from me.

Many of my friends own iPhones, and many are flabbergasted when they find out that my phone is not jailbroken nor is it filled with free apps. I happily pay for quality apps. Why? It's going to cost me anywhere from $1 to $10, and that is honestly chump change for an app that will provide much more in value. For some reason, if you give away your work for free, all of the cheapskates and losers come out and start ins…

I really hate the fact that you can't just straight up pay for more things and am deeply suspicious of free services. What benefit do you get from me using your service if I'm not paying you? In some cases, like Google, the benefit is that I can be sold to advertisers. Nothing is really free, and it's better, cleaner, and less scammy feeling to know and pay the cost up front.

If there's a free vs. paid app that I want I will always go for the paid app. I never tried Instapaper free.

Re: Why Instapaper Free is taking an extended vacation

#64

Post by jcampbell1 »

patio11 wrote: post #36

I second, third, and fourth the notion about pathological customers. iOS is practically training a generation of them. I'm glad they are far away from me.

The best way to deal with pathological customers is to ignore them, not to let them drive your decisions.

Though, I have to admit, I sometimes enjoy enraging pathological customers. On the phone, I have told them they are fired, and not welcome to come back to my website ever again. I sometimes pretend to be a nearly deaf old man when dealing with their complaints. It makes my day when a pathological customer calls now. Unfortunately, I only get a call from a pathological customers every other month or so.

Re: Why Instapaper Free is taking an extended vacation

#66

Post by Xuzz »

JonLim wrote: post #43
patio11 wrote: post #36

I second, third, and fourth the notion about pathological customers. iOS is practically training a generation of them. I'm glad they are far away from me.

Many of my friends own iPhones, and many are flabbergasted when they find out that my phone is not jailbroken nor is it filled with free apps. I happily pay for quality apps. Why? It's going to cost me anywhere from $1 to $10, and that is honestly chump change for an app that will provide much more in value. For some reason, if you give away your work for free, all of the cheapskates and losers come out and start ins…

As someone who works on software for jailbroken phones, I just want to make it clear that jailbreaking and piracy are not the same thing.

Yes, jailbreaking makes piracy possible, but Cydia has multiple warnings about adding the repositories required for piracy. In fact, our best statistics show less than half of all the jailbroken devices have pirated an app.

I agree with your points, but I don't want people to misunderstand the point of jailbreaking: jailbreaking is about controlling your own device and doing things the App Store doesn't even conceptually allow.

Re: Why Instapaper Free is taking an extended vacation

#67

Post by unwantedLetters »

mattmanser wrote: post #25
unwantedLetters wrote: post #12

I am sad about this since I was an Instapaper Free to Instapaper paid convert. In fact, I would never have used it if I hadn't used the free app. I know I'm in a minority of users, but I still think the free is useful. Having initially spent many months using my iPhone and not paying for any apps at all (only downloading free apps), I took my first step into paid apps with a cheap $0.99 app, and realized that for the…

And you'd be losing some very good customers if you removed the free app. He's presented empirical evidence that he's not losing any, the exact opposite happens, he gains customers by not having a free app. You've presented your gut feeling. There might be something behind the 'critical mass' argument that some are saying, but that's impossible to test. Yours seems very wooly though.

I agree that I've not presented the best argument. And to be honest that was not my intention. I was just stating what I felt (as you acknowledge).

But I stand by what I said earlier: he will lose some very good customers. I didn't mean he will lose all, but some. He knows that, and is willing to accept it and is betting on the fact that the number is very low.

From the article: "If I don’t have a free app for a long time, I’m certainly going to miss out on some potential long-term conversions. But how many, really, and what would it cost to chase them?"

Re: Why Instapaper Free is taking an extended vacation

#68

Post by Suan »

xinsight wrote: post #38
jrockway wrote: post #20

How does he know nobody will buy the Android app? I barely use any free apps other than the ones that come with Cyanogen Mod. Titanium Backup? Paid. ROM Manager? Paid. Treking? Paid. Android IRC? Paid. X-Plane? Paid. Android users have no problems paying for apps. Non-Android developers are afraid of the unknown.

I ported an iOS app to Android. I've sold three (!!) copies while in that same period, the iOS version has sold about 300. I dropped the price from $5 down to $2 over easter and still didn't sell a single copy during the sale. The two apps have the same content and the sales funnel is exactly the same. (The only difference is the iOS app has lots of 5-star reviews.) It seems clear to me that Android users can't or wo…

Amen. My $0.99 app (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2407744) for Android which has been out for more than a month and costs $0.99 has seen only 6 downloads (4 of which are my friends!) I'm really curious as to how it will "sell" if I change it to free, and if there was an iOS version.

Re: Why Instapaper Free is taking an extended vacation

#69

Post by rakingleaves »

MatthewPhillips wrote: post #19
rakingleaves wrote: post #9

I'm one Android user who would definitely pay $5 for an official Instapaper app.

Why? Read It Later is a great, overlooked service that does the same thing. It's also well designed. And it's cross platform.

Thanks for the tip. Just gave it a try, and it looks great so far.

Re: Why Instapaper Free is taking an extended vacation

#70

Post by xinsight »

jokermatt999 wrote: post #56
xinsight wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I ported an iOS app to Android. I've sold three (!!) copies while in that same period, the iOS version has sold about 300. I dropped the price from $5 down to $2 over easter and still didn't sell a single copy during the sale. The two apps have the same content and the sales funnel is exactly the same. (The only difference is the iOS app has lots of 5-star reviews.) It seems clear to me that Android users can't or wo…

What app? How well known is it? What is your competition on both platforms? Have you marketed the Android version as much as the iOS version?

It's called GoSwedish - a friendly introduction to learning Swedish. http://xinsight.ca/goswedish/

Findability within the Market might also be a factor. A search for "swedish" in the App Store, and it's on the first screen. But it's quite a long scroll down on the Android Market.

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