Why Instapaper Free is taking an extended vacation • Hacker News Board

Re: Why Instapaper Free is taking an extended vacation

#111

Post by xinsight » Fri, Apr 29, 2011, 2:04 PM UTC

stevestreza wrote: post #93

xinsight wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Sounds like it was the primary reason you had low sales. Without similar placement in the Android Market, you really can't claim that one market was more successful than the other purely on its own merits.

I wish I knew where customers came from, but the app Store and Android Market are both black boxes.

I'm sure some people find apps from within the store (e.g. searching for "swedish") - but I expect most to come from youtube (where there are lots of GoSwedish videos) and then search for the app by name.

Update: Or maybe I just need to do more to get the word out. I sold 10 Android copies yesterday! (Thanks HN!)

Re: Why Instapaper Free is taking an extended vacation

#112

Post by lukifer » Fri, Apr 29, 2011, 7:00 PM UTC

thematt wrote: post #89

lukifer wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You seem like you might be a good person to ask: I love the idea of jailbreaking all my devices (I did so on my 1G iPhone as soon as it was possible). However, modern-day Cydia scares the bejeezus out of me. I have no easy way to discern what's reliable, let alone trustworthy, and I wish I could know what's getting installed under the hood, especially regarding background processes and changes to the underlying OS. C…

I don't think quality and safety are concerns unique to Cydia. Why does it scare you to use it? Do you really have any way of knowing what "genuine" apps downloaded from the appstore are doing? http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2010/10/04/iphone-apps-transmit-...

To some extent, there are privacy and trust issues in both places. But I have a bit more confidence in Apple's ability to police their store, and more importantly, official apps are sandboxed and can't touch the filesystem or OS directly.

But honestly, I'm more concerned with quality than trust. I think that malicious apps are probably very rare on Cydia; I'm more concerned with background processes that eat battery life, changes to the underlying OS which make the phone unreliable, buggy code with unintended side effects, etc. I don't think this is the norm, but I have very little information with which to separate the gems from the junk.

On a computer, installing apps with no restrictions is the norm, and so there are countless forms of social proof to discover which apps are safe and reliable. I'm looking for something equivalent for Cydia packages, as well as detailed manifests of what is installed and running with each install. (Perhaps I should just stick to paid packages, where the author has higher incentive to maintain quality.)

Re: Why Instapaper Free is taking an extended vacation

#113

Post by fragmede » Sat, Apr 30, 2011, 5:18 AM UTC

> On the website, this cost is defrayed by ads from The Deck, but people using the iOS app might never visit the website.

That's theoretically true, but how true is it? What percentage of people who have used the iOS app have also logged in via a desktop web browser? How many people have only logged in via a desktop web browser.

A look at the web server statistics would prove quite fruitful - it would tell the author where to spend development time. Do most of the active users have an iOS device? Do they ever use the mobile safari 'read later' bookmarklet? Spend time getting iOS push to push new articles to the app vs. time improving other things; but only if the data justifies it.

Re: Why Instapaper Free is taking an extended vacation

#114

Post by jranck » Sat, Apr 30, 2011, 1:41 PM UTC

I applaud the fact that a developer can charge for his time and effort into building a good product. While I love hearing about these success stories, lets not forget the fact that all applications are different. There is an inherit and perceived value for everything and it's all dependent on the audience. The ROI per user is different for everyone, what works for you may not work for someone else. Marco's audience is made up of mostly tech savvy individuals where the implied value is greater than the cost of the service. This isn't the exception to the rule but it isn't the typical audience that a lot of startups are trying to capture. Every audience and product is different and take inspiration with a grain of salt. With that being said nice work Marco.

Re: Why Instapaper Free is taking an extended vacation

#115

Post by jranck » Sat, Apr 30, 2011, 1:54 PM UTC

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…

I think what is happening is there's a threshold for successful applications. Every application and website has a vetting period where momentum and marketing can advance to certain levels where a reputation is attained. This is where Instapaper is right now. Marco wouldn't have the audience he has now if it wasn't a free service to begin with. Now that the service has a reputation and a successful following you are allowed to charge a premium.

Re: Why Instapaper Free is taking an extended vacation

#116

Post by londoncyclist » Mon, May 02, 2011, 6:29 AM UTC

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…

Second Amen - my app http://bikedoctorapp.com launched on iPhone and Android using exact same tactics (5000 person email newsletter + dominating the relevant keyword on Google + contacting app blogs) download rate on Android has been maybe 1/30th of iPhone. Typical feedback: "This is the first app I've paid for on Android".

Re: Why Instapaper Free is taking an extended vacation

#117

Post by SMT » Mon, May 02, 2011, 11:22 AM UTC

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…

GoSwedish and BikeDoctor? Pretty fringe apps. I wonder if the real problem is the findability of fringe apps for Android.

Also perhaps Android users are not indoctrinated to the Apple "walled garden concept", and expect to find these on an Internet website rather than in an application. I certainly find the concept of a guide to bike repair or learning Swedish in the form of an application very odd. An application store isn't the first place I would consider looking for this type of thing.