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How to price your iPhone app out of existence

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Re: How to price your iPhone app out of existence

#31

Post by jgrahamc »

cpr wrote: post #25
ajkirwin wrote: post #4

This post seems to gloss over the point about VALUE. Sure, sell your app for $9.99 if you want. But it'd better be worth it. And almost all of the apps ON the app store are little quick pieces of fluff, barely even worth 99 cents. Even the better pieces of software are mostly timesavers or memory aids, games notwithstanding. The problem seems to stem from the fact that there is this expection to spend a few weeks and…

What do you all think of our graphing calculator app, Grafly ( http://grafly.com )? Is it worth $9.99? We think it is, in that there's nothing like it on any other platform at any price. Like all the "please rate my web site" posts, I'm interested in what HN denizens think. Thanks.

What's the market size for physical graphing calculators?

Re: How to price your iPhone app out of existence

#32

Post by LPTS »

markessien wrote: post #29
LPTS wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Omnifocus for iPhone was 19.99 and worth every penny. I could of paid 199.99 and it would of been good value. This app lets me offload the kinds of thinking my brain is bad at into something I always carry. You can't put a price on having that in your pocket. I'd hesitate to say I had any desktop apps more useful then omnifocus iPhone, which effects me more like a neural upgrade from a sci fi novel then a cell phone…

"it could of been" is written "it could have been", and "which effects me more" is written "which affects me more". Do you also say those words the same way?

yeah, I can't tell some words apart. Hooked on phonics phucked me up.

I also had speech disorders and couldn't talk so others understood me till I was four. There are still some words I never say right. I could give a shit. I lost enough sleep over it.

Are you one of the idiots who thinks spelling indicates intelligence? All U do correcting otherz is show how 1950s yur thinking iz.

Re: How to price your iPhone app out of existence

#33

Post by markessien »

LPTS wrote: post #32
markessien wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"it could of been" is written "it could have been", and "which effects me more" is written "which affects me more". Do you also say those words the same way?

yeah, I can't tell some words apart. Hooked on phonics phucked me up. I also had speech disorders and couldn't talk so others understood me till I was four. There are still some words I never say right. I could give a shit. I lost enough sleep over it. Are you one of the idiots who thinks spelling indicates intelligence? All U do correcting otherz is show how 1950s yur thinking iz.

Most spelling mistakes don't mean a thing, but when I read people who write 'of' and 'effect', I assume it's because they don't read a lot. It has nothing to do with intelligence.

Re: How to price your iPhone app out of existence

#34

Post by potatolicious »

briansmith wrote: post #14
potatolicious wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some of the apps are genuinely useful - there's an app that will capture a sample of a song and identify it. I would pay at least a few bucks for that. Maybe not $10, but $5 easily. But on the store it's free , without ads. I don't get it. That's throwing money away.

Don't they use affiliate links for when you purchase the song from the (iTunes?) music store.

They could've done both...

Re: How to price your iPhone app out of existence

#35

Post by LPTS »

markessien wrote: post #33
LPTS wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

yeah, I can't tell some words apart. Hooked on phonics phucked me up. I also had speech disorders and couldn't talk so others understood me till I was four. There are still some words I never say right. I could give a shit. I lost enough sleep over it. Are you one of the idiots who thinks spelling indicates intelligence? All U do correcting otherz is show how 1950s yur thinking iz.

Most spelling mistakes don't mean a thing, but when I read people who write 'of' and 'effect', I assume it's because they don't read a lot. It has nothing to do with intelligence.

When i read people who assume intelligence has anything to do with perfectly mimicing others systematically, I assume it's because they read so much they can't think for themselves, and stick so closely to analyzing the text that they don't engage the ideas.

People making systematic mistakes is why we don't all speak shakespearian. It's how the DNA of ideas evolves. I'z skateboarden on yur sidewak, levin u behind. Yur Rulez u wasted yur life mastezing our obsoletest. Possible realities are like a fractal wave and evolving languages holographically in the 21st century is more useful then rigidly adhering to rules made by 20th century monkeys thinking 19th century ways. Can u deal with it, grandpa?

Re: How to price your iPhone app out of existence

#36

Post by Retric »

briansmith wrote: post #21
HeyLaughingBoy wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right, but the same could be said about the USA. My monthly burn is much higher than $1000 :-( BUT, living in rural Minnesota as I do, it really isn't hard to lower your living cost below $1000 if you want to and are single (When I lived in the city of Minneapolis, my monthly bills including mortgage totalled probably around $1,500). Being American and living here in the US gives me a huge advantage on understanding…

While you could get by making $1000 a month in Minnesota, that isn't sustainable for the long term since you could just go get a programming job where you earn over $1000 a week. If you aren't making $100,000 a year developing your application then you are losing a lot of money once you factor in opportunity cost. Regarding competition from our foreign friends: I think we are both thinking the same way here. Right no…

If you spend one month on an app and make ~8k from it your doing fine. The trick is to only spend ~1month per 8k of profit.

Re: How to price your iPhone app out of existence

#37

Post by markessien »

LPTS wrote: post #35
markessien wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most spelling mistakes don't mean a thing, but when I read people who write 'of' and 'effect', I assume it's because they don't read a lot. It has nothing to do with intelligence.

When i read people who assume intelligence has anything to do with perfectly mimicing others systematically, I assume it's because they read so much they can't think for themselves, and stick so closely to analyzing the text that they don't engage the ideas. People making systematic mistakes is why we don't all speak shakespearian. It's how the DNA of ideas evolves. I'z skateboarden on yur sidewak, levin u behind. Yu…

I don't mind when people use 'u' or I'z, or anything like that. But affect and effect are two different words entirely. People who say 'U' don't mistakenly write 'Me'. It's not a spelling error, it's a meaning error. You mean to say one word, you say another. In my english accent, 'effect' and 'affect' are pronounced completely differently. This may not be the same for you, which is why you make the mistake.

The same with 'of'. You picked another word that means something different and put it in there - you didn't just misspell it.

There is nothing wrong with bad spelling - I'm not very good at spelling either. But it's confusing if you substitute words with other words that mean something different, but in your accent sound the same.

The way I speak, those words don't sound the same, and your sentence becomes very confusing. It's only because I've seen this mistake a few times on the internets that I know what is meant.

Re: How to price your iPhone app out of existence

#38

Post by LPTS »

markessien wrote: post #37
LPTS wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When i read people who assume intelligence has anything to do with perfectly mimicing others systematically, I assume it's because they read so much they can't think for themselves, and stick so closely to analyzing the text that they don't engage the ideas. People making systematic mistakes is why we don't all speak shakespearian. It's how the DNA of ideas evolves. I'z skateboarden on yur sidewak, levin u behind. Yu…

I don't mind when people use 'u' or I'z, or anything like that. But affect and effect are two different words entirely. People who say 'U' don't mistakenly write 'Me'. It's not a spelling error, it's a meaning error. You mean to say one word, you say another. In my english accent, 'effect' and 'affect' are pronounced completely differently. This may not be the same for you, which is why you make the mistake. The same…

if you want to read people with this change in their language, you'll learn to adapt.

When I watch british humor, I don't always get it, but I don't expect them to change to be more like me.

Re: How to price your iPhone app out of existence

#39

Post by markessien »

LPTS wrote: post #38
markessien wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't mind when people use 'u' or I'z, or anything like that. But affect and effect are two different words entirely. People who say 'U' don't mistakenly write 'Me'. It's not a spelling error, it's a meaning error. You mean to say one word, you say another. In my english accent, 'effect' and 'affect' are pronounced completely differently. This may not be the same for you, which is why you make the mistake. The same…

if you want to read people with this change in their language, you'll learn to adapt. When I watch british humor, I don't always get it, but I don't expect them to change to be more like me.

There is a correct way to spell, and there is a wrong way. You, my dear sir, are doing it wrong. Don't expect the world to come round to your way of spelling anytime soon.

Re: How to price your iPhone app out of existence

#40

Post by potatolicious »

cpr wrote: post #25
ajkirwin wrote: post #4

This post seems to gloss over the point about VALUE. Sure, sell your app for $9.99 if you want. But it'd better be worth it. And almost all of the apps ON the app store are little quick pieces of fluff, barely even worth 99 cents. Even the better pieces of software are mostly timesavers or memory aids, games notwithstanding. The problem seems to stem from the fact that there is this expection to spend a few weeks and…

What do you all think of our graphing calculator app, Grafly ( http://grafly.com )? Is it worth $9.99? We think it is, in that there's nothing like it on any other platform at any price. Like all the "please rate my web site" posts, I'm interested in what HN denizens think. Thanks.

I'm sorry to say, but I don't perceive it to be useful at all. I'm probably in your target demographic - college student in engineering, and I have to tell you that anyone who's going to be doing any sort of work with graphing calculators would prefer to buy one than use their iPhone. Here's why:

- Physical buttons: when you're chewing through problems you absolutely MUST have physical buttons with tactile feedback. Like the calculator app on the iPhone (the default one) the buttons are way too small to even begin operating quickly.

- Battery life. My exams are often 3-4 hours long, and an iPhone would not be allowed as a legal calculator. Even if it were, the iPhone would have trouble holding a charge through the entire exam.

I just don't see much of a market for it. At a lower price point maybe - I see this app as being useful for possibly one-off equations, but nobody who needs this sort of software will use this app as their primary graphing calculator.

Now, what I would gladly pay for is a graphing calculator software that comes with a USB keypad. I have my graphing calculator with me always, but sometimes it's slow and the screen sucks. It would be wonderful to have the friendly physical user interface of the calculator and the power of the PC.

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