I would have just charged more money for the business users, and make more revenue. But then again, it's probably one of many little things that ultimately led to this decision.
Just Landed Is Shutting Down
11–20 of 144 posts
Re: Just Landed Is Shutting Down
#12I'm always curious why companies like this one choose to charge for their app as a one time fee when, to support the app, they have to subscribe to data feeds which cost money per month. I feel like you have to have a subscription model for that unless the price per month is just so low that, with a small amount of volume, you can easily make up for it.
Either way always an interesting write-up. I do find it odd that so many in SV use the term "sunset" when their company is shutting down. Seems like a weird spin.
Re: Just Landed Is Shutting Down
#13I know there's a big push against Not-Invented-Here-Syndrome, but he makes a good point about how a lot of small apps and websites depend on services that drastically change or disappear over the course of a few years. I wonder if in some cases it's better to simply develop an in-house solution for a service — it may be more expensive and less refined, but at least you know that service will be there as long as your…
Given the description he listed, it'd be notably more expensive (contracts with various sources), presumably something that only is cost effective with a larger set of customers.
Re: Just Landed Is Shutting Down
#14I know there's a big push against Not-Invented-Here-Syndrome, but he makes a good point about how a lot of small apps and websites depend on services that drastically change or disappear over the course of a few years. I wonder if in some cases it's better to simply develop an in-house solution for a service — it may be more expensive and less refined, but at least you know that service will be there as long as your…
I feel like it's worth distinguishing between "not invented here" and "not hosted here" or whatever you want to call it. With other people's code, at least you have the option of making your own fork. With other people's services, the worst case scenario is much worse.
Re: Just Landed Is Shutting Down
#15Tangential, but the flawed "android rampant piracy" article made an appearance here again.
It's flawed because as an app developer, you don't have a way to tell if the app hitting your servers is legitimate or not. Just counting:
(sold copies) - (unique hits on our server) = pirated copies
What about reinstalls? What about developers/tinkerers who are probably flattening their devices on a regular basis? What about one person with multiple devices?
Re: Just Landed Is Shutting Down
#16I'm always curious why companies like this one choose to charge for their app as a one time fee when, to support the app, they have to subscribe to data feeds which cost money per month. I feel like you have to have a subscription model for that unless the price per month is just so low that, with a small amount of volume, you can easily make up for it. Either way always an interesting write-up. I do find it odd that…
From a purely practical standpoint, it's easier to charge for the app and let Apple do the billing and payment processing, than to set up a system to handle recurring billing (and then you need to deal with cancelations, chargebacks, etc.). I've gone through this thought process for a few side projects, and unless I anticipate really large MRR, it's hard to convince myself to go through the hassle of setting up subscriptions.
Re: Just Landed Is Shutting Down
#17I know there's a big push against Not-Invented-Here-Syndrome, but he makes a good point about how a lot of small apps and websites depend on services that drastically change or disappear over the course of a few years. I wonder if in some cases it's better to simply develop an in-house solution for a service — it may be more expensive and less refined, but at least you know that service will be there as long as your…
Well StackMob shut down, and Bing Maps are getting more and more expensive... while it's not that difficult to replace a BaaS, it's another matter for map services. And it's going to get more expensive no question.
The time of the freebies for web-development is going to be over soon . I wouldn't trust any service, from Github to google API A or B, to remain free for ever. Especially Github which is moving to "enterprise" at a fast pace. As for PaaS or Saas, given how many businesses closed last year, the remaining offers will certainly get more expensive and any free tier discarded.
But the initial issue is certainly the business model. If you can't even pay for hosting anymore, you need to raise prices. A one time buy wasn't going to cover all the author's expenses.
Re: Just Landed Is Shutting Down
#18From the article: While the app was initially used primarily by individuals who made a few airport pickups per year, today Just Landed is increasingly used by professional limousine and taxi drivers, airline professionals, and travel companies. So they were seeing increasing use by commercial users. Sounds like a ripe opportunity to start charging for such access.
No kidding, this was the weirdest shutdown statement I've read in a while, "we found users who derive commercial benefit from using us... so we're shutting down"
Re: Just Landed Is Shutting Down
#19Do you plan to pivot to become one of these airline data brokers?
Re: Just Landed Is Shutting Down
#20From the article: While the app was initially used primarily by individuals who made a few airport pickups per year, today Just Landed is increasingly used by professional limousine and taxi drivers, airline professionals, and travel companies. So they were seeing increasing use by commercial users. Sounds like a ripe opportunity to start charging for such access.
And then watch someone else launch a free version 3 weeks later...