Pricing a Simple, Useful Desktop App • Hacker News Board

Re: Pricing a Simple, Useful Desktop App

#11

Post by andrewf » Thu, Jun 04, 2009, 2:59 PM UTC

bdfh42 wrote: post #3

I would tend towards the higher price as long as your app is good value. You always have to compete the the "I could write that myself" viewpoint - but make it clear that the $25 will save the customer several hours work and meet their needs and you probably have a sale. Try before you buy is the time honoured way of proving utility and value but that adds the cost of adding security to the app. Perhaps an unconditio…

If the software's any good, cracked warez versions will end up floating about anyway.

Re: Pricing a Simple, Useful Desktop App

#12

Post by cosmo7 » Thu, Jun 04, 2009, 3:00 PM UTC

e4m wrote: post #6

mahmud wrote: post #2

What does it do? What other software does the same thing and why is yours better?

It calculates trajectory, drop, etc of a bullet depending upon caliber, grain, powder, etc. It's command line only. It's windows only. No GUI, but it's very simple to use and accurate. Very useful for folks who reload their own ammunition. Covers all calibers from smallest to largest.

You might get more money from making the application into a web application and getting commission from click-through sales of actual hardware.

Re: Pricing a Simple, Useful Desktop App

#13

Post by stuff4ben » Thu, Jun 04, 2009, 3:00 PM UTC

e4m wrote: post #6

mahmud wrote: post #2

What does it do? What other software does the same thing and why is yours better?

It calculates trajectory, drop, etc of a bullet depending upon caliber, grain, powder, etc. It's command line only. It's windows only. No GUI, but it's very simple to use and accurate. Very useful for folks who reload their own ammunition. Covers all calibers from smallest to largest.

As a general rule, I don't pay for command line utilities. Put a shiny GUI on it and I'd probably reconsider. Plus command line applications are not user friendly (especially Windows based ones) and take more effort to run than a nice clickable icon and GUI. My suggestion, either give it away for free or develop it to a point where you can add a GUI to it (shouldn't be hard with a couple hours of C#) and then charge for it. I wouldn't pay more than a couple dollars for something so basic though. $25 is way too much.

Re: Pricing a Simple, Useful Desktop App

#14

Post by dchest » Thu, Jun 04, 2009, 3:02 PM UTC

[deleted] wrote: post #9

[deleted]

I though it works by charging one customer for three items in one transaction (like iTunes Store). Is it really a single transaction when you charge three different customers?

Re: Pricing a Simple, Useful Desktop App

#15

Post by davidw » Thu, Jun 04, 2009, 3:02 PM UTC

cosmo7 wrote: post #12

e4m wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It calculates trajectory, drop, etc of a bullet depending upon caliber, grain, powder, etc. It's command line only. It's windows only. No GUI, but it's very simple to use and accurate. Very useful for folks who reload their own ammunition. Covers all calibers from smallest to largest.

You might get more money from making the application into a web application and getting commission from click-through sales of actual hardware.

Or you could try both... limit the web version some, and sell the desktop one.

Re: Pricing a Simple, Useful Desktop App

#16

Post by e4m » Thu, Jun 04, 2009, 3:02 PM UTC

davidw wrote: post #10

e4m wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It calculates trajectory, drop, etc of a bullet depending upon caliber, grain, powder, etc. It's command line only. It's windows only. No GUI, but it's very simple to use and accurate. Very useful for folks who reload their own ammunition. Covers all calibers from smallest to largest.

It can't be that hard to slap a GUI on it with something like Tk, and that would probably make it a lot more attractive to people.

It's C++. I do have a GUI written using WXwidgets, but it's only 75% done. I thought I'd try to sell the CLI version first and if it is popular and pays for itself somewhat, then finish the GUI as I could then justify it with the wife.

Re: Pricing a Simple, Useful Desktop App

#17

Post by davidw » Thu, Jun 04, 2009, 3:03 PM UTC

e4m wrote: post #7

torr wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And if there is other software that does what yours does, what is being charged for it?

The wife told me I can't spend any more time working on it, unless I can break even on web hosting, etc. So to clarify. I have to pay for web hosting, bandwidth, storage... as those things cost me money.

> The wife told me I can't spend any more time working on it, unless I can break even on web hosting, etc.

That's not what he asked, though.

Re: Pricing a Simple, Useful Desktop App

#18

Post by davidw » Thu, Jun 04, 2009, 3:05 PM UTC

e4m wrote: post #16

davidw wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It can't be that hard to slap a GUI on it with something like Tk, and that would probably make it a lot more attractive to people.

It's C++. I do have a GUI written using WXwidgets, but it's only 75% done. I thought I'd try to sell the CLI version first and if it is popular and pays for itself somewhat, then finish the GUI as I could then justify it with the wife.

My guess is that it's not so linear - you might not sell any copies at all of a command line thing, and a bunch once you get even a simple GUI on it.

Re: Pricing a Simple, Useful Desktop App

#19

Post by torr » Thu, Jun 04, 2009, 3:07 PM UTC

e4m wrote: post #6

mahmud wrote: post #2

What does it do? What other software does the same thing and why is yours better?

It calculates trajectory, drop, etc of a bullet depending upon caliber, grain, powder, etc. It's command line only. It's windows only. No GUI, but it's very simple to use and accurate. Very useful for folks who reload their own ammunition. Covers all calibers from smallest to largest.

Wrap a GUI around it and package the program as a single executable. I'd suggest $15. Asking for $20 seems like too much (to me), but I've been told that I have bad judgement in such matters. :)

Also, I agree with others that trying to sell a CLI version will probably go nowhere. In fact, it may stifle adoption after you switch to the GUI version (since prospective users might think "Oh, that's that terminal program, right? Yuck!").

Re: Pricing a Simple, Useful Desktop App

#20

Post by mahmud » Thu, Jun 04, 2009, 3:11 PM UTC

e4m wrote: post #6

mahmud wrote: post #2

What does it do? What other software does the same thing and why is yours better?

It calculates trajectory, drop, etc of a bullet depending upon caliber, grain, powder, etc. It's command line only. It's windows only. No GUI, but it's very simple to use and accurate. Very useful for folks who reload their own ammunition. Covers all calibers from smallest to largest.

You can get a 50k GUI with FLTK in less than half an hour, and it compiles to a static binary. The API is at about the same "complexity" as Tk and the bloody thing is in C++.

Get Dev-Cpp; click Tools -> Check for Updates -> [scroll around to find a recent FLTK devpak -> Select -> Download.

Restart FLTK and New -> Project -> GUI -> FLTK.

Get it done!