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Just Landed Is Shutting Down

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Re: Just Landed Is Shutting Down

#21

Post by wehadfun »

zippergz wrote: post #16
BinaryIdiot wrote: post #12

I'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 subsc…

Never used them but https://www.chargify.com/ is supposed to be a service for this. Of course then you run into the disappearing service problem again.

Re: Just Landed Is Shutting Down

#22

Post by markab21 »

grandsham wrote: post #9
markab21 wrote: post #4

Sad to see companies like this go. The founder stated in the article above that the cost of the data being expensive was part of the demise, I wonder if croud-sourced solutions such as https://flightaware.com/commercial/flightxml/ (FlightAware) was ever used. That said any time I walk into an FBO or look on the screens for arriving or departing flights in general aviation, FlightAware data is the only thing I see peo…

Since a screenshot of the Just Landed app shows up in the image carousel on your link, I am assuming that they used FlightAware for their data. FlightAware charges people for API access, and also specifically provides a set of tools for FBOs ( https://flightaware.com/commercial/fbotoolbox ).

Oh cool, thanks for sharing that. I was curious why I kept seeing the same FlightAware page when i land in almost any small airport.

Re: Just Landed Is Shutting Down

#23

Post by swagv »

polpo wrote: post #6

From 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.

I hate it when commercial customers with merchant accounts start using my product

Re: Just Landed Is Shutting Down

#24

Post by markab21 »

wehadfun wrote: post #19

Do you plan to pivot to become one of these airline data brokers?

As much as it might feel like selling out to the founders of this product, providing the tech in white-label or licensing to travel groups such as Kayak for example could of been a way to at least keep the doors open.

Re: Just Landed Is Shutting Down

#25

Post by themodelplumber »

BinaryIdiot wrote: post #12

I'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…

> sunset

They might like that it implies more of a gradation than a binary on/off. A lot of these companies do help people migrate, etc. before going completely offline.

Re: Just Landed Is Shutting Down

#26

Post by Animats »

coldcode wrote: post #5

This cries out for Apple to support update pricing. However the likelihood of that every happening is less than giving the NSA a backdoor. Update pricing would make Apple money (not that it needs it) and change very little but the desire is zippo to bupkis to do it. This would allow smaller companies to survive. Oh well, doubtful it rises to the level of anyone caring.

Can you sell App2016, App2017, etc. and force users to buy a new one each year? Or does Apple prohibit that?

Re: Just Landed Is Shutting Down

#27

Post by nicky0 »

coldcode wrote: post #5

This cries out for Apple to support update pricing. However the likelihood of that every happening is less than giving the NSA a backdoor. Update pricing would make Apple money (not that it needs it) and change very little but the desire is zippo to bupkis to do it. This would allow smaller companies to survive. Oh well, doubtful it rises to the level of anyone caring.

Paid updates would be a disaster. Can you imagine giving every two-bit developer the power to say "this update costs $0.99" and all they did is change the font. Your phone would be a sea of shitty paid updates. Many customers would not update their apps, and the user base would become fragmented. Customers would become wary of buying apps for fear of being ripped off by endless updates.

You may say "ah but the good developers wouldn't do that" but unfortunately someone's always gonna piss in the pool.

The current buy-once model is better. Subscription/IAP model is better for something like this.

Re: Just Landed Is Shutting Down

#28

Post by JimDabell »

zippergz wrote: post #16
BinaryIdiot wrote: post #12

I'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 subsc…

Apple handle recurring billing for iOS applications too.

Re: Just Landed Is Shutting Down

#29

Post by nicky0 »

Animats wrote: post #26
coldcode wrote: post #5

This cries out for Apple to support update pricing. However the likelihood of that every happening is less than giving the NSA a backdoor. Update pricing would make Apple money (not that it needs it) and change very little but the desire is zippo to bupkis to do it. This would allow smaller companies to survive. Oh well, doubtful it rises to the level of anyone caring.

Can you sell App2016, App2017, etc. and force users to buy a new one each year? Or does Apple prohibit that?

Yeah you can. Usually it's "App v2.0" or whatever. Several well known apps have done it. TweetBot comes to mind.

Re: Just Landed Is Shutting Down

#30

Post by manarth »

zippergz wrote: post #16
BinaryIdiot wrote: post #12

I'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 subsc…

Apple supports in-app purchase of subscriptions, so you can still use the standard App-store tools to handle recurring billing.
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