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We're not paying enough for apps

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Re: We're not paying enough for apps

#81

Post by bartelsmedia »

eftpotrm wrote: post #50

I confess I actually sympathise with him. At the core his point strikes me as inane - that he won't spend a tiny fraction of the cost of his other equipment to solve a problem, that he clearly underprices his time - but still, the pricing strategy here sounds flawed. I use Synergy, too; I'm all Windows so Mac-compatibility isn't an issue, but it's a nice program. Note nice though. Not deal-breaker , not revolutionary…

> $25/machine is enough to make people think and you're suddenly out of impulse.

And this is ABSOLUTELY intentional.

We do NOT want impulse purchases. We don't believe that it is ethical to lure/seduce users to rush to their credit cards.

We don't believe that it is for any good if people buy something and then perhaps realize that they don't need it, are not able to use it properly and waste everybody's time in support and finally perhaps request a refund and are left with an unhappy experience.

No thanks.

We rather want users to be convinced. The software itself shall stand out and trigger the purchase decision. Not the price tag and not any sales tactics.

I believe, that there are cultural differences between the US and Europe regarding sales approaches but we are just fine with that.

Try the software. Become confident with it. Check prices. Review your options. Try other programs. Be back and we welcome you.

Re: We're not paying enough for apps

#82

Post by alvarosm »

About mobile apps: Apple and Google have encouraged everyone to expect practically free apps and to develop apps practically for free. They, together with the phone manufacturers and carriers, get the money and the market share. The developers put half the value or more of ios and android, but they get practically nothing in return. And this will only work even better as more and more people get smartphones, thus increasing developer revenue somewhat, so developers will be even more pleased than they're now. The truth is developers are getting screwed and smiling about it.

Re: We're not paying enough for apps

#83

Post by bartelsmedia »

icebraining wrote: post #68
jwr wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's cool, but it's another thing one has to do beyond cmd-C. Why not just have a proper shared clipboard plus keyboard/mouse sharing in a multi-computer, multi-monitor setup?

Automatic keyboard sharing is just a small step away from that, but that seems really annoying to me. I'd rather control when I want to share. Why not just have a proper shared clipboard plus keyboard/mouse sharing in a multi-computer, multi-monitor setup? Because if you don't need keyboard/mouse sharing that's just bloat running on your machine, because you become dependent on yet another utility that may be discont…

> can I share only on demand?

Yes, you can.

> less portable

There is a portable option

> and it costs $50 that would be better spent on blackjack

Oh, we should always listen to such kind of advisers.

Re: We're not paying enough for apps

#84

Post by Shivetya »

wallflower wrote: post #7
underwater wrote: post #2

He says he wants and needs the app, it's worth the money but he still didn't pay? That's not a very convincing argument. On the developer side pricing this kind of consumer software per-device seems like poor marketing. It's unnecessarily reminding every potential customer about incremental cost. It also anchors the price incorrectly: "this software is worth $24.95, but you'll need to pay $49.90 to use it." An unlimi…

I work at a software company. One of my friends there adamantly refuses to pay for software (he is still waiting for a proper unlock for the iPhone 4S). Talking with him about paying for software (yes, reminding him that his salary comes from people paying for software) reminds me of talking with my Republican-to-the-core friend about Global Warming. He just refuses to budge on his "values". I remember once doing a c…

So you have a friend who is adamant about not paying for software yet has iPhone? It would seem his priorities are bit odd.

Re: We're not paying enough for apps

#86

Post by jacquesm »

Vivtek wrote: post #58
jacquesm wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The decision to sign up for an obligation of $4000 was yours, not your neighbors. He gave you $10, which is $10 more than he was obliged to give you. Just like in any MLM scheme your ability to 'work' the people close to you is what allowed you to sign up for the program in the first place. It is almost as though you felt that your neighbor was obliged to give you a certain amount based on your perception of your rel…

Jacques, it sounds like wallflower already knows all that. The issue is the emotional impact it had (which is in the past), not that wallflower still resents the neighbor. And that money is weird, on an emotional level. Which it is . (Not that anything you said here is wrong.)

He wrote:

> "let me explain the complete context of why $10 was not a generous donation:"

and

> "I thought I had a good relationship with him".

Which I took to mean he still sees it very much that way today.

The whole idea that somehow your friendship status should translate into an obligation to write a check for a minimum of 'x' for a charity that you pick is very strange to me.

As if you can put a price on friendship that way, and as if the 'interesting conversations about life' suddenly were not good or worthless by the act of giving an amount that was deemed too low.

Re: We're not paying enough for apps

#87

Post by carsongross »

100% agreement. From my experience:

Low priced apps imply loads of users to make money.

The people whose price sensitivity falls close to your low price are more likely to be cheapskates or find your software marginally useful. They are far more likely to complain and require support.

God forbid you are selling at a one-time-fee (which is why I think the current mobile development land-grab will flame out and transform into services-on-your-phone). You are going to be expected to provide support forever, at the drop of a hat, for any version of your application. Figure out a way to get recurring.

If you go cheap/free, you monetize with ads (often ineffective and always annoying to your users) or by spying on your users. I doubt many of us want to do the latter (Although, sadly, enough of us might to knock out the ones who don't. Race to the bottom!)

I now want to pay good money for the apps I use: I want the developer(s) to eat and drive nice cars. I want them around and in the game for bugs, integration changes and general support. I want them to not feel any pressure to jam new features in just to get another rev out the door for the upgrade money. Effectively, I want to pay them a lot of money for their software, because it is often incredibly valuable to me, I just want to do it on a payment plan where I can opt out if I no longer find the software useful.

I think that model, in most cases, leads to better software than either the open source model, the one-time-fee model and the freemium model.

Re: We're not paying enough for apps

#88

Post by DanielBMarkham »

We varied the price of one of our products. What we saw was that pricing was perfectly elastic. In other words, our gross revenue would remain constant...There's no way to use price to increase or decrease the size of your business.

I really wanted to say something pithy and wise here, but this subject truly confounds me. I have many types of product out there: websites, apps, and e-books. I charge nothing for websites, nothing for apps, and a good bit for my e-books.

I have to say as a content producer, I'm much happier selling ten copies of my book about being a ScrumMaster for fifty bucks each (shameless plug: http://tiny-giant-books.com/scrummaster.htm ) than I am having 20K people visit my wife's recipe site each month where I might make 40 bucks from ads. (http://hamburger-casserole-recipes.com/) Of course, she feels much differently about this!

I've been reading about startups and pricing for some time. It's my conclusion, for what it's worth, that you have to experiment and figure out this stuff as you go along. It wouldn't surprise me if different people with the same kinds of content have completely different pricing models. Looks to me like the pricing model is based more on how the usage scenario fits into a particular user demographic than the type of product you are selling (apps, content, books, services, etc.) The average usage scenario of a technical person wanting greater efficiency from his expensive set of computers is completely different than somebody looking for a list of instructions on how to prepare tater tot casserole. Or somebody wanting to share a random 140-character quip.

Re: We're not paying enough for apps

#90

Post by mindslight »

jwr wrote: post #49
icebraining wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can't count the number of times I had to copy a URL into a file on Dropbox, or Notational Velocity, just to be able to paste it into an E-mail being written on my laptop right next to my main machine. Why? ssh othermachine 'pbpaste' | pbcopy Bind that to a launcher and/or key shortcut. Instant shared clipboard!

It's cool, but it's another thing one has to do beyond cmd-C. Why not just have a proper shared clipboard plus keyboard/mouse sharing in a multi-computer, multi-monitor setup?

    ssh othermachine x2x -to :0 -east
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