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Why Instapaper Free is taking an extended vacation

marco.org

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Re: Why Instapaper Free is taking an extended vacation

#91

Post by flyosity »

jammur wrote: post #77
jrockway wrote: post #20

How does he know nobody will buy the Android app? I barely use any free apps other than the ones that come with Cyanogen Mod. Titanium Backup? Paid. ROM Manager? Paid. Treking? Paid. Android IRC? Paid. X-Plane? Paid. Android users have no problems paying for apps. Non-Android developers are afraid of the unknown.

The market data suggest that you're mistaken. In 2010, the App Store took in almost 20 times the revenue that the Android Market took in. $1.7 billion for the App Store, compared to $102 million for Android Market. Considering where Android market share stands relative to iOS, this means that iOS users are absolutely more willing to spend money on apps. That's obviously not the case for every Android user, but the re…

As an iOS developer, I can't stress how important this metric is. I don't care if Android gets 70%, 80%, 95% marketshare if the App Store is generating way, WAY more money for developers.

Re: Why Instapaper Free is taking an extended vacation

#92

Post by flyosity »

xinsight wrote: post #70
jokermatt999 wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What app? How well known is it? What is your competition on both platforms? Have you marketed the Android version as much as the iOS version?

It's called GoSwedish - a friendly introduction to learning Swedish. http://xinsight.ca/goswedish/ Findability within the Market might also be a factor. A search for "swedish" in the App Store, and it's on the first screen. But it's quite a long scroll down on the Android Market.

This is the testament to the reach of the App Store. Your app is targeting an incredibly small, niche market, and you're still selling hundreds of copies.

Re: Why Instapaper Free is taking an extended vacation

#93

Post by stevestreza »

xinsight wrote: post #70
jokermatt999 wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What app? How well known is it? What is your competition on both platforms? Have you marketed the Android version as much as the iOS version?

It's called GoSwedish - a friendly introduction to learning Swedish. http://xinsight.ca/goswedish/ Findability within the Market might also be a factor. A search for "swedish" in the App Store, and it's on the first screen. But it's quite a long scroll down on the Android Market.

Sounds like it was the primary reason you had low sales. Without similar placement in the Android Market, you really can't claim that one market was more successful than the other purely on its own merits.

Re: Why Instapaper Free is taking an extended vacation

#94

Post by haribilalic »

chewbranca wrote: post #82
jrockway wrote: post #20

How does he know nobody will buy the Android app? I barely use any free apps other than the ones that come with Cyanogen Mod. Titanium Backup? Paid. ROM Manager? Paid. Treking? Paid. Android IRC? Paid. X-Plane? Paid. Android users have no problems paying for apps. Non-Android developers are afraid of the unknown.

I'm sad to hear his attitude towards android, I've been anxiously waiting for an android version of the app, and have been holding off on becoming a subscriber until he moved in the android direction. Knowing this, I will sign up as a subscriber to show my appreciation for the ability to export to kindle format, which has been great for me, but unfortunately it means instapaper is no longer a candidate for a long ter…

Instapaper has an API. There are at least five third-party Instapaper clients for Android available in the Marketplace. http://www.quora.com/Whats-the-best-client-for-Instapaper-on...

Re: Why Instapaper Free is taking an extended vacation

#95

Post by haribilalic »

hullo wrote: post #34
jfruh wrote: post #29

I totally get Marco's decision to go with a paid version of his app. Of course, he doesn't provide an option for publishers to opt out of providing free versions of their content, which is what they're doing when Instapaper strips all the ads off of them.

He actually does: http://www.instapaper.com/publishers

He also does through Readability (http://www.readability.com/). He's an advisor to Readability, Readability's iOS apps are based on the Instapaper iOS apps and Instapaper can be linked with Readability to provide Instapaper activity to Readability so that publishers can be paid. http://www.marco.org/2011/02/01/readabilitys-new-service

Re: Why Instapaper Free is taking an extended vacation

#96

Post by jcampbell1 »

prawn wrote: post #90
jcampbell1 wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The best way to deal with pathological customers is to ignore them, not to let them drive your decisions. Though, I have to admit, I sometimes enjoy enraging pathological customers. On the phone, I have told them they are fired, and not welcome to come back to my website ever again. I sometimes pretend to be a nearly deaf old man when dealing with their complaints. It makes my day when a pathological customer calls n…

"not to let them drive your decisions" That's possible, but they will be a factor in your business if they are unfairly slamming you in reviews.

You are right. But keep in mind, those pathological customers are everywhere. Reviews are a big factor when deciding between competitive products, and your competitors will face the same pathological customers.

ReadItLater's free version is rated 1 star less than the pro version. All of the 1 star reviewers appear to be worth ignoring.

I'd install something like appirater to try to drown out the morons, and boost ratings. https://github.com/arashpayan/appirater/

Re: Why Instapaper Free is taking an extended vacation

#97

Post by orangecat »

jammur wrote: post #77
jrockway wrote: post #20

How does he know nobody will buy the Android app? I barely use any free apps other than the ones that come with Cyanogen Mod. Titanium Backup? Paid. ROM Manager? Paid. Treking? Paid. Android IRC? Paid. X-Plane? Paid. Android users have no problems paying for apps. Non-Android developers are afraid of the unknown.

The market data suggest that you're mistaken. In 2010, the App Store took in almost 20 times the revenue that the Android Market took in. $1.7 billion for the App Store, compared to $102 million for Android Market. Considering where Android market share stands relative to iOS, this means that iOS users are absolutely more willing to spend money on apps. That's obviously not the case for every Android user, but the re…

In 2010, the App Store took in almost 20 times the revenue that the Android Market took in.

That's less extreme than it sounds for several reasons:

- Android's market share was tiny for the beginning of 2010. It didn't start taking off until mid-year with the EVO, Droid X, Galaxy, Desire, etc.

- There were way more paid apps for iOS than Android in 2010.

- Android apps more commonly use ads than iOS apps, which isn't captured in app store revenue.

I'd still expect that the median iOS app makes more than the median Android app today, but the difference should be much less than 20x.

Re: Why Instapaper Free is taking an extended vacation

#98

Post by awj »

dpcan wrote: post #10

"Maybe you think I can only do this because Instapaper is already popular. But it built its popularity while charging a lot for an iPhone app from the start." AND there was a free version out. He's neglecting the "critical mass" factor. The free version helped him sell the full version until it reached that "critical mass" that was required for the popularity of the full version to continue to drive sales of itself.…

> The free version helped him sell the full version until it reached that "critical mass" that was required for the popularity of the full version to continue to drive sales of itself.

From the investigating he did it didn't look like the free version drove the paid one. Evidently very few people signed up on the free app and later showed up on the paid one.

Re: Why Instapaper Free is taking an extended vacation

#99

Post by tjogin »

zheng wrote: post #84
joegester wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The time-limited demo idea is forbidden by Apple's TOS.

Does anyone know why? That seems fairly petty and arbitrary.

I'd assume it's got something to do with user satisfaction. Users hate when things are taken away from them.

Re: Why Instapaper Free is taking an extended vacation

#100

Post by rubergly »

awj wrote: post #98
dpcan wrote: post #10

"Maybe you think I can only do this because Instapaper is already popular. But it built its popularity while charging a lot for an iPhone app from the start." AND there was a free version out. He's neglecting the "critical mass" factor. The free version helped him sell the full version until it reached that "critical mass" that was required for the popularity of the full version to continue to drive sales of itself.…

> The free version helped him sell the full version until it reached that "critical mass" that was required for the popularity of the full version to continue to drive sales of itself. From the investigating he did it didn't look like the free version drove the paid one. Evidently very few people signed up on the free app and later showed up on the paid one.

This isn't the right conclusion to draw from his investigating. All he showed was that, as you said, few people upgraded from the free app to the paid one. This does not necessarily mean that the free app did not significantly help the paid app sell. Maybe it was fairly common for one geek to buy the app, show it to his friends, who would then try it because there was a free version and not ultimately ever buy the paid version, but still talk about the app and introduce it to people who did buy the app. There are uncountably many other situations like this that could have happened and caused the presence of a free app to have helped the paid app; this is very far from a controlled experiment.
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