Nathan, Appreciate the feedback. I ended up putting out a different application and while I hate to lose the reviews, rating, and placement in the Market, I also feel it was the right way to go. I did update the 2010 edition to free and updated the description to point users to the 2011 edition. After a short period of time, I'll remove that app from the Market as to not cause any confusion -- well before August and the crush of people going to download their app for season.
I did notice that just over 1,000 people still had the 2010 edition installed, so what I ended up doing is updating the 2010 edition one final time with a message that displays when you open it thanking users for their support, mentioning the 2011 edition being available, and a button that takes them directly to the new app in the Market. I've already seen some conversions from that approach and I suspect more will happen as more and more of those 1,000 people update their 2010 app. I'll definitely think about an opt-in newsletter for 2011 as that would likely even help more on a conversion for 2012. Also to note, I figured making the app free might even encourage users to download who looked at my app in 2010 but didn't want to pay for it. They won't get the service for 2011, but they'll see what the app has in it for 2010 and potentially buy for 2011. What I also anticipated is getting the "well I bought the app last year, why should I have to pay again?" emails and I've already gotten one. That's another topic I suspect I'll be dealing with for much of this summer and early fall. :) -- Chris Stewart http://chriswstewart.com On Thu, Mar 3, 2011 at 1:55 PM, Nathan <critter...@crittermap.com> wrote: > I don't see any compelling reason to use in-app purchases in this > scenario. If the season's over, the app is probably uninstalled for > that subset of users who know how to uninstall and forgotten for the > rest. > > Bringing out Fantasy Football app 2011 sounds like the right approach. > I wouldn't change your last app to free, just clearly label it 2010 > and mention the more awesome 2011 app is available now. In fact, you > should probably just raise the price to $2010 as a tax on those who > don't read the title or description. Changing it to free will just > encourage more people to download it without reading the description, > and then commenting that the app is out of date, 1 star. > > Hopefully, you have an optin newsletter for your current users, so you > can announce the new version and encourage them to comment on the 2010 > version saying 'This is awesome, but the 2011 one is even better!' > > Nathan > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google > Groups "Android Developers" group. > To post to this group, send email to android-developers@googlegroups.com > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > android-developers+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/android-developers?hl=en > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Android Developers" group. To post to this group, send email to android-developers@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to android-developers+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/android-developers?hl=en
