On Tue, Mar 16, 2010 at 11:20 AM, Brian Conrad <[email protected]>wrote:
> What is ridiculous is that they are upset about a paid version that costs > about the price of a fast food snack. The world is truly getting weird. As a developer, I, of course, agree with you. It's unbelievable how much people will complain about forking over $0.99. However, using your example, consider that you can't get a "free version" of a fast food snack - your only (legal) option is to pay for it, so that's what the user expects. In contrast, the vast majority of apps are fee so the users sees any monetary investment, even as little as $0.99, as "a lot" compared to free - especially after they've been enjoying the app for free for a long time. If all apps were paid it would be a whole different story. On Tue, Mar 16, 2010 at 11:45 AM, westmeadboy <[email protected]> wrote: > However, I would say that introducing ads into a previously ad-free > app is different because that decreases the quality of the app to some > extent (depending on how the ads are displayed). > Agreed - I just mentioned that as an example of why people "revolt" in the ratings. One of the more common approaches I've read about concerning free/pro > strategy is to first release a free version, build up a good user base > and then, when the time is right, release a pro version. Which is what > I did. But, yes, point taken about expectations so maybe a better > strategy is a simultaneous release of free app & paid app. One > disadvantage of this is you might not want to reveal pro-features too > early because it gives others a chance to copy your ideas before you > get established. > I guess this depends on your app and how much competition you have, though I didn't even consider this when releasing my app. I can see the argument to building the user base, but if you were planning on a full version, perhaps making this clear in the free version early on would have helped? Something to think about going forward. On Tue, Mar 16, 2010 at 11:55 AM, Maps.Huge.Info (Maps API Guru) < [email protected]> wrote: > On the other hand, there will always be disgruntled users. Many expect > everything to not only be free but also free of ads. I wonder how they > think we as developers plan on earning back the 100's of hours of > study and development time invested in the apps if we have no method > of monetizing them? This seems obvious to us, but a lot of people simply don't realize what we go through to put these apps out. They just see "an app" that came from "somewhere" and don't make the connection of what went into making it. The other problem is that we have big companies like Google, PayPal, and Amazon, to name a few, that can afford to put out high-quality, ad-free free apps, which again sets a high expectation for users. For us "regular" folk working independently, I think the best thing to do is to put a "face" to your app - let your users know there is a real person working diligently behind the scenes and that we need SOME reward for all the hard work it takes to put the app together. You'd be surprised how many people are happy to pay for your app once they realize what it takes to make it. > I'm in the exact same boat right now with my > "Radar Now!" app which is free and currently has no ads. > > I'm planning on adding ads in the near future and also a "pro" version > that won't have ads and will have more features. I'm sure many of my > current users (numbering over 140,000) are going to scream bloody > murder when I do this, but the alternative is to simply stop > supporting the app and turn off the expensive server that powers it. > > What's one to do? At the very least, give your users fair warning WAY in advance. Let them know that you HAVE to add ads to offset your servers costs or you'd have to disable the app completely, which is completely understandable. There will still be dick-wads that complain, but far fewer than if you just threw them in without warning or explanation. If you do the latter then people will be taken by surprise and assume you're being "greedy" or trying to hamper the app to force the paid version on them, which will piss them off and they'll just rate you down and probably never buy the paid version simply out of spite. Give them fair warning and they'll appreciate the consideration and are probably more likely to get the paid version to support you and the service. Good luck, hope it works out for you. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- TreKing - Chicago transit tracking app for Android-powered devices http://sites.google.com/site/rezmobileapps/treking -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Android Discuss" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/android-discuss?hl=en.
