This will be my first shareware app as well as my first Palm shareware. I'm
planning on using PalmGear as my distributor and registrar. My main
question, not being that familiar with the market, is what the best way is
to get a reasonable number of registered users. As I see it, there are three
ways to configure the software:
1) Only one configuration. User downloads fully functional product. Count
on basic honesty that people will eventually register and pay for it.
2) Free download version is fully functional, but with a "nag" screen.
Registered version (or registration code) eliminates this.
3) Free download is time-limited via setting in saved prefs. User can
delete and re-install to get around this, but it is more convenient to just
register.
A 4th way would be to use a different creator ID in the saved prefs so that
the app would only work again after a hard reset, but I would definitely NOT
go that route (if only to avoid a holy-war on the forum :-)).
My application -- a genealogy reference utility -- probably has a somewhat
limited market scope, but I'm only planning on pricing it at $15-20. Can I
expect that most people will register something like this? For myself, any
Palm app that I see for under $20 is a no-brainer for buying, even if I
don't use it much.
-- Doug Gordon
