Thanks for your feedback regarding Earl. It's always nice to hear what people like about Earl but your constructive feedback is also appreciated.
When we developed Earl, we chose a different focus than NFB did with Newsline. To be sure, Newsline provides a good service for people who are comfortable learning the voice over interface and satisfied with its standard voices. In contrast, we built Earl to be fully accessible without requiring someone to learn or use voice over, and to give the user a much simpler and higher quality reading experience. . Achieving this involved a significant investment of time and money, and maintaining the Earl Service requires substantial ongoing costs. As a business, we have to cover these costs, particularly the substantial ongoing costs of providing Earl's quality voice interface and text to speech voices. As a regular for profit business, we do not receive income from nonprofit sources such as grants or contributions. We have also opted to provide a clean uncluttered reading experience for our customers by keeping Earl free of any in-app advertising for the time being. Without such alternative sources of revenue, we must rely on income from subscriptions in order to cover our ongoing business expenses. Please understand that we have not artificially inflated our pricing at all. I'm sorry to hear that there is some discomfort with our subscription cost but I am glad to hear that most people like what we've done with Earl. Again, thank you for your helpful feedback. If you have any questions, need support, or have additional feedback for us please drop us a note at [email protected]. Best, Bill p.s. Right now, we are exploring some enhancements which would substantially expand the types of content users could read with Earl through our service. Keep an eye out for new updates to Earl in coming months. -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of David Chittenden Sent: Friday, April 12, 2013 5:31 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: Earl app subscription fees You are correct. Whenever possible, I choose to pay the general market price for an accessible app rather than the higher price for an app specifically for the blind. I do the same with technology, hence my switch from Windows to the Mac in 2011. I choose to support general market accessibility over specialised access when available. Overall, I find general market companies more willing to add accessibility compared with blindness-related companies increasing their scope toward the general market. There are exceptions, of course, and I try and support the exceptions when possible. David Chittenden, MSc, MRCAA Email: [email protected] Mobile: +64 21 2288 288 Sent from my iPhone On 12/04/2013, at 21:58, Peter Durieux <[email protected]> wrote: > Hi David and listers, > > Just a quick remark. Don't forget that development costs a lot. > If the market isn't that big, they need a bit higher price to get brake even. > I can't understand that people find 20$ for a specialized app to expensive. > Remember those days that we paid more then $1000 for our apps. > > Just my 2 cents. > > Kind regards, > > -Peter > Op 11-apr.-2013, om 23:49 heeft David Chittenden <[email protected]> het volgende geschreven: > >> I would actually say, these fees are quite high. I can find general market targeted apps that provide similar content for significantly less money per month or year. >> >> As for the nature of fees, most companies that target their apps specifically toward the blind charge significantly more, either in upfront app cost, or in access fees. >> >> One example is Look Around vs its general market competitors. Look Around is $4.99. Its three main competitors which I have are Around Me (free), LocalScope (I don't remember what I paid, if anything, but no more than $1.99), and Where To (which is $2.99). Look Around announces the name of the nearest intersection and has a shake to announce feature. It also has significantly fewer POI in its database, and only works in a few countries. That said, to many people, it is preferable because it is specifically targeted toward the blind. >> >> Another example is Access Note. This app costs $20. It has a few features that most other note taking apps do not have, is targeted toward the very small market of the blind, and is 10 times more expensive than most of its rivals. The rivals, incidentally, access more file types and have more features, but do not provide specialised braille support or track the location of the reading cursor when the app is closed. >> >> Being a tiny market, as a general rule, we will get higher prices for specialised apps that are targeted specifically toward the blind. >> >> David Chittenden, MSc, MRCAA >> Email: [email protected] >> Mobile: +64 21 2288 288 >> Sent from my iPhone >> >> On 12/04/2013, at 5:18, Eileens Misrahi <[email protected]> wrote: >> >>> Hello Folks, >>> >>> I just installed the app. I was enjoying it until I heard that I maxed out on the 3 articles that I could read for day. The next prompt offered for me to subscribe to Earl services. I was extremely surprised when I saw the monthly and the yearly subscription fees. I guess I will have to be more selective on the 3 articles I choose each day. These fees are exorbitant for those who are visually impaired or blind. JMO. >>> >>> Thanks for listening. >>> >>> Best, >>> Eileen >>> >>> >>> Sent from my iPhone >>> >>> -- >>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the "VIPhone" Google Group. >>> To search the VIPhone public archive, visit http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/. >>> 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/viphone?hl=en. >>> --- >>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "VIPhone" group. >>> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. >>> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out. >>> >>> >> >> -- >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the "VIPhone" Google Group. >> To search the VIPhone public archive, visit http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/. >> 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/viphone?hl=en. >> --- >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "VIPhone" group. >> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. >> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out. >> >> > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the "VIPhone" Google Group. > To search the VIPhone public archive, visit http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/. > 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/viphone?hl=en. > --- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "VIPhone" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out. > > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the "VIPhone" Google Group. To search the VIPhone public archive, visit http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/. 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/viphone?hl=en. --- You received this message because you are subscribed to a topic in the Google Groups "VIPhone" group. To unsubscribe from this topic, visit https://groups.google.com/d/topic/viphone/WuEU9Q20aRc/unsubscribe?hl=en-US. To unsubscribe from this group and all its topics, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the "VIPhone" Google Group. To search the VIPhone public archive, visit http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/. 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/viphone?hl=en. --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "VIPhone" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
