Kyle;627263 Wrote:
> Unfortunately for the third-party developers, $10 is a pretty
> significant price point in the app world, and I fear there are many who
> will balk at it when there is a free, albeit vastly inferior,
> alternative.
>
Yea, the app world pricing doesn't really work for niche markets, the
current pricing on most apps are set based on the fact that there are a
lot of iOS devices out there. Unfortunately pretty few of these iOS
devices are owned by a user that also have a Squeezebox.
Kyle;627263 Wrote:
>
> In taking the Squeezebox from a niche to a mass-market item, Logitech
> is destroying the spirit on which this product was built and which
> produced the majority of the early plugins that made the SB what it is
> today. Remember, however, that those plugins were generally offered to
> our little community free of charge or at most a voluntary donation.
>
Regarding donations, you can't live on it in an niche market, I know
this from my own experience. Donations works to keep the interest up
and get some extra toy or a free burger now and then but it won't give
you food on the table on daily basis, the market is too small for that
since you only get donations from the enthusiasts. I would never be
here by now if I did third party development for the money, I suspect
the main reason plugin/applet developers are still contributing free
plugins/applets are to:
1. Solve a problem the developer have in his/hers own setup.
2. Because it feels like they are part of something bigger (this isn't
really the case anymore but it were back in the SlimDevices days)
3. Make people happy and get appreciation through donations and
friendly words from community members.
I suspect the Android/iOS market related to Squeezebox in many ways
works the same as the previously used donation concept, the difference
is just that AppStore/Android Market offers a possibility to get an
income not just from enthusiasts but also from a few normal users. I
can't say for sure, but I'm pretty sure people like pippin, bluegaspode
and flattermann could have earned a lot more by spending their
development skills/time on non Squeezebox projects, they probably do
this mainly because they want to solve their own music system problems
and because it's nice to get appreciation from users using their apps.
The economical aspects just makes it a bit more interesting since it's
not completely wasted time.
Kyle;627263 Wrote:
>
> I don't dissuade Pippin and others from trying to get as much as they
> can for their hard work, but in the app world, $10 is a hefty price,
> and I fear that with a free alternative now available the third-party
> developers will be forced to reduce their price or become victims of
> the SB evolution to a mass product.
>
I don't think reducing the price is an option, I've pretty sure
lowering the price to $5 won't duplicate the number of sold apps.
The enthusiasts are still going to get the third party offerings at $10
or even higher prices.
The users that want a free app are going to get that even if there is a
$5 third party offering, if there is a $2 third party offering some
might decide to try it but I'm pretty sure lowering the price to $2
won't result in 5 times the current number of sold apps.
If they want to do something with the pricing, they need to find a way
where they can charge the enthusiast $10 (most are easily willing to
pay even more) and still have a $2 option which is worth to get for the
normal users which else would have gotten the free app but still isn't
interesting for the enthusiasts. The question is just how to do this
without having to do a lot of new development for the $10 option.
--
erland
Erland Isaksson ('My homepage' (http://erland.isaksson.info))
(Developer of 'many plugins/applets'
(http://wiki.slimdevices.com/index.php/User:Erland). If my answer
helped you and you like to encourage future presence on this forum
and/or third party plugin/applet development, 'donations are always
appreciated' (http://erland.isaksson.info/donate))
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View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=87212
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