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> Why can't people just build products and ask for money upfront? Because not enough users are willing to pay. The few which would pay won't even cover the inc
by tobltobs 10y ago
> Why can't people just build products and ask for money upfront?
Because not enough users are willing to pay. The few which would pay won't even cover the increased support effort.
But anyway if you come so far to learn this you already have been kind of successful, because usually it is impossible to get enough attention for your paid app anyway.
- tptacek 10y agoThey're not willing to pay and further not willing to pay enough. People have a hard time intuiting opportunity cost, so they don't see that a person capable of building a truly useful note-taking application has 10 more lucrative opportunities bidding on their time.
- et-al 10y agoFollowing up with this: 15-20 years ago, one would pay $40-60 for programs on your computer. Now, people gawk at even paying $4.99 for a mobile app.
- candiodari 10y agoThat's partly because it seems that the odds of ad shenanigans, abandonment and selling user data seems to increase with the price, rather than decrease.
- vacri 10y agoPeople aren't conditioned to pay single-digit-dollars-if-that because of app-side shennanigans. They've been conditioned to pay that because of the vast array of free stuff out there. The difference between 'free' and 'a few dollars' is only a few dollars. The difference between 'free' and 'fifty dollars' is quite a bit.
- tobltobs 10y agoIs there any (non anecdotal) evidence for your bold theory?
- jakobegger 10y agoPeople still pay $40-60 for programs on their computer. Source: I sell a program for $40.
- girvo 10y agoAnd thank you for it! Postico is phenomenal, and so worth the $40 I paid :)
- notzorbo3 10y agoPersonally, mobile apps are worth a lot less to me because basically everything on mobile is an "extra" on top of my normal PC. I can't get any meaningful work done on a mobile phone, so why invest money in apps on it? Especially since there are generally free versions available that are good enough. The only app which I ever paid money for is Locus Map pro, which happens to be an app that only really makes sense to have on mobile.
- Nition 10y agoSome of the best apps I use are one-off payments. Rainlendar Pro which I've been using for years. FreeFileSync which is donationware. I totally agree that when there's a free version and a paid/donation version hardly anyone is actually willing to pay though. The pay-once model is really good for the consumer... until the company goes out of business because they're not making any money. Which is why I also buy products that don't require an ongoing service!
- tomaskafka 10y agoAre the authors living off the money from these apps? Bet they don't and can't. You like them, but you are an unsustainable customer.