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Binary-only version? $599 for the source code? Seriously? (edit) To reprhase -- the pricing is basically broken. No developer in his right mind would create a

Binary-only version? $599 for the source code? Seriously? (edit) To reprhase -- the pricing is basically broken. No developer in his right mind would create a dependency on 3rd party binary library, so the binary-only version is a no go (or you will sell it to the clueless bunch and they will hammer your support to death). The $599 needs to be broken down into multiple categories depending on the projected usage and/or deployment numbers. A very cheap ($19 or thereabouts) non-commercial use license is a must if you want devs to tinkle with your library and see if it fits their prototypes well. Then give them N days to upgrade to the commercial license if they decide to publish the app. And even then offer tiered licenses. Any given app may or may not get traction in the AppStore, so paying $599 upfront is to assume that the app will succeed. Bind the licensing terms to the number of downloads, and require upgrading one tier up once certain number of downloads is reached... this sort of thing. Essentially try and assume your customers' position and see what pricing model would work (while keeping smaller dev shops in mind).

esad 16y ago
Red Laser is doing something similar, and being on the other side (we were developing an app that needed to use barcode scanning) I strongly disliked the idea that I have to share my sales data with them. There are also cases where agencies are doing development for their clients and have no overview over sales once they finish the app. Communicating to clients that they have to pay % of sales to some library vendor might be very hard. Superpin is not an app, and even as a component (in difference to something like an flash/ActiveX chart component) it has a very limited market (iOS devs doing something with maps and needing to handle lot of annotations) and with sale volumes we're projecting, pricing it down to something like $19 would never pay off for the time that went into developing it. Clustering annotations is not all too hard, but it's certainly not a trivial problem and it will take even an experienced developer (such developer should be charging at least $100/h) a day or two to do it right. If you can buy a well-tested off the shelf solution for this money, why not do that instead? This is basically the thinking behind our "big" price.
- huhtenberg 16y ago
  $19 is for a license that allows playing with the library, but not publishing the app. A preview license if you will, just to let people see if your stuff is what they actually need. > If you can buy a well-tested off the shelf solution for this money, why not do that instead? Sure, but who is to say that it is well-tested? That's exactly what the preview license is for. But all in all, gotta tell you that you have a tough task in front of you. What do you think the size of your target market? I am going to guess that it is quite limited (in fact, you said it yourself), so your best bet here is to try and land a sale to a very large developer or into a massively popular app. In either case you need tiered pricing to fully utilize the opportunity. Think about it. Been there myself a few years ago trying to sell sophisticated networking libraries (that is a much larger niche than yours) and it is tough, really tough.

esad 16y ago

Red Laser is doing something similar, and being on the other side (we were developing an app that needed to use barcode scanning) I strongly disliked the idea that I have to share my sales data with them. There are also cases where agencies are doing development for their clients and have no overview over sales once they finish the app. Communicating to clients that they have to pay % of sales to some library vendor might be very hard. Superpin is not an app, and even as a component (in difference to something like an flash/ActiveX chart component) it has a very limited market (iOS devs doing something with maps and needing to handle lot of annotations) and with sale volumes we're projecting, pricing it down to something like $19 would never pay off for the time that went into developing it. Clustering annotations is not all too hard, but it's certainly not a trivial problem and it will take even an experienced developer (such developer should be charging at least $100/h) a day or two to do it right. If you can buy a well-tested off the shelf solution for this money, why not do that instead? This is basically the thinking behind our "big" price.

huhtenberg 16y ago
$19 is for a license that allows playing with the library, but not publishing the app. A preview license if you will, just to let people see if your stuff is what they actually need. > If you can buy a well-tested off the shelf solution for this money, why not do that instead? Sure, but who is to say that it is well-tested? That's exactly what the preview license is for. But all in all, gotta tell you that you have a tough task in front of you. What do you think the size of your target market? I am going to guess that it is quite limited (in fact, you said it yourself), so your best bet here is to try and land a sale to a very large developer or into a massively popular app. In either case you need tiered pricing to fully utilize the opportunity. Think about it. Been there myself a few years ago trying to sell sophisticated networking libraries (that is a much larger niche than yours) and it is tough, really tough.