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> He's neglecting the "critical mass" factor. See the "Every app is a special case" section.

• Confusion 16y ago
  That section does not address the likeliness of Instapaper having gained a critical mass of users and people knowing about its existence before being able to pull the free version. There was already a 'web only' service before there was a web app and together with the free version that has resulted in a lot of people 'knowing about it'. Once you reach critical mass, further sales can result from word-of-mouth advertisements and 'having heard of it once'. We would have to do a verification experiment: go back 18 months in the past and pull the free version from the appstore. There is not a doubt in my mind that that would have turned out bad for Marco.