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Really liked this article. It pulls together a number of things I had heard before with some new ones. We are all quite a long way from the economist's idealise
by josephlord 14y ago
Really liked this article. It pulls together a number of things I had heard before with some new ones. We are all quite a long way from the economist's idealised rational actor.
I released my first real experiment http://itunes.com/apps/fastlists http://itunes.com/apps/fastlists (yes it's another lists app but it is currently free, with no ads and has a couple of useful features making it especially useful for reusable lists for shopping, packing etc. The design is functional rather than beautiful).
I'm currently adding some in-app purchase options to test the reactions of the users.
My current idea is to offer the following options: (price tiers equate to $1 or local equivalents I think)
1) No-ads (tier 1 price)
2) Privacy - No anonymous usage collection.(tier 1 price)
3) Raise item limit (by 100 to 200 items) (tier 1 price)
4) Unlimited items (tier 3 price)
5) Everything including future in-app features (tier 5)
For me option 5 is important because I hate feeling I will need to keep paying bit by bit for something. It will include everything that doesn't need server side support and expense. I actually hope most customers choose this, the other items are there largely to justify the pricing of this item.
Ads and anonymous usage monitoring will come in releases after the purchases have become available as I want to give people the option to opt out first and for ads I will probably make the first month of use add free to try and get the user stuck in. I may also add some alternate skins as in-app purchases too later although that is lower priority than using the iOS 6 social framework as a way to try to get users promoting the app for me by sharing lists.
There is currently no item limit so I will allow existing users who installed before the limits were introduced to have unlimited items on the devices they have already installed on.
At the moment this is just a small scale test because I haven't done any promotion for the app yet so the current numbers of users is small although the reviews are currently very good (4.5* average in US and UK).
Any thoughts on the pricing model? Or the app?
- LiveTheDream 14y agoMy first thought is that there are too many options, and the privacy option should really be a user-controllable setting to begin with.
- josephlord 14y agoEven with privacy off I won't get or keep any personal information just basic usage stats that will help me understand how users are using the application. This is something that I value the ability to do, it should be beneficial to users as I can improve the product so I would prefer not to give it up for free although I do want to offer people the option of not having any data sent back. Things that I plan to monitor when I have time to set it up include things like frequency of use, number of lists, number of items, maximum depths of lists. Whether it is an iPad or iPhone it is being used on, what the default language is, whether they are using the email features and what items they have purchased. I will have a persistent ID for each Install so that I can track usage overtime and try to identify if people stop using the app but it won't tie directly to any person or even device that could be identied by any means outside the app.
- joshschreuder 14y agoI think it gives the wrong impression though. People don't expect to have to pay for their privacy (the level is regardless - the default expectation is that data is not being kept), so it will get people's noses out of joint.
- dholowiski 14y agoRe-read the article and pay attention to the economist & decoy pricing example. If you want people to buy option #5, then have less options, and make choosing 5 a no-brainer.
- michaelt 14y agoI would get some usage information to check the assumption anyone is hitting the 100 item limit to begin with.