How does the community stands against paid apps & in-app purchases
asked 2016-06-02 16:14:26 +0300
This post is a wiki. Anyone with karma >75 is welcome to improve it.
Hi Sailors,
How does the community stands against paid apps & in-app purchases? We know that Jolla still hasn't paid app support in Harbour but if a developper himself implent a paid system. Donations won't cut it, your revenue is very low compared to the hours you put it in to develop new features, debug the app, provide support, ... How does the community prefers such paid stuff:
- A startup screen that kindly asks for a small amount of money but the app still works with all his features.
- A basic app which can be extended by buying small addons.
- Advertisement (It's part of this discussion but I don't want it! I prefer the other option here).
- Time trial with all functions until the end, then popup the option to buy it.
- ... (add your stuff here, it's a wiki!)
I look forward to your ideas, this could be a base on how Jolla could add paid apps support.
a startup screen sounds more like an ad. it might not be very useful.
tortoisedoc ( 2016-06-02 17:00:57 +0300 )editI fully support paid apps as long as the price is reasonable. (And thinking of it, my definition of "reasonable" is most probably above the average prices in other app stores.)
In spite of that, I have to admit I hardly buy an app if I cannot test it in advance. I prefer "first x days free" over "free version with restricted functionality", because the point of testing an app is testing all of it. If a free version for testing is not provided, there should be a video or a lot of screenshots so that I know not only what the app is supposed to do, but also how it's achieved in the user interface.
As for advertisement and/or in-app screens asking for donations: I hate things that interrupt my workflow. If I think of an app that asks me to donate each time I start it, I certainly wouldn't donate at all simply because of this obtrusive screen. Same goes for large or even full-screen advertisements that I have to click away to continue using the app. Small in-app advertising is OK (I see that in Android apps and don't find it disturbing), as is a small "donate now" button in the UI, even on the main page of the UI.
The problem seems to be: Given the small userbase, will alternatives to donations (like advertisement or paid apps) will take you any further than donations? This is especially true for Sailfish users who typically know how to deal with the command line as root. They'll probably find a way of sharing paid apps for free much sooner than other communities.
ossi1967 ( 2016-06-02 17:20:25 +0300 )editSmall adds or donate buttons/links are fine or adding donation buttons/links on config/about page is also ok.
avhakola ( 2016-06-02 17:36:32 +0300 )edityour revenue is going to be low regardless, there's not many users on sailfishos and any payment process will have hoops to jump through as its clear Jolla doesn't want to get into the payment processing business.
Developers are free to cook up whatever they think will suit them and their app the best.
r0kk3rz ( 2016-06-02 18:54:05 +0300 )editI know that your revenue won't be very high with the small user base. But I saw several topics about ads, paid stuff, ... on Together that people down vote (especially ads), I wanted to know for what the community is open and what not.
It's possible in the future that I add such stuff to my apps, but I want to know what's possible and what not. I am strongly against ads in apps they take place of the UI and make it ugly + privacy concerns.
Dylan Van Assche ( 2016-06-02 20:08:45 +0300 )edit