The App Store is only the cash register.

Apple doesn’t have to do jack shit: Whether we like it or not, the game has changed. Trials are out. They’ve been out for six years now and we have no idea if they are ever coming back. Upgrades are out, too. Again, we have no idea if they will ever come back. … Marco, … Continue reading “The App Store is only the cash register.”

Apple doesn’t have to do jack shit:

Whether we like it or not, the game has changed. Trials are out. They’ve been out for six years now and we have no idea if they are ever coming back. Upgrades are out, too. Again, we have no idea if they will ever come back.

Marco, for as many haters as he seems to attract, is no dummy. I am certain he knew this going in. What rabbit would he pull out of his hat, especially with some of the biggest brains in iOS development to discuss it with? No surprise, he tried something new for the category: freemium. Good for Marco.

It’s time for us to change and try something new. Would an app supported by ads work? How about free with in app purchase? Charge for individual features so power users can pay us more? Subscriptions? Or how about just raising prices? Multiple apps so you can cross promote? Move to multiple platforms? Build something useful on the website that people will pay for, too?

Six years of app stores and this is the wisdom?

There is mileage in stating the bleeding obvious but freemium was the way that I was introduced to software purchasing and it is no surprise this is what we turn to now.

Games have been doing it since the moment in-app purchase was released so why not productivity software? Has Elia hit on something new or are the uber-brains of the software development industry just lacking in business or common sense?

I hope not but I’m not convinced…

Elia on the 4Ps of the App Store:

Now, though, you have one choice for place and one choice only: the App Store.

Long-term the App Store is the only place to promote, and there isn’t much room for promotion there.

Wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong.

The internet means you have an unlimited global opportunity to place and promote your product. Did I buy Angry Birds because of the place and the promotion of the App Store?

Of course not.

I bought because it was promoted in the places I was looking. I bought it from a dozen different locations like TouchArcade or PocketGamer. The transaction occurred on the App Store but that was the last link in the chain.

This is like saying that the cash register in the shop is what limits place and promotion. Utter bullshit.

The App Store is only the cash register. You can still sell your software on your web site, you can still promote anywhere on the Internet that will accept your advertisements or your advertorial.

I hope for the sake of the human race and the development of software that this isn’t the final wisdom on the macro-economics of the App Stores. But there’s an awful lot of stupid floating around.

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