"The third deadly sin is cost-driven pricing. The only thing that works is price-driven costing. Most American and practically all European companies arrive at their prices by adding up costs and then putting a profit margin on top. And then, as soon as they have introduced the product, they have to start cutting the price, have to redesign the product at enormous expense, have to take losses -- and, often, have to drop a perfectly good product because it is priced incorrectly. Their argument? "We have to recover our costs and make a profit."
This is true but irrelevant: Customers do not see it as their job to ensure manufacturers a profit. The only sound way to price is to start out with what the market is willing to pay -- and thus, it must be assumed, what the competition will charge and design to that price specification."
Who the hell cares about the "story" behind software. Here's a story - a bunch of sweaty neckbeards sit in a disgusting lab area eating doritos and drinking mountain dew and farting, and out comes the Unreal engine. It's awesome. And basically nobody cares about the 'story' leading to it.
That's ridiculous. People pay almost 2k for an average apple computer. 500 for an ipad, 200 for an iPhone. But 14 bucks... Oooo that's way to expensive
There's a simple explanation.
People only have a finite amount of money and they'd rather save it for the next hardware release
I remember an Italian friend proudly showing me all his kit a few years ago. He's spent thousands of Euros on Apple kit. His home was full of it. I asked him what software he owned and he equally proudly told me he'd never bought any software. He pirated everything, including the applications he used for business. He was incredibly surprised I'd even asked the question. Hardware was everything, software was nothing.
Realmac is certainly entitled to price their apps at whatever they want, but the simple fact is, people compare. Realmac is equating Clear as a premium designer jean, and they are certainly entitled to lofty self promotion.
But from what I can tell, Clear lacks too many features that I consider critical to justify even its discounted $9.99 launch price. At the very least, I need due date, notes, and Reminders integration (so that I can share certain lists with my family and for Siri).
I realize that Clear is aiming to be as minimal as possible (much like Due), but it can't charge premium for such limited feature set.
I don't see his logic. 2 pints of beer...or $300 USD skinny designer jeans from a denim mill in Japan? Okay guy!
If he was really that concerned about sustainability, then he would make his own jeans at home, rather than pay $300 for some oil drunk cargo ship to bring it to him.
The response to this is going to be fairly predictable. Those who write apps will feel some sympathy with RealMac Software. Those who buy apps will say that it's too expensive. Probably.
Being a developer myself I fall into the former category. I'm going through a similar thought process for an iPad app I'm just wrapping up development on. It's taken many hours to create and I've spent a huge amount of time carefully putting it together. I had to bring in an expert for the subject matter I'm working on and she also invested lots of her time in the project. We will split any profit between us.
Similar to RealMac software selling my app for less than a fiver just won't do it justice, however I know that if I charge much more than £1.99 for it, it probably won't sell - however good it is.
When I first started developing apps for the iPhone, before the iPad was in the frame, I remember telling a friend about a project I'd been working on with some colleagues. I'd written the code, one other guy had created the graphics and the other had developed the concept and tested. We'd decided to charge just 99p for it, even though - with 3 of us involved - it would take forever to earn anything close to the money needed to pay for our time. This is before iAd or the move into freemium app models but he couldn't understand why we weren't giving it away for free. And this guy runs his own business. Scary.
The bottom line here is that people want a bargain and don't want to pay a reasonable rate for other people's hard work. They shop in cheap supermarkets and don't understand why their food tastes horrible and buy cheap clothes that in 2 washes are falling to pieces.
I will be flamed to within an inch of my life here, I realise that, but however much I don't like it - that's the way it is.
This is why I don't drink! It's too damn expensive.
Apps, on the other hand, last you forever, and not just 10 minutes. But the thing is today we're bombarded with crap apps, and it makes sense to sell them for next to nothing as it allows everyone to buy everything without regret. But we don't need the crap apps, it would be a lot better if 90% of the apps out there would get banned and we could make easier choices from the quality ones out there. It would also mean people would trust that they can spend more on a good app, and they'd have more money to spend too.
when did they say they were concerned about sustainability?
In the article:
"Now lets apply that thought process to the Hiut Jeans, why would I spend £130 on a pair of Jeans when I can pick up a pair for £20 on the high street? Because of the fit and finish. Because they were made by a "Grand Master" seamstress, using a sewing machine in Cardigan Bay, Wales. Because of the story. Because of the way they would make me feel. Because of sustainability. Just because software is a less tangible product, doesn't mean that the making behind the scenes differs in any way."