Would YOU be interested in this?

Fredstar · Apr 9, 2005

Hey there guys,
With Tiger around the corner and all of it's features i was wondering if i could do some market research and if everyone who reads this could reply with a yes/no/maybe/F off or something

.

Basically, we want to provide about 30, or more, Very good and original widgets for the upcoming Dashboard as a direct download for $7 or £4.
We are paying an initial amount for developing each widget, and then a percentage of each widget sold. This should give them a real incentive to make a lot of kewl, original and useful widgets.
So anyway, i know you can get a few for free, would you be prepared to pay $7 or £4 for 30 widgets that should be awesome?
Fred

Blue Velvet · Apr 9, 2005

Only after demo'ing them first.

I refuse to pay for any software without being able to demo it for a fixed period...

Fredstar · Apr 9, 2005

Ok that is interesting, we could offer like a 10 day trial with all of the widgets and then you could decide if you wanted to keep them and pay the $7 or £4

Nermal · Apr 9, 2005

I agree, you need to be able to try them first.

Sky Blue · Apr 9, 2005

no way. if they weren't free I would use them...anyway, what is a useful widget to one person might not be to someone else.

robbieduncan · Apr 9, 2005

Only if it's:

1) Something I can't get for free from somewhere else

2) Something I can't write myself in less than 5 hours

3) I can try it to make sure it works first.

4) (and this is the killer) something I actually want!

Chaszmyr · Apr 9, 2005

I'd pay it if I thought they looked cool.

Platform · Apr 9, 2005

As said before........Tryouts is the thing, 30 Days or something like that

Fredstar · Apr 9, 2005

Thing is, trials with widgets and an application like Dashboard is nearly impossible to moderate.
Since developers would want a cut out of each lot of widgets sold, i can't really see a voluntary donation type thing working.

mcadam · Apr 9, 2005

I'm not so excited about widgets in general, didn't find any konfabulator-ones that was usefull to me, so... It would really depend if the actual functions would appeal to me.
If so, I don't think i'd mind paying 4 for a bunch, that's not more than a beer cost around here.

A

gekko513 · Apr 9, 2005

Yes, with a tryout of at least 7 days. If I found some of the widgets useful or cool I would pay. 6 isn't a lot.

andiwm2003 · Apr 9, 2005

the market will soon be flooded with useless unstable widgets. if you provide a selection of high quality widgets (always the best of its kind) and probably add a selection of tested up to date widgets for free i'd be interested.
seven bucks for not having to search and try a hundred crappy widgets just to find the good ones sounds reasonably to me.

make it paypal, i don't wanna give my credit card number to everyone out there on the web (no offense).

Chaszmyr · Apr 9, 2005

I should add a couple of things:

1: If you're going to do it, do it fast. A lot of people are going to make dashboard widgets, and you'll have more success if you hit the market soon.

2: Advertise well. I'm not going to tell you how to advertise your product, but no one makes any money from a product that no one knows about.

Fredstar · Apr 9, 2005

That is what i am thinking, i don't want there to be really useless ones and you will soon have to spend ages to find ones that are properly tested and things.
Paypal is definately the only payment i want to take at the beginning - safe and easy for both of us, it will cost a lot for me to get developers interested and to develop some kewl ones.
Are there any all of you were interested and i could pass the info over?

gekko513 · Apr 9, 2005

Fredstar said:
Are there any all of you were interested and i could pass the info over?

Is there a question in that sentence?

Fredstar · Apr 9, 2005

opps sorry - late night

Are there any particular widgets any of you would like to be developed?

Applespider · Apr 9, 2005

30 is a lot of widgets - most people probably don't have a screen big enough to use them all! You may find people thinking they only want one or two so why are they paying for all of them- you may need some good marketing spin to convince them that they're all useful!

I'll tell you something that would make me consider using it - having localisation built in. Some of Sherlock's features were very US-centric; offering widgets optimised by region would be good. So a UK one has UK Yellow Pages, Cinema Listings by default.

Fredstar · Apr 9, 2005

Applespider said:
30 is a lot of widgets - most people probably don't have a screen big enough to use them all! You may find people thinking they only want one or two so why are they paying for all of them- you may need some good marketing spin to convince them that they're all useful!

I'll tell you something that would make me consider using it - having localisation built in. Some of Sherlock's features were very US-centric; offering widgets optimised by region would be good. So a UK one has UK Yellow Pages, Cinema Listings by default.

This is exactly what i was thinking, i think the Yellow pages/Ebay widgets they displayed at the keynotes were just US ones.
Making UK and european one's would be quite a good idea.
Keep them coming guys

I don't think we will end up with 30 but i did want to give people value for money and to really fully experience the potential of Dashboard.

gopher · Apr 9, 2005

What would really be nice is a Konfabulator to Dashboard widget converter. That way, if Konfabulator's developer should ever decide to stop development of Konfabulator, all those wonderful widgets wouldn't be left behind on Tiger.

john1123 · Apr 9, 2005

Fredstar said:
This is exactly what i was thinking, i think the Yellow pages/Ebay widgets they displayed at the keynotes were just US ones.
Making UK and european one's would be quite a good idea.
Keep them coming guys
I don't think we will end up with 30 but i did want to give people value for money and to really fully experience the potential of Dashboard.

i third the localization idea. since i live in australia, i can't use half the widgets anyway. if you would offer good localizations of those US-only widgets, i can see myself paying the AU$10.

iindigo · Apr 9, 2005

I would be more interested in an iTMS-style widget store, allowing me to buy a single widget or an entire package.

As for widget demos - Tiger's Safari will run widgets perfectly within the browser, so why not have a limited widget demo than ran inside a page? Another suggestion is to make a few excellent free widgets to pull people into the paid ones...

anjaki · Apr 9, 2005

With tryout.

BWhaler · Apr 9, 2005

I think this is a brilliant idea and is EXACTLY what Apple had in mind for Dashboard.

Because the development bar is low on Widgets, for there to be a pay model, it would need to be:

1. Beautiful UI
2. Very useful
3. Unique & innovative
4. Reasonably priced

#4 is key because if it is too expensive, you run the risk of someone making a knock-off.

But take a look at Konfabulator. They started with good widgets, but then it got very dry very fast. I think what was missing was economic incentive for developers to do very innovative work. So you got a lot of copy cat widgets based on the same code base.

I strongly recommend yo do this, because I am sure the 2nd tier developers already are planning this. 20, 40, 50 widgets which are beautiful and amazing for 49 bucks. They will sell a ton of them if the quality is there.

And yes, think 50 bucks as a price point if you can prove the value.

wide · Apr 9, 2005

Fredstar said:
opps sorry - late night
Are there any particular widgets any of you would like to be developed?

Clippit, please?

Fredstar · Apr 10, 2005

This is great stuff guys, and yes i think a bit of financial incentive to developers would be needed to spark off development of the widgets - i don't want this to be profit making to be honest (would be nice

) and i am willing to run at pretty much cost with pretty much all the proceeds going to developers.
I just want to give us guys access to really kewl and handy widgets, now it is time for me to shop around for interesting developers and pitch the idea to them.
Oh and answering the question about porting the konfab widgets - hmm, i am sure there are copyright issues involved there but again will look into it.
I understand i gotta move quickly, and i am ready to launch a simple but effective website, what i will try to do is attach quicktime's of the widgets in progress, and perhaps offer a few free to get people interested. I mean it is only probs gonna be £3-4/$6-7 (US) and will work off Paypal at this moment.

Would YOU be interested in this?

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