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by clickbyclick 3692 days ago
Another angle...

It's sad when we pay $5 for a coffee made in 5 minutes that we'll drink in 3... but not $5 for an app that took 5 months that we'd use daily for a year.

5 comments

Well, if coffee shops started offering up free coffee with ads on the cup, people wouldn't pay $5 for coffee either.
Most coffee cups already do have ads on them. They have you paying $5 for coffee, AND running around with free ads for them in your hands. And you don't even notice you're a walking billboard for them! Not to mention all that juicy data you're giving them with every CC purchase, or loyalty card swipe...
I can't speak for anyone else but I'd be willing to spend significantly more than that for something I found useful.
Not to mention that $5 might be the most expensive app someone buys, and then they expect updates for the foreseeable future despite on-going development costing loads more time. There have been developers who released a separate, paid sequel and were left with angry customers who expected updates to their original app.
My experience has been that since underlying platform software changes so quickly locally run purchases are often more work to maintain than SAAS offerings.
That 5-min coffee serves exactly one client and no more. The 5-month app can serve an infinite number of clients. The two are not equatable.