[adamt]

I've just happily paid for this app (congrats, nice app and makes my daily life easier/better)

I am always amused when people complain about paying $5 for an app like this.

Let's assume for a second that you are an IT/Internet professional, and you are read HN enough that you'd consider downloading an app. Maybe I am the exception, but I perhaps spend 30 mins per day on HN on my iphone. HN for me is great over breakfast, sitting on a train, lying in bed, taking a dump reading. The web experience on the iphone isn't great, and posting is hard, and lots of finger pinching. This makes that better.

Now lets do some rough maths. 30 mins per day, 365 days a year = a lot of hours (182.5 pa)

$5 = what an engineer earning US$100k for (220 days @ 8 hours/day earns in in 5 minutes (pre-tax). I've spent longer than that writing this post.

Obviously HN is international, salaries in some parts of the world are somewhat lower, but for those people in countries where iphones exist, and they own one, $5 is hardly that much.

The guy has even given away the source for free, if you would rather download it, and build it yourself.

[lachlanj]

For everyone that is so happy to pay $5 for this app, how about you leave a review on the app store. I saw this app before reading this article and was suspicious about paying $5 when there were 0 reviews... I think your praise would be better served on the app store? :)

[palish]

$100k/yr in the USA? I guess if you're in Silicon Valley...

[angrycoder]

I make that much and I live about 2 hours away from a major market on the east coast. I haven't been offered a developer job anywhere in the past 5 years that was under 75k.

[pchristensen]

Silicon Valley not required to make $100K. LA, NY, DC, Chicago, Boston and probably more it is very doable to get $100K with several years under your belt.

[davepeck]

Seattle too.

[ewanmcteagle]

Look into salaries very carefully. This is not high or unusual or only in Silicon Valley. It's important to know what's typical. salary.com is not terrible for this, also try glassdoor.com.

[bigiain]

Does that really affect the argument though? Does paying $5 for an app suddenly become the _wrong_ thing to do if you "only" earn $50k/yr so that $5 represents 10 whole minutes of work instead of 5?

I quite like the "here's the source, compile it yourself for "free" if you want" line... You can have my app for free, so long as you're already paying Apple $100/year... :-)

[abyssknight]

Agreed. I live in the southeast USA, and that kind of money for a developer is crazy talk. Our cost of living is a lot lower, though. All that aside, $5 for an app that truly is amazing, wouldn't be a stretch for me. heck, I bought Deliveries at full price the other day just to track a package.