Wow. The negativity of the comments here to this post is astounding.
I personally find this post very insightful. Just yesterday, I bought the EA Tetris app for $0.99. I played it for three minutes, and decided I hated the "touch" interface for Tetris. It isn't Tetris at all. And it pissed me off that I paid money for something useless. It doesn't matter if I paid $20 for it or $0.99. It just makes me feel like a fool, like I got taken in.
When the author says "Your $1 App is a Total Gamble", that's exactly the point. And it has nothing to do with it being an app or an online purchase. It's the same way I feel about buying a new snack for $0.99 and discovering it tastes like cardboard, or a shirt from a new store that turns out to shrink unexpectedly in the wash.
People hate buying things they'll regret, particularly when they're buying blind, or have no idea of the risks. It's psychological, not necessarily economic, but it's true. And in app stores, there's rarely a trusted brand to rely on, or anything at all, to tell you you're not being taken for a fool. Customer reviews tend to be worthless, and you're not going to spend 20 minutes researching a $0.99 purchase. So you just won't buy it period, because you hate feeling like a fool. Psychologically, it makes perfect sense.
But what if the app stores switched to a subscription model? Pay $10/mo for unlimited apps. Suddenly, no regret. Pay developers based on their proportion of hourly usage across all phones. All of a sudden, no regret, and developers are paid based on people finding their apps useful, instead of their ability to convince people to buy them...
I would say review systems and internet research negates most of the 'gamble' involved with most app purchases. But I guess most users are just mindless consumer zombies.
There are a few instances where you "wont know till ya try it yourself"... but they're few and far between with proper research.
I think it really speaks to the expectation of developers here that users are expected to "gamble" on app purchases without knowing whether the app is good or not by reading reviews, and general consensus. Thats a really exploitative purchasing pattern to expect from your users...
Not saying there arent plenty of dumb people to pray on, but... yea.. wow. A lot of app store developers here on HN just expect their users to be dumb ill informed "johns" to exploit for a dollar on a gamble... That really says something.
That's the whole point: you don't have to research the coffee because you already know what it's like. People don't like to pay for stuff they don't like, and they don't like doing research. So if you can somehow assure them that they are going to like what you're selling, that's worth a lot. I'd rather spend $5 on a cup of coffee that I know I will like than $.05 on an app that I don't know I will like. I don't trust the opinions of people on the internet, or even most of my friends in real life, so reviews are not that useful to me.
> I would say review systems and internet research negates most of the 'gamble' involved with most app purchases.
Logically, it seems like it should. But a lot of apps are just good fits for some people and bad fits for others. Some people love Angry Birds, and some people hate it. For a lot of apps, it doesn't matter how many reviews you read -- you just can't tell if you'll like it or not.
I bought the $0.99 Tetris app because it was getting rave reviews. And after just a few minutes, I realized I hated it. In my experience, reviews/popularity are a very bad predictor of whether or not a particular app will be useful to me.
> I bought the $0.99 Tetris app because it was getting rave reviews. And after just a few minutes, I realized I hated it.
And you only have to experience this once to "double-negate" the gamble. One time is enough to make a user realize that it's still a craps shoot. Reviews online are often a very weak signal for quality.
google play (android) allows for full refund within 15 minutes of purchase. I don't know if you bought from them, or somewhere else (maybe itunes), but you can check their policy. It likely won't help you this time, but maybe in the future you can just get money back.
Or better still, allow developers to specify a trial period if they wish to. Only Windows 8 and Windows Phone App stores currently do this, I believe. Some apps that might be of a single use kind won't make sense for this, but most apps like games will and there will be less resistance to upgrading rather than downloading the "Pro" version all over again.
They also has been found to regret less when they buy the experience[0], which is what coffee in Starbucks is more about. I wonder where do apps fall—are they things or experience? Or does it depend on how you market it?
I guess it's pretty hard for an app to offer unique experience, in comparison with a coffee shop.
[0] There were studies, paper posted here on HN some time ago (“If money doesn't make you happy…”)
Mmm, I like your line of thinking with a subscription model for apps although there's still an unknown time investment for any new app.
Try out this app and spend five minutes on it? Eh, maybe.
Subscription music services work very nicely because the time investment for listening to new music is essentially zero. There's no download or queuing wait at all.
I personally find this post very insightful. Just yesterday, I bought the EA Tetris app for $0.99. I played it for three minutes, and decided I hated the "touch" interface for Tetris. It isn't Tetris at all. And it pissed me off that I paid money for something useless. It doesn't matter if I paid $20 for it or $0.99. It just makes me feel like a fool, like I got taken in.
When the author says "Your $1 App is a Total Gamble", that's exactly the point. And it has nothing to do with it being an app or an online purchase. It's the same way I feel about buying a new snack for $0.99 and discovering it tastes like cardboard, or a shirt from a new store that turns out to shrink unexpectedly in the wash.
People hate buying things they'll regret, particularly when they're buying blind, or have no idea of the risks. It's psychological, not necessarily economic, but it's true. And in app stores, there's rarely a trusted brand to rely on, or anything at all, to tell you you're not being taken for a fool. Customer reviews tend to be worthless, and you're not going to spend 20 minutes researching a $0.99 purchase. So you just won't buy it period, because you hate feeling like a fool. Psychologically, it makes perfect sense.
But what if the app stores switched to a subscription model? Pay $10/mo for unlimited apps. Suddenly, no regret. Pay developers based on their proportion of hourly usage across all phones. All of a sudden, no regret, and developers are paid based on people finding their apps useful, instead of their ability to convince people to buy them...