Quickly skimming through the comments turned to be somewhat informative. Note that some are partial quotes from larger comments.
The ones that I found more interesting are:
- "The same price as my operating system. Later guys, it’s been fun."
While I understand his/her reasoning I disagree because it's a very deceiving comparison.
- "I love tweetbot, and I know tapbots won’t care, but I can’t afford to buy $20 for something that performs one function, which I can already get on my phone, and the same basic data from other clients and even twitter.com."
I wouldn't go as far to say that it performs just one function but I can understand what (s)he means.
- "The worst thing the App Store did was to devalue software. I write it for a living, I know the time and energy that goes in to building a good piece of software, and asking to be paid for that work is not evil."
- "I’d pay $100 for Tweetbot for Mac. Anyone who whines about $20 has clearly never written a piece of software."
- "Don’t get me wrong, I bought it. I’am a software developer too, so I know how much work you had to put into it. But still, it’s too much. Especially in Poland, where I live. Especially if you compare it to other Twitter clients, or software in MAS in general. Especially, if you consider that the future of the software is not safe (because of Twitter limitations)."
I guess we, developers, are always more understanding when it comes to the amount of effort required to create great software. However, you can apply that same stament to many other professions (shoemakers and shoes, etc)
I don't think the "I'll pay anything" guys make valid points. Most people do not judge the reasonability of a price on the amount of work that is put into a product. (Nor should they.)
When one purchases something, they ought to evaluate the value of a product solely on the utility that they gain from that product and how that compares to the utility and price of similar products. Tweetbot is working against the precedent set by other apps in this regard. It yields near-negligible utility over free alternatives and competes in an ecosystem dominated by free apps. (If anything, it yields less utility over others, because once the token threshold is met, it will in all likelihood become abandon-ware.) Thus the value of Tweetbot— and of software in general— goes down.
The work put in by the developers has no weight in determining the price. The market's tolerance, perception of value, and willingness to pay is the only factor. Even if I spend 10,000 hours making a great latte, it's unreasonable that I charge $1m for it because my competitors are selling a similar product at $4 and the increase in utility of my latte versus theirs is likely not enough to warrant the increase in cost to the consumer. Their logic is flawed and is totally incongruous with the most fundamental concepts of economics. Commerce is a quid pro quo, not a charitable donation.
I don't, however, believe that such a high price is a knock against TapBots. They are permitted to charge whatever they like. You really can't fault them for price-gouging: Everyone loves money. The desire to get more of it is something that is not only reasonable, but is lauded in a capitalist economy. I find it doubtful that many people think ill of TapBots for their pricing. Rather, the issue lies in the fact that their app does relatively little yet has an incredibly inflated and anomalous price that deviates from the norm. The motives are reasonable, but the price isn't.
As for me, I won't be buying TweetBot. It's more money than I can reasonably afford. Even if it weren't, it's price simply outpaces it's value to such an extent as to be unjustifiable.
>When one purchases something, they ought to evaluate the value of a product solely on the utility that they gain from that product and how that compares to the utility and price of similar products.
I wouldn't say is that simple. I think it depends on WHO is buying WHAT. For example, if I'm buying a pillow...yes, I'll buy the cheapest one available. If I were buying a watch, no. I'd be more than happy to pay over $10,000 for a watch (insane ah? if I could just convince the wife...) Why? because a different set of criteria come into play and the utilitarian aspect (telling time) loses importance (heck a $5 Casio can be more accurate sometimes). Things like the engineering behind the construction of the watch, the history of the brand, the materials used, etc, become purchasing decisions factors. The point is that for some it's worth $20 or more because it's either beautiful, stable, etc, or they might just like Tapbot as a company.
>Tweetbot is working against the precedent set by other apps in this regard. It yields near-negligible utility over free alternatives and competes in an ecosystem dominated by free apps. (If anything, it yields less utility over others, because once the token threshold is met, it will in all likelihood become abandon-ware.) Thus the value of Tweetbot— and of software in general— goes down.
>The work put in by the developers has no weight in determining the price. The market's tolerance, perception of value, and willingness to pay is the only factor. Even if I spend 10,000 hours making a great latte, it's unreasonable that I charge $1m for it because my competitors are selling a similar product at $4 and the increase in utility of my latte versus theirs is likely not enough to warrant the increase in cost to the consumer. Their logic is flawed and is totally incongruous with the most fundamental concepts of economics. Commerce is a quid pro quo, not a charitable donation.
And yet...I'm confident and I really hope they sell enough copies to make a good profit out of a great product.
>You really can't fault them for price-gouging: Everyone loves money.
I truly disagree with this statement. It's not about greed. Come on, they even took the time to explain to their users why they had charge more than they had initially planned.
>As for me, I won't be buying TweetBot. It's more money than I can reasonably afford. Even if it weren't, it's price simply outpaces it's value to such an extent as to be unjustifiable.
Look, you wrote it more clearly than me: it's about "perception of value". Some users think it's fairly priced, others that it's too high, and some that they could even charge more.
By the way, I won't buy it either...too expensive...for me ;)
Fair enough. The notoriety or devotion to the brand and other "soft" benefits also have weight on the utility of a product. The traits like material used and engineering are encompassed within the utility. If an app runs better, it's worth more. If it looks better, it's worth more. So yes, people will value TB for Mac differently. But that doesn't defend the initial sentiment. Those guys did not argue something akin to "I like the Tapbots Guys and the aesthetic of the product has value, so I will pay more." In fact, they argued close to the opposite. Regardless of the value people get (which is going to vary by person), they assert that the product is worth that much to everyone because of the effort that went in to it. They were actually indignant that people did not see $20 worth of value in the app. I don't believe that perception of value is absolute.
In regards to the defense of the price, I don't think the fact that they are resource-constrained changes the endgame: they want to make money. Conceivably, TapBots wants to accrue a large amount of money over the lifetime of TweetBot. This artificial constraint changes their ability to earn money because the number of sales is limited and life of the product is shortened. So, they charge more to compensate for Twitter's absurd policies. That does not change their motives, it just changes their strategy. They're not being coerced by Twitter to sell it for $20. They could sell it for $10 or $15, and could likely make a profit, but it would be substantially less than if they were to sell it for more. It's all in pursuit of money. Like I said, this isn't bad. I admire people who are capable of creating such rabid fans and defenders, and who can get away selling an app at far above the market average.
Marginal utility is not just about functionality utility. It simply means how much utility you derive vs. the next best thing. For some, a $10k watch is worth it, as it gives them convidence and increases their social standing. TapBots is betting on people deriving $15 more value than whatever the $5 app is.
The value is not all about how well it does Twitter. Many Mac users will buy it so that they can talk about it with other Mac users. That's part of marginal utility as well. TapBots has won the respect of Mac opinion makers, and that respect is cash in the bank.
The ones that I found more interesting are:
- "The same price as my operating system. Later guys, it’s been fun."
While I understand his/her reasoning I disagree because it's a very deceiving comparison.
- "I love tweetbot, and I know tapbots won’t care, but I can’t afford to buy $20 for something that performs one function, which I can already get on my phone, and the same basic data from other clients and even twitter.com."
I wouldn't go as far to say that it performs just one function but I can understand what (s)he means.
- "The worst thing the App Store did was to devalue software. I write it for a living, I know the time and energy that goes in to building a good piece of software, and asking to be paid for that work is not evil."
- "I’d pay $100 for Tweetbot for Mac. Anyone who whines about $20 has clearly never written a piece of software."
- "Don’t get me wrong, I bought it. I’am a software developer too, so I know how much work you had to put into it. But still, it’s too much. Especially in Poland, where I live. Especially if you compare it to other Twitter clients, or software in MAS in general. Especially, if you consider that the future of the software is not safe (because of Twitter limitations)."
I guess we, developers, are always more understanding when it comes to the amount of effort required to create great software. However, you can apply that same stament to many other professions (shoemakers and shoes, etc)
EDIT: Formatting