That’s the headline on a Cult of Mac post earlier today. The post author is pretty pleased with the weekend ‘protest’ by the developers of an iPhone game called Alchemize, and links the protest to ‘rampant idiotic’ reactions to the recent Tweetie upgrade pricing fuss, including mine – saying the developer of Alchemize has ‘clearly had enough of this kind of attitude’.
Here’s the gist of the protest, from a tweet by the developers of Alchemize:
Apparently the developers have received 3,400 emails in a month, ‘moaning about the price of his three-dollar game’ – and the protest pricing is the response to those emails.
I’ve seen quite a few people applauding this protest today – from individual folks on Twitter to a writer over at Boy Genius Report. I don’t agree with their sentiments at all. I’m over in the whining morons section, booing this protest.
Before giving some quick reasons why I’m not a fan of this protest, I want to mention that it is not because I have any problem with paying $3 for good iPhone apps, or $9.99 for good iPhone apps, or higher if the apps are good enough or compelling enough. I’ve paid for dozens of apps priced at $3 and above. I’m also not against iPhone developers getting paid for their hard work and creativity. I like reviewing apps from smaller, independent developers, and love to see success stories for small, independent devs.
I also realize that the App Store is a very tough marketplace right about now, particularly for smaller devs – and that the current pricing levels for apps has got to make it even tougher.
What I don’t understand, in a tough market or any other kind, is how it makes any sense to respond to customers and / or potential customers questioning of pricing levels, by making it known that you view them with contempt. That you think of them as whining morons who are not worth having as customers, and feel happy letting that be publicly known.
Oh, and in case you’re thinking ‘hold on, that was a blog post title, not a statement from the devs’ – here’s the dev happily retweeting that blog post referring to users / potential users that way:
In what other business is it ever, ever a good idea to treat your customers / potential customers with that level of disdain?
If 3,400 people are interested enough in your product to email you about it, even if the emails are to ‘moan about the price’, isn’t there something more constructive to be done to respond to them?
I realize that many developers have huge concerns about the ‘race to the bottom’ in App Store pricing. But is this really how devs want to go about ‘educating’ the market so that prices can move up to a better level? By treating their audience, or at least a segment of it, as a bunch of useless morons?
Amongst the bashing I’ve seen out on the web for anyone who dares to question pricing on an app if it’s in the $3 neighborhood, I’ve often seen an argument along the lines of ‘If you paid X hundred dollars for your iPhone and you’re paying X for data per month, then shut up about paying $3 for an app’. Just piss off and don’t buy it kind of thing, with the gist being that that app cost is just a fraction of what you pay for hardware / service and data.
Again, I don’t see the logic there. So what if I spent whatever sums of money on the hardware and service? If you spend X thousands of dollars on a BMW does that mean you instantly lose the right to question the cost of a car stereo for it? Or any add-on or replacement part you happen to want or need for it?
If you spend six-figures on a house, do you then forfeit the right to ever question the cost of an improvement or repair to it, that is just a fraction of the house’s cost?
If you pay big money for season tickets to your favorite team’s games, can you never question the owners about the price of concession items, just because they’re only a fraction of your ticket cost? If you do, should the response from the team’s ownership be to treat you like a whining moron?
Ok, enough questions. There are lots of ways in which the App Store needs to improve, and maybe the pricing model is one of them. But it seems pretty sad to me if the way forward is to treat users with contempt when dealing with these issues.
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I'm kind of in the middle of this. Any other platform, apps cost a LOT more than the usual 99 cents iPhone users have become accustomed to paying. People are outraged that Tom Tom cost $100. Really? look at BB or WinMo – Garmin, Tom Tom, etc, cost guess what? 100 dollars. I remember paying $10 for pacman on my Razr, about 7 or 8 years ago.
My point is that these apps that are in the app store are WAY below what years past have brought it. IMO, if the game isn't worse the 3 or 4 bucks, don't buy it. If you see something in Target or Macy's, and you disagree with the price – do you email the maker of the product and complain? No. You wait for the price to drop, you don't buy it, or you cough up the money and buy it anyway. Choose one of those option, IMO.
Apps are priced very low, especially in comparison to other platforms. I have no great problem with it if as the market shakes out, prices go up. And you're right – I wouldn't tend to be firing off an email or snail mail note to anyone at Target about their pricing levels, or to individual product manufacturers. For me, that's not the point though. The point is if I did, or certainly if 3,400 individuals did, I would never, ever expect the response from a business to be like this.
True. The approach by the dev probably wasn't the wisest – but look at the coverage he's gotten! Perhaps should have had a weekend sale, make some money, and then re-raise the price. Clearly, money wasn't the motivating factor here. Principles were, evidently.
I disagree. I whole-heartedly support the devs who have had enough of this type of person. Its the same with any point of sale industry. People will take and take and take until someone says ENOUGH!. To say that this is not the best way to treat customers is simply splitting hairs. It is completely justified. I can say from experience that the situation can reach a point where you just have to turn around and say "Get Lost!!" It is the truth: No body wants customers like that. (i.e. whining morons") If you can't take this on board I challenge you to do a few days work in a cafe. =D
I've worked as a bartender in the past, and in tech support and network support for many years, so lots of customer facing roles – not sure how a cafe is any great world apart. There are plenty of jobs where dealing with users / customers can be frustrating at times – but still, there is not a single one of them I can think of where any sort of intelligent management would endorse publicly berating them.
I'm curious to see the results of this situation to Schiau Studios.
How about Tweetie 2, I don't see a decline in its popularity. It's the number 1 in Social Networking.
The App Store is the place where consumers are very spoiled. I don't really think this kind of act by the devs will really stop people from buying the app. They will just wait until the price go down. It will go down eventually.
Well put.
From the economics perspective, app developers should just be looking at 2 things…
One is elasticity of demand, and the second is whether there are any externalities from pricing your app at a very low price, such as word of mouth effects or getting a big bump in sales from making the Top 25, Top 50, Top 100 list.
Another consideration, especially on BlackBerry and Android stores is the number of people you have to support…seems like there always questions, always issues with device settings, etc…at 99 cents, if there's one inquiry, you lose money on that app sale…
I'm with you on this, any businessman who treats their customers with contempt shouldn't get any business at all.
First and foremost this is a PR stunt. You don't make a statement by lashing out at your customers. Companies that do this are looking for press. When their prices drop again you'll see the game hit the top ten. How noble of them. (rolls eyes)
Name one industry that you don't have to deal with "morons". People as a whole are stupid, because they are uninformed. That is why they are communicating with the business. They want clarity. This is the one of the few places customers would tolerate being called an moron and come back and help make that developer a load of cash..
Everyone is trying to make a buck. I don't fault the devs if they make a load of cash. That is why they are making apps, and I can already tell you this "protest" will profit them nicely on Monday. Just like I don't fault the devs for making a grip of cash, I don't fault the end user for trying to save a buck. Because quite honestly there is an upswing in app pricing (.99 is becoming more of a sale price) the consumer is not just trying to save one dollar, they are trying to get control of the market. Same goes for Tweetie 2, the consumer is use to devs putting out updates and features and they want to make sure the market doesn't trend toward leaving the features out for new versions. I think the market is going in the right direction myself. I wouldn't want to see it get above the $5 level, but that is me.
Here is what's funny. Back in the WM days apps were between 10-30 bucks. Small devs struggled and large devs did alright. But now that apps are averaging between 1-10 bucks devs are making a killing in comparison. Even though this dev has made more money than ever before, they are acting like "whining morons" because they don't understand or know why 3,400 people a month are complaining about prices and are tired of taking the time to provide customer service. BTW 90% customer service is answering "stupid moronic questions" If this is truly a noble move then put of a FAQ page and an automated email and send you customers to it. Hire a service to field the support calls. Donate all the money you are about to make to a charity. Yea, I didn't think so.
I agree that there is probably at least an element of 'PR stunt' – but it is still absurd to me that mocking your customers is considered good PR.
“There's no such thing as bad PR”.
No matter what the circumstances are, even if the customers are being rude, you should never respond this way. I would have been much more interested in seeing the response contain a clearly written description of why the app costs the amount it does. I don't think many of these people understand what it takes to write and maintain an app. Staying calm and responding with actual information will help to diffuse the situation. Being rude does nothing to help.
I wish I had 3400 people providing feed back on any of my apps.
For the record I'm amazed at how cheap things are going for in the store currently, and I do not think the low prices can be sustained.
I have no problem with it if prices need to move upwards to sustain good developers and good apps. Just firmly believe this sort of approach does not help move anything forward.
I just saw the irony in this protest. The customers are complaining over one buck and the dev is punishing the customer over one email. Because that is all each customer sent out.
Unless your app is on the top list, 99c is most likely not sustainable. There is definitely a need for reasonable pricing expectations. However, a response such as this does not let the customer understand the situation. Instead, it furthers the thinking that the dev is just greedy. If the customer does not understand the value and quality work that has gone into an app, they are not likely to want to pay for it. And everyone knows that 39.99 is obviously unreasonable. As someone said earlier, I would much prefer the dev to have set up some kind of FAQ about the work that went into the creation of his app and why he charges what he does. In addition, a limited time sale most likely would have captured many of those on-the-fence customers and he would have more happy customers than not.
Some things are just plain funny, and this one is hilarious! I find it all too funny when people complain about the cost of iPhone apps. Surely iPhone apps are some of the cheapest apps that you can buy for a mobile device, no?
What I want to know now is, did anyone actually buy the said app this weekend? Priceless…
Well, you have to consider the average customers of iPhone apps and the average quality over price of iPhone apps.
A mobile iFart or hot girls app that cost 99 cents might get lots of good reviews, when it's still on the top list. Even though you should know that it's a useless and a very simple app. Most of the cost of investment is only spent on the graphics and audio.
Meanwhile, an app that cost more than a buck, and it has a bit more usable and long term value in it will get lots of bad reviews over some flaws, because of its slightly higher price.
Price is just not equal to the efforts required to make them.
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