Accidental Tech Podcast536: I Reboot With Reason
https://atp.fm/536
Marathon, first impressions of Final Cut Pro and Logic Pro for iPad, “reporting bugs effectively,” and another take on Callsheet pricing.
multigreg@atpfm Downloading apps on iOS: with the addition of the App Library came this setting for where they go. The default is to add them to the Home Screen, as before.
Mikhail 
JGStew@atpfm @caseyliss in these call sheet pricing discussions, I keep thinking what about a one time payment that grants like 200 searches or something like that? Then after that you have to subscribe for more.
David@atpfm as software developers do you respond to bug reports?
John Siracusa@davidshead Yes, but I’d do an even better job with billions in profits and thousands of employees.
Tim Skywalker@atpfm thank you for telling me about Monitor Control. You are amazing human beings.
Rob Tarr@atpfm I’m just gonna say… John converted me to a hypothetical subscriber of Casey’s app when he posited $3/year, because I’m just not your target audience. But at $3/year? Sure, maybe I’ll find use for it a couple times in the next year. And forget to cancel. 🤷🏻♂️ I reacted the exact way he was describing. I’m not saying that makes it the best choice here, but it would definitely impact the conversion rate.
Best comment was something to the effect of “you can’t get everyone”.
Ric Santos@atpfm so glad @marcoarment finally said to stop fretting over the business model and ship it… it doesn’t have to be perfect!
Ps the correct answer is yearly+free trial and monthly 😅
Erlend@atpfm I actually like the idea of being able to buy searches in bulk, @caseyliss! However, only if the rest of the pricing is very simple. I think three prices/"products" would be OK (so only one type of "pack"), so for instance:
$1/month
$8/year
$2 for X amount of searches
I'd keep it small, though, (I chose $2 just cause it's not the monthly price) instead of a multiple of the yearly, though.
(1/2)
@atpfm - This way you'd get a couple of dollars from people who only do few searches - and wouldn't subscribe anyway.
- You'd also keeping a part of the anti-sub gang content, as they have an option to pay for something more concrete.
- There would also be two very cheap ($1/$2) ways for customers to give the app a proper try, alleviating the need for intricate trial schemes. (A standard trial, by delaying the first payment, is still fine.)
(2/2)
Patrick@atpfm On the topic of rebooting, back in the early 2000s I worked somewhere where one of our servers depended on a flaky SMB share.
So there was a cron job that tried to write to some file on the share and reboot the whole server if the write failed.
Probably my favourite ugly hack I’ve ever encountered. And arguably fits @siracusa’s criteria of rebooting with a reason.
efrgm79gm@atpfm The one time I tried to get back to this show and Marco had a bad take again. I’m a dev so I understand the recurring cost problem. When I don’t want a subscription it’s usually because I don’t plan to use that app often enough to justify the cost. There’re plenty good faith reasons not to want a subscription.
Adrian Bengtson@atpfm Disheartening to hear Marco saying that everyone who dislikes subscriptions don't want to pay for software 😔
That's just NOT true, nor that they expect a lifetime of upgrades. There are a lot of good Mac apps still on the old business model (BBEdit, Affinity). We DO want to pay them for upgrades. It’s NOT about the cost. Subscriptions are a mental burden, a constant nagging of ”am I using this enough?”. Sometimes I have to save for the upgrade, and put up upgrading until I can afford.
@atpfm Also, since both John and Marco seems very dismissive of any kind of lifetime pricing, you all should really listen to this episode of Hackers Incorporated where Adam Wathan, creator of the popular CSS framework Tailwind, talks about how he has created a very profitable business with lifetime pricing and how it can be sustainable. He also have some great insights about the constant need for new customers is not that different then the "churn" for subscriptions.
Lifetime pricing is underrated — Hackers Incorporated
Last summer, Tailwind UI moved from selling individual content packages and upsells to a one-time purchase, lifetime access pricing model. Since then, the business has doubled. Having seen this in action, Adam recently convinced his friends Sam and Ryan to try lifetime pricing for their product Build UI, and the results are starting to come in. In this episode, Adam and Ben dive deep into the world of lifetime pricing, why it’s not something to be afraid of, and how it can be an absolute game-changer for the right type of business.Discuss this episode on Twitter →Timestamps (00:00) - Intro (00:14) - Why are we talking about this? (03:28) - Moving from package pricing to lifetime all-access pricing for Tailwind UI (06:03) - What about when you run out of new customers? (10:17) - “Everything You’ve Learned at MicroConf is Wrong” by Chad DeShon (13:33) - The myth of starting from zero every month (16:04) - Would Tailwind UI work as a subscription model? (18:09) - Characteristics of a lifetime-suitable product…
Jean @ ThinkByteStudio@atpfm have to disagree with you guys. I’m a former Apple employee who buys apps, but dislike subscriptions. I’m fine dropping $30-60 on a app and upgrading every few years. Not ok with shelling out $$ each month on subscription after subscription. Before I know it I have dozens and only use some here and there. Software has always been buy once then if you want upgrade. Only reasons subs exist is to pull more money out of users.
l0ng@atpfm Wikipedia is actually "IMDb but not sucky and filled with ads".
@atpfm If you cancel your Apple TV+ free trial that comes with your new iPhone you lose access to the service IMMEDIATELY.
mikesusz
Andrew Kerr@atpfm @caseyliss Premium, dude!
David Brownman@atpfm @marcoarment the members version of this episode seems to be missing half the episode (note the episode length)?
It abruptly ends, right when it says it will.
Marco Arment@marcoarment ah, that fixed it. Deleting and re-adding (so the cloud icon showed) didn't change anything, but actually downloading the episode seems to have fetched the new file. Thanks!