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Entitlement. Developers exist only because you pay them.
This has been a great week for new versions of awesome iOS apps. My favorite iOS Markdown text editor Writing Kit has a new version, a gorgeous new icon and some great new features and refinements.
The other exciting news is that Tweetbot — the single best Twitter client on any platform — has been updated to version 2 and they’ve released a long awaited brand new Tweetbot for iPad. These three apps are some of the best you will ever own.
That’s right — three. Tweetbot for iPad is a brand new app, version 1.0. While it maintains consistency with Tweetbot for iPhone the experience of Tweetbot for iPad has been crafted to be perfect on a very different device.
Unfortunately, like so many other great apps before it, the celebration isn’t what it should be. Some users are very upset that Tweetbot isn’t a Universal app and therefore free. This attitude isn’t something new, vocal customers were in an uproar when Tweetie 2 was released as a new app instead of a free upgrade and we’ve seen this pattern repeat far too many times since. It’s demeaning, even soul crushing.
It’s easy to lose our context in the abstractions of the internet, let’s see if an illustration can make this a little more tangible.
I love coffee and perhaps we have shared the experience going to our respective locals for the cheerful baristas, the free Wi-Fi and that killer mocha they brew. Now, I’ve bought coffee there before so I enjoy the experience of walking in, sitting down and firing up my iPad while I wait for that cheerful barista to bring me my usual without ever reaching for my wallet.
Except it doesn’t work that way, does it. I order my mocha and hand over my card, so do you and you never think twice the dynamics of the exchange. We’re here to do business, this two way transaction is embedded deeply into our lives and culture.
At the coffee shop you’re not really paying much for wholesale coffee beans, milk and a little chocolate, they don’t cost that much. It’s about the craftsmanship, the time and dedication that starts with a perfect shot of espresso and ends with the latte art they do even when when they cover it with a lid[1].
But that isn’t all of it either. We pay for the craftsmanship but we also know that the coffee shop has to, intern pay their rent, maintain their equipment, pay for electricity, water, internet, insurance and a dozen other practicalities every business has to tend to. Most important of all every one who works there takes home a paycheck to buy food, take care of their families, have some place to live and pay for their iOS devices[2].
Almost everything I just listed is applies just as much for development studios and most of it applies to indie developers. The biggest difference is that a good Espresso machine last longer than the next generation of Apple devices necessary for development and testing. Yet as users — customers — we expect developers to keep releasing brand new products they’ve poured the last six months of their lives into and all the bills that needed to be paid during that time.
It’s far too easy to forget there are people behind that app and they have the same needs as you do. You are not entitled to a lifetime membership on every platform & every update all for the price of coffee. Your budget is tight, so is theirs. Developers exist only because you pay them.
Suggested reading:
- App Store: Need or Greed by Nate Boateng - Culture Milk
- Greed and Entitlements by Federico Viticci - Macstories
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(via Penny Arcade - The Fire)
In celebration of all the iOS game developers underpricing their apps and undervaluing everyone else’s for ‘holiday sales’ I pulled this gem out my Evernote archives.
Cheers.
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Flirt is a nice looking new Facebook client for OS X. I’m a pretty light Facebook user and I don’t need this kind of power so I haven’t taken it for a spin yet. However, I really admire Falkor for having the guts to go for what we might now call a premiumly priced social app.
Bravo guys, I hope there are enough interested users will acknowledge all the handwork that goes into a lovely crafted application.
They have a trial available and you can buy it on the Mac App Store
