Re: Thinking about shareware prices... (was a question about NSDate inside userDefaults)
Re: Thinking about shareware prices... (was a question about NSDate inside userDefaults)
- Subject: Re: Thinking about shareware prices... (was a question about NSDate inside userDefaults)
- From: Bill Cheeseman <email@hidden>
- Date: Thu, 08 Jan 2004 11:16:37 -0500
on 2004-01-08 9:42 AM, Michael Grant at email@hidden wrote:
>
On Jan 8, 2004, at 4:54 AM, Bill Cheeseman wrote:
>
>
> Personally, I'm hard-nosed about it. My product expires after 30 days,
>
> and
>
> that's it. The only nag is the word "unregistered" in the UI, and
>
> starting a
>
> week before expiration a daily alert with a convenient button taking
>
> you to
>
> our Web site (as a courtesy to people who really do need it and would
>
> be
>
> left high-and-dry for a few days if it just expired suddenly on the
>
> 30th
>
> day). We call it a "commercial" product, NOT "shareware," although the
>
> distribution mechanism is the same.
>
>
That sounds like a reasonable balance, but I'm not sure it would work
>
for users like me--I play with a lot of shareware, but sometimes months
>
may pass between the time I install something and the time I actually
>
start trying it out. Or I may launch something once, but then find I
>
don't really have time that day to put it through its paces, and not
>
get back to it for weeks or months. If that happens with your product
>
and I can't figure out how to reset the trial period, you've lost me.
>
(Note: I'm not criticizing, just sharing my experience as a user.) Of
>
course I have no idea what percentage of users that pattern represents,
>
but I wonder if expiration based on the number of launches, or maybe
>
total time loaded, might not be more effective.
Those are interesting alternatives.
We know of one customer we lost due to passage of more than 30 days between
first launch and real testing. Of course, there may be many we never heard
from.
One of our to-do items is to at least make it possible for potential
customers to get a new 30-day trial period every time we release an upgrade.
That won't be hard to do.
We would also like to devise a solution for people who e-mail us and ask,
"hey, can I get a few more days on my trial period?" The problem with this
is that all the ways to give them a few more days that I've thought of so
far are insecure.
--
Bill Cheeseman - email@hidden
Quechee Software, Quechee, Vermont, USA
http://www.quecheesoftware.com
The AppleScript Sourcebook -
http://www.AppleScriptSourcebook.com
Vermont Recipes -
http://www.stepwise.com/Articles/VermontRecipes
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