Why Won’t Consumers Pay for Productivity Apps?
It’s a shame that consumers largely balk at paying for mobile productivity apps like email, calendars, to do lists and so on. Despite spending our lives inside of this software the developers can’t seem to charge more than a few bucks. Perhaps it’s because the free alternatives are ‘good enough.’ Perhaps because they’re often *just* front-ends to other infrastructure. Perhaps it’s because we only want to pay for pleasure and entertainment, not ‘work tools’ (unless we can use them to directly make money). These might be true but I tend to believe it’s also because these apps do a poor job of quantifying the accrued value we get from using them. Quantifying and promoting the realized benefits seems like a promising vector to enable subscription models, pay-per-use type of fees or even something like “$1 upfront and $10 on day 90.â€
Although it’s not an “app†per se, Fancy Hands, the virtual task service has a really compelling way of reminding you how much value they’re delivering.
While I’m not into the Trophy gamification, the dashboard review of activities and time saved is masterful IMO. Compels me to think “damn, look at all that time they saved me, I would have hated to make those calls, etc.†And it’s cumulative, so builds over time. I don’t even really understand it all – such as the difference between “Time on phone†and “Time Saved†but who cares, it feels right.
Could you apply this same idea to productivity suite tools? How much time has this email app saved me via filtering spam or message prioritization? How many unique people have collaborated with me on the docs I’ve created with this tool? Does each app have a set of native metrics that could be elevated and used to justify charging in different ways?
Find me on Twitter @hunterwalk
Top Photo: ImageCORE / Shutterstock
I think it depends on monetization model because if the app developer is trying to make money from consumer (B2C Model) then difficult to churn money in small duration but if he/she is planning to make money via ads on the GUI then there is higher possibility of shorter payback period
Founder at Cast Gateway
10 å¹´I believe at the end it all boils down to DEMAND and SUPPLY, as long as there are tons of free productivity apps it is going to be tough to make money.
Founder & CEO @ Selly Automotive CRM (Acq. by Private Equity) - Board Member - CSO AutoManager - Investor - Automotive SaaS & PE Focused
10 å¹´Very interesting article. My company (a1softwaregroup.com) produces CRM personal productivity apps (iOS/Android). We charge $5 on the app stores and don't have any subscription fees. I agree that it is difficult to figure out how to market a productivity app to the masses (without it being FREE). The other MAJOR problem is that Personal Productivity apps cannot leverage ads like games and social media apps. People are often put off by ads in productivity apps and the ads are often times irrelevant to the consumer. That makes it harder to justify creating a FREE productivity app (if developer is small) because we all have to make money on these apps at the end of the day. Just my 2 cents ...
Senior Principal Solutions Architect at Broadcom
10 å¹´If we think about it generally, there isn't much productivity apps can do to distinguish themselves. A to-do list is just that. Most free versions already include context-based reminders and sync, is there anything else they could really do anyway? Why bother paying money when most of them don't do anything more than the already free alternatives?
Virtual & Onsite Training/Coaching: Fire by Light Training
10 å¹´Productive people are often too busy to notice a new app.