Seven 9s and 10s

High-res Alright. This has been bugging me for a few weeks now. Frankly, I don’t use either of these pieces of software so I don’t really have a horse in the race, I’m just extremely confused. I’m not a programmer/software engineer, but I can’t imagine that the same amount of work went into writing the code for iA Writer than did the code for Pages. I know. I know. It’s not fair to compare them. Oranges and Apples. Different resources, vastly different sales volume & demand, etc. Completely different playing fields. But seriously? $20 for an app that is basically a scaled down version of TextEdit vs $20 for an app that is a genuinely good word processor and page layout tool? Can anyone explain to me how that makes any sense? I’m sure the iA Writer people are talented and great at what they do and deserve every penny that they are charging, and I admit, I’m a cheap-ass son of a bitch… but… seriously? $20? All I’d be able to think about while enjoying it’s distraction-free writing environment is how I just paid $20 for something that does 1/1,000 of an app that comes pre-installed on my system. I’d be so distracted by the $20 hole in my iTunes account that I’d never even get a chance to see that fancy blur-out-your-last-sentence effect. Anyway. Ignore me. I’m a bang-for-the-buck kind of guy. I just don’t get software pricing. 

Alright. This has been bugging me for a few weeks now. Frankly, I don’t use either of these pieces of software so I don’t really have a horse in the race, I’m just extremely confused.

I’m not a programmer/software engineer, but I can’t imagine that the same amount of work went into writing the code for iA Writer than did the code for Pages. I know. I know. It’s not fair to compare them. Oranges and Apples. Different resources, vastly different sales volume & demand, etc. Completely different playing fields.

But seriously? $20 for an app that is basically a scaled down version of TextEdit vs $20 for an app that is a genuinely good word processor and page layout tool? Can anyone explain to me how that makes any sense?

I’m sure the iA Writer people are talented and great at what they do and deserve every penny that they are charging, and I admit, I’m a cheap-ass son of a bitch… but… seriously? $20?

All I’d be able to think about while enjoying it’s distraction-free writing environment is how I just paid $20 for something that does 1/1,000 of an app that comes pre-installed on my system. I’d be so distracted by the $20 hole in my iTunes account that I’d never even get a chance to see that fancy blur-out-your-last-sentence effect.

Anyway. Ignore me. I’m a bang-for-the-buck kind of guy. I just don’t get software pricing. 

Recent comments

Blog comments powered by Disqus

Notes

  1. wholelottawords reblogged this from mrgan
  2. iphone-rants reblogged this from mrgan and added:
    hand, but it’s something I’ve seen mentioned several times, by several different people, over
  3. terrybain reblogged this from mrgan and added:
    I guess we could continue to argue about this over and over, but I’m afraid it’s a difficult path, especially when...
  4. mrgan reblogged this from dwineman and added:
    Dan Wineman answers a whine about...“high price”...the iA...
  5. punkassjim reblogged this from dwineman and added:
    If you’re into this stuff...should click through...read...
  6. dwineman reblogged this from steelopus and added:
    price of Pages with that...directly, because...two pricing...
  7. smartgoat reblogged this from steelopus and added:
    Yeah, but that’s 95,000 more people you have...huge resource drain. Also, higher priced...
  8. terrybain reblogged this from steelopus and added:
    If iA Writer was $4.99 I’d own it already, even if I ended up never using it. At $17.99, I’ll likely continue to use...
  9. misschasse replied:
  10. steelopus reblogged this from beta-winston-churchill and added:
    I figured someone would bring up this argument, but I don’t think the size of the company has anything to do with how...