Apple: Ta for blowing £££s on apps, fanbois. Now we've set them FREE Apple is marking the fifth anniversary of its app store by doling out free software and games. In a move that may anger anyone who's shelled out for one of the titles, Apple has made them available gratis in the run up to Wednesday's big day. The fruity firm has yet to discuss its plans for the anniversary, but it likely the …
Though they didn't call themselves that at the time. Try looking in The Reg's own history for the likes of Handango and Braindock.
Some links: http://www.computerweekly.com/feature/BrainDock-sets-sights-on-mobile-future-with-Symbian-deal, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Handango
When I worked in retail, yes they did. We'd get customers on the phone furious that we hadn't told them the day before when they purchased new shinies, that the today it would be being sold at 20% off. They didn't believe us when we (honestly) told them that we only typically get notification on the day that items are to be marked down. Any mark down of significant size, was imemdiately followed by the return of "faulty" products for refund, with the same quantity going back out at the new price almost immediately.
At least in the UK customers have distance-selling regs, so anyone who has purchased said apps in < 7 days can get a refund (I've tried this and it works).
They didn't believe us when we (honestly) told them that we only typically get notification on the day that items are to be marked down.
When I worked in retail we would typically find out something was on offer when it ran through the till a much lower price than we expected. Oh, wow, is that on offer?!
Then again, I worked for Blacks, so it comes as little surprise that they've not done so well recently.
At least your tills did it automatically. We had to push a button to put special offers through and generally I'd only find out about these offers when a customer came back to me and complained that they'd been charged full price for a coffee and scone, rather than both together for £1.99.
Woz: "I think Apple is in one of these waiting periods waiting for the next big direction... ...you can't expect a whole new incredible revolution of a category of existing consumer electronics, you can't expect that every year. If you could have one every year it would be quite a surprise."
Reg: "[Woz] claimed that Apple had gone into a kind of creative coma since its godhead shuffled off his mortal coil."
Okaay...
I once bought an asda dvd player for £170 many years ago when dvd was new, at the time they offered a 3 year no quibble warranty.
1 year later it was reduced to 120, returned it and got 50 back
another year later it was reduced to 70, another 50 back
Then just for good measure another year later they were 30, another 40 back.
Common sense really and on the plus side the dvd player I got in the end could play everything.
So the writer bought an app, that at the time of purchase, they viewed as worth spending a tenner on.
Now that app is free, has it's value somehow diminished to the buyer?!?!?
The writer's attitude is even more ridiculous when you consider some of the apps/games now free were once selling for the eye-watering price of 69p
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EVERYTHING on sale has value - it's an individual's own choice as to whether they think their perception of the value on offer matches that being advertised.
Doesn't matter if we're talking about apps, cars, houses - the same actual items in different contexts will have different value to each and every one of us.
You can only justifiably be upset that the app is now free if you've completely failed to use it at all since you bought it.
You're anger at it being free now is really just misplaced anger at yourself for buying the app too early at a price that you're clearly uncomfortable with.
IF it was worth a tenner to you at the time that you bought it, then you paid the price you were happy with at the time. IF you feel it should be free, you shouldn't have bought it at that time. You've only yourself to blame, not Apple.
Why doesn't Jasper write positive Android articles instead of Apple mashing articles? Andrew O talks up Windows Phone quite nicely so we know El Reg can do positive stories. A positive piece is simply much more pleasant and informative than some openly aggressive and blatantly biased article. I'm neutral on Apple, I just don't like Fox News/Daily Mail type articles meant only to elicit emotion.
They take potshots at everyone, not just Apple. I quite like El Reg's take on IT, as it is up till now the only IT site that doesn't suck up to any IT vendor. Compare to other "IT News" sites where you can easily spot when Apple, MS, Oracle or similar companies have paid off for articles praising whatever they're peddling out.
Isn't it a well known and often documented (all over the internet) part of app marketing that setting the right price and the right monetisation strategy is important.
Altering the price of an app is extremely common, i would like to say at least 50% of apps have changed their price in their lifetime, but that is just a made up number.
Personally, i quite liked the look of Traktor when i browsed a while ago, but i knew i would not use it much as i have no musical ability whatsoever... i didn't buy it.. today i downloaded it for free. So, to the app developer, the consolation of free is increased users who are now much more likely to be future customers.
I also play Asphalt 7 .. which is free but was about £7 ... shall we bash Gameloft?
This is not really a story.
These things happen. I bought a GMC pickup many years ago right before another GMC dealer went out of business and had a big sale. I could have saved $4K on a $17K truck. If I had known, I could have saved a lot of money, but I didn't know. Still, it was a good truck and I got my money's worth.
His name is Jasper Hamill, it's right up there in the slug line... Also I'm pretty sure that El Reg moderates articles, though they probably prefer to call it "Editorial Control" or something suitably newsy.
Where is the indignant eye-roll icon?
To use Traktor properly do you not need some external hardware to make it work well ?
Looks like you need to use either Traktor Audio 6 and 10 interfaces via Apple’s Camera Connection Kit.
Or live with using it in mono. (And the cheapest hardware device is £200 so a £10 app is nothing on top of that).
Am I alone in not caring what Steve Wozniac thinks about Apple ? Yes I know he co-founded the company but Paul Allen co-founded Microsoft and no-one asks him to pronounce on Microsoft's current woes - and if he did, no one would listen.
There should be a rule that if you cash in your chips then you don't get to carp from the sidelines.
If you spent money on an app last week, presumably you thought it was worth what you paid for it. The fact it is free for a few days this week doesn't change its value to you. If you're hungry now would you let yourself starve a few days if you knew you would be treated to an all you can eat buffet on Friday afternoon?
I guess some people are cheap and whiny, and apparently the fact that other people get something for free only makes them whine more.
"So what has Apple been doing in the five years since introducing the App Store? Not very much - at least, since the death of Steve Jobs - said the fruity firm's co-founder Steve Wozniak. He claimed that Apple had gone into a kind of creative coma since its godhead shuffled off his mortal coil."
I'm pretty sure the iPad came out a lot more recently than five years ago. Apart from it being a genuinely revolutionary market changing product, I suppose it wasn't that big a deal.
I'm also pretty sure Steve Jobs died more recently than five years ago too. But lets not let little things like facts get in the way of a good histrionic paragraph.
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