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-   -   Price dropped over the summer, then went back up? [A: temporary/promotional pricing ended.] (http://forums.omnigroup.com/showthread.php?t=26451)

avandelay 2012-10-21 12:51 PM

Price dropped over the summer, then went back up? [A: temporary/promotional pricing ended.]
 
I was really excited to see OF on the App Store for $40, as I was going to pick up a copy for my girlfriend, and maybe another for a family member. At that price, I figured, it's worth trying to see if they'll like and use it. And I kind of assumed that was the logic of the price drop: attract a much larger pool of customers who might be willing to try it out at that price.

But then the price shot back up to $80 again at some point. Definitely not in impulse buy territory, and not really worth it if you're not 100% sure you're gonna use it.

I know, you get what you pay for, etc, but at some point I feel like you attract a much larger customer base with a more accessible price.

Anyway, just my 2¢.

pvonk 2012-10-21 02:38 PM

Well, gee... If they set the price at 2 cents, think of how many users they'd have !

(Just trying to use logical extension.)

Greg Jones 2012-10-21 02:49 PM

[QUOTE=avandelay;116396]And I kind of assumed that was the logic of the price drop: attract a much larger pool of customers who might be willing to try it out at that price.[/QUOTE]
Well, yes but if people (such as yourself) still are not buying at the reduced price... what's the point? I believe it was available for $40 for most of the summer-it's not like it was a weekend sale and no one knew about it.

wilsonng 2012-10-21 05:53 PM

It's often hard to gift someone a task management program. Everyone has different needs. Something like Things is much more affordable and definitely is targeted to an audience who thinks in the Things workflow and has a task-centric workflow.

OmniFocus is suited for somebody that has more demanding needs and more suited towards a project-centric workflow. That's why it is priced on the higher end.

My sister is perfectly happy with the Reminders on her iPhone and Mac. So she says no desire to get another program when Reminders is all she needs. Even if I gift her OmniFocus, her workflow doesn't need the power of OmniFocus.

My needs are a bit more demanding and project-centric. So I know that something like Things or Apple Reminders is woefully underpowered for me.

It would probably be better if they bought it when they felt the need for it. Otherwise, it's just another app cluttering their computer. Not everybody drinks the OmniFocus Kool-Aid.

emory 2012-10-24 06:30 AM

Like anything else, you buy it if you need it, regardless of price.

avandelay 2012-10-24 11:33 AM

[QUOTE=Greg Jones;116398]Well, yes but if people (such as yourself) still are not buying at the reduced price... what's the point? I believe it was available for $40 for most of the summer-it's not like it was a weekend sale and no one knew about it.[/QUOTE]

But, I do own it, and actually did pay the full price. So I'm not entirely sure what your point is. It's just weird to halve the price for months on end and then double it again.

I'm just trying to point out that $80 is an amount of money that might really dissuade potential purchasers. Seems like the trend lately in software pricing has been to dip the price low enough that people are willing to try applications out.

Greg Jones 2012-10-24 02:01 PM

My point is, you mentioned that you considered buying 1-2 additional copies at the reduced price, but didn't. It would appear that $40 is still an amount of money that will dissuade potential purchasers, but Omni needs to sell 2x the volume to gross the same revenue.

wilsonng 2012-10-24 07:13 PM

[QUOTE=avandelay;116601]But, I do own it, and actually did pay the full price. So I'm not entirely sure what your point is. It's just weird to halve the price for months on end and then double it again.

I'm just trying to point out that $80 is an amount of money that might really dissuade potential purchasers. Seems like the trend lately in software pricing has been to dip the price low enough that people are willing to try applications out.[/QUOTE]

I don't view it as "weird" to offer a program at half price for a time limited period. We see it all the time in real life and in software sales. I just saw BusyCal 2.0 being released at an introductory or upgrade price of $30.00.

We see Christmas sales starting to pop up for a limited time and we can find HDTVs for even cheaper than what we normally find during the rest of the year.

If a customer doesn't see an $80 value (or a $40 value) in OmniFocus, that would be their choice. Some folks are happy with free (Apple Reminders) or Things at $50.

Omni never said that the $40 sale was going to last forever. It was an opportunity for folks to get it at a discount for the last couple of months. Apparently OmniFocus wasn't even worth the $40 for your girlfriend and other family members.

OmniFocus did "dip the price low enough" for a limited time for people to get it at a discount. If they really wanted to try OmniFocus, there is the demo trial for people to try it out for "[B]free for 14 days[/B]."

Price may be a major factor in purchasing decisions but it is not the only factor.

Brian 2012-10-26 01:15 PM

I'm not going to get into details - when and if we decide to do that, it'll come from Ken - but I can say that we ran a time-limited pricing experiment. The results showed that we were better off at the original price point.

It is true that some apps are able to survive on a low-price/high-volume strategy. It's not clear how many developers actually flourish with that approach, and given our experience thus far we're not comfortable betting our business on making it work.


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