Intersting idea, but I feel you'll have a difficult time with that price tag.
If he sells enough the income could allow him to create even more useful things for other people.
There is nothing wrong with selling something you created.
I'm an open source enthusiast. I run Linux on my MacBook Pro. Still, people should be able to sell what they created if they want to.
A better approach might be to make more software and create a bundle, so customers get more value for their $5, rather than lowering the price.
Or improve the marketing, so people realize the value the software gives for their $5. If you get paid $60/hr in your freelance work, and this app encourages you to squeeze in an extra 5 minutes of billable time today because you see the year is ticking away, it will have paid for itself.
I'm not sure I agree with this metric. For example, if I buy a shopping bag I could end up saving an hour over its lifetime because now I carry more things and once and make fewer trips. Does that mean that it should cost me $whatever my hourly rate is? No, I'm going to pay how much I feel its intrinsic value is based on factors such as the market rate, the raw materials that went into its manufacturing, and the quality of the craftsmanship. Maybe I end up paying a dollar for it.
Using these guidelines, to me I think the effective price of this software should really be $0. Other comments have mentioned how this is trivial to set up with free software that's already available, and if this doesn't fit people's needs, there are sure to be people like me who could whip up a clone in an hour.
Will people realize how easy this app is to make? Will they care? I think it's worth a shot for the developer. It could pay for a coffee or two.
I really don't think this is the case. It's not fundamentally wrong to charge $50 or $100 for software: it just means that there are some people that won't be able to afford it, but the tradeoff you make is that you might be able to provide better support or higher quality.
> Will people realize how easy this app is to make? Will they care?
Well, I certainly did ;)
If this is something you'd be interested in, I'm fine with putting in the time to make this…
With bitbar it's one print statement in Python. (Just print current time divided by total time.)
(Yes yes, typing in your credit card number is certainly easier for many than writing a line of Python. Good for OP that they found quite a few buyers.)