Just Because You Can't Hold It, Doesn't Mean It Should Be Free | Hacker News Reader

Just Because You Can't Hold It, Doesn't Mean It Should Be Free

blog.philgetzen.com

8 pointsphilgetzen7 comments

I think that this mentality is because people don't see their device as consisting of various different components acquired separately, they view it as one device with functionality that is sometimes insufficient and needs to be supplemented. Somewhere in their head they view the purchase of their physical device as the payment to get everything they want out of it. I think that people often view software not as providing features but as fixing bugs. They aren't getting the ability to do X, they're fixing the fact that their device doesn't already do X.

Second, people seem to be more comfortable paying for something that they invested in. Driving to a store and standing in line is physical investment and it makes sense that the person on the other side of the counter wants something of value for the exchange. But browsing for an app takes all of a few seconds and once you find it.

Also, I think that people view app ownership as different from physical ownership. The app developer reserves the right to do anything he wants with the app in the future, so the app could change or get a UI the user likes less. The app may have extra levels of payment inside of it for more content. The app won't transfer from their Android device to their iOS device or to their laptop, it's locked into that one platform. The app may be obsolete on their next device anyway. And they can't even share it with a friend if they wanted to.

Contrast that with coffee. You know exactly what you're getting and you can do anything you want with it at any time. They can give it to a friend if they want to. You get this warm fuzzy feeling that, once you hold the cup, nothing can deprive you of the full benefit of the coffee in the way you want it and you expect to get it.

On an intellectual level, it really is silly that people are so resistant to paying for apps, but I think there are a lot of subtle factors at work in the average user dissuading them from doing so.

The marginal cost of your copy is zero, though. The marginal cost of your coffee is nearly the entire price.

People seem to instinctively react to this in odd ways.

I think you're right. What people fail to realize is that there are on-going support costs (and in this case time to respond to general queries).

I think the main peeve is the way people find $4 coffee an afterthought, but find the $2 app worthy of being disproportionately discretionary.

Potentially, it isn't just support costs to respond and potentially fix bugs. Instagram stores photos. Netflix pays bandwidth and storage charges for cloud hosting. All of this costs money.

OK... I'm not saying apps should be free. A dev should be able to make money from their hard work. But you wonder why people will throw down $4 for a coffee without a second thought yet resist a $2 app. These are my reasons.

The $4 coffee is a known. I will use it. It is compatible with my mouth. I will like it. If there is something wrong with it, I am likely to get a replacement.

The $2 app is unknown. It might not run well on my device. It might be lacking some important (to me) feature. It might be broken. It might be total crap. Outside of the return window, I am not likely to get my money back. If broken, I have no idea when (or even if) the creator will fix it.

What exactly are you assuming are the costs when calculating the marginal cost of that cup of coffee?

The rise in the total cost of producing another cup of coffee is not that much -- not anywhere close to the total price, or else nobody would be making any money and Starbucks wouldn't be on every corner! The supplies are cheap and the cost of employment and business expenses fluctuate depending on how well the coffee shop is run.

Apps will still likely have a lower marginal cost, depending on the distribution model, but I think to say that it is zero is false.

Based solely on the title, I thought for sure this post was going to be about piracy/anti-piracy. Glad to see it was not.

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