Schwa wrote:
> from another one of Adelynn's threads about app pricing (there's a number of them) <
Yes, I noticed. 
> Adelynn says: "Im running out of cash on my gift card and my dad doesnt want me using his money for an app. <
Yes, life is rough for young people, nowadays. 
Karen,
In the 2 weeks that your "petition" has been up, 449 folks have read it (and many thousands have completely ignored it).
Would the fact that you've gathered 3 "signatures" tell you anything?
- Mark
Adelynn wrote:
Yes it tells me people enjoy spending money
It's not so much about spending money, its more about people making money.
As I mentioned in one of my previous replies, the popular "free" apps on Google Play are "free" because they include ads. The ads is what generates income for the developer, as well as for Google.
Amazon's "Free App of the Day" while free, it also requires you to have an Amazon account, and it lures people to visit their appstore on a regular (daily) basis to see what is "free" today, and as a result, they might see something else they like and tap the "Buy" button.
B&N's free friday book has a similar idea behind it
Since B&N doesn't have an ad-system for their apps, free apps will be completely free. No income for the developer and no income for B&N. Since developers don't have direct ties to B&N, there is not much interest to create free apps for the NOOK color and the NOOK tablet.
Similar with gaming systems like the XBOX360, the Nintendo 3DS and the PS3, the NOOK devices themselves are sold with little profit. Of course as time passes by, the components that make up the NOOK are becoming cheaper, but still, B&N makes more money from selling content that that it makes from selling the devices.
Amazon's Kindle Fire and of course the upcoming Google Nexus 7 tablet are both sold for little profit, but they make up for it with the ease of acces of purchasing, along with the ads in "free" games.
Amazon ships the Kindle Fire pre-activated, so as soon as you turn it on, it is already tied to your Amazon account, and of course, this is already connected to a creditcard. You see something cool, and with 1 tap, its bought and paid for. Simple. In addition to that, the Kindle Fire by itself is good, but with Amazon's Prime subscription ($80 a year), you suddenly gain access to a large collection of free movies and TV shows. Similar as Netflix, but rather than offering a free app and a service that generates income for a different company, Amazon keeps the money generated from Prime for itself.
The Google Nexus 7 is currently only sold through the Google Play store, which means that you need to have a Google account with a creditcard connected to it. It also ships with a $25 credit for apps and games on the Google Play store, again in order to lure you to spend it and more.
B&N is lagging behind in this. No subscription service of its own, no advertising system in place.
Now if they would implement something like an advertising system for apps/games, then the NOOK would become a very interesting platform for free apps and games.
Good games and good apps require a lot of time to develop, and while there are plenty of people who do it on the side as a hobby, they do invest a lot of time that would otherwise be spent with their family in order to create something.
I've been a software developer (DVD Catalyst 4) for over 9 years now, and the time invested in my main software application is something I don't even want to think of. On average I spent about 10 hours a day on development and support, 7 days a week.
So its not that people enjoy spending money, but its about people wanting to be able to pay bills.
Adelynn wrote:
I guess that kinda makes but i dont quite understand the thing about the google nexus 7
The Google Nexus 7 tablet currently only sells through the Google Play store, so in order to be able to purchase it, you need to set up an account with a valid payment system there.
When it arrives, it (supposedly) comes, just like the Kindle Fire, already setup for that account, so from the moment you turn it on, you are ready to buy. No need to enter details, card info etc, since that was already setup in order to purchase the tablet.
To make it even more interesting, it comes with a $25 credit (like a $25 giftcard) so you can start buying/renting movies, magazines, music, apps, games and books right away.
Then, as you likely already experienced with giftcards, usually you end up with a little bit left on it. Not enough to buy something else, but "it would be a waste" to leave it on there, so, since the account was already setup for purchase, purchasing something with the remaining credit and a small amount on the card is easy.
