Wow – there has certainly been a lot of discussion about the pricing on Informant 5. We have announced that we are moving to a subscription model and we had a lot of feedback. While many were very supportive (thank you for that!), we had a some who were not. In fact, some people were pretty annoyed about us proposing a subscription model. There have been a lot of questions and some uneasiness and I hope this post sets the record straight and calms some of the anxiousness.
First off, we did not take this decision lightly. Our objective has been to run an ethical business that is profitable, and does right by the customer. We think that customers want products and companies that will be in business for the long haul. In order for us to be here for you, we need to build great products that you LOVE, and charge the right amount to continue making great software. … If you have been following our posts you will notice that we have been pondering it for quite a while
Blogs April 18, 2016: The App Economy
Twitter Conversations: (Thanks @manfredell and many others)
Surveys (Thanks to over 500 people who participated in this survey)
Here are a few pillars that we based our decision on:
-The subscription MUST add value. We don’t want to, and we don’t feel right about charging extra money just to line our pockets. We have structured the subscription so that it aligns with ongoing value.
–Free Mode: We wanted to make sure that our app could still offer a free version. This free mode is a limited use version of the app that includes our essential calendaring features.
–Some features require a subscription model. There are some features that have underlying costs such as sync and weather. There are two parts to the sync equation – one is Google/Toodledo/Evernote sync that requires a continuous-ongoing engineering cost to keep up with changes that those services require of us: if we don’t keep up, sync stops working or starts behaving poorly. The other is Informant Sync which requires that we maintain a cloud based server to handle the communication between the sync conduits. Weather requires an underlying subscription to a weather service ( over $1000/month for that guy – and believe me we’ve looked at lower cost weather options, but they are substandard in quality). We are basically allocating the costs of the ongoing subscription to the value added by these features and are calling it the “Connect Bundle”.
–People like options. With our new pricing model you will notice that we have given multiple price points($2.99, $7.99, $24.99) and subscription terms (Monthly, Quarterly, Annual). The longer you commit to us, the less expensive the price will be. As low as $2.09/month if you pay annually.
–Ala Carte was overly complicated. While it’s nice to buy just what you want, we we realized that many of our users were buying some services more than once, and others were missing out on features that they really could use. We have simplified our product and now offer a Free mode and a Full Feature mode.
–Some people just want to “OWN IT”. Some of us don’t like the idea of having the app taken away if the subscription expires or if the company decides to stop supporting it. To solve this, we are giving the option to OWN the app outright with any Annual subscription purchase. What that means is that if you pay for the Annual subscription option ($25 for now), you will “own” the app immediately. That means that you will have 1 year of the Connect bundle features (Sync & Weather), and after that if you choose not to renew your subscription you will own the app and can continue to use it (without the Connect bundle features) for as long as you like. Apple Calendar/Reminders support will continue to work without the Connect bundle.
–Change is difficult. We know that some of you will always prefer the old way so we will be leaving the Pocket Informant 4 version in the app store for a while. However, we will not be developing any new releases for Informant 4. If you decide to make the move to Informant 5, it will automatically copy your data over from Informant 4 the very first time you launch. After that, the two apps will maintain their data separately (changes in Informant 4 will not carry over to Informant 5 and vice versa unless they share a common sync account).
-The dynamics of the app landscape have changed dramatically. We have a lot of plans for the future of our app and and we want to be here to support you (and our app) for the long haul. The App Store does not (and we are now convinced, never will) allow for the traditional software model of “major annual release with upgrade pricing”. Subscription is the model that Apple (and many others) are pursuing as their future. The primary competing model is advertising – and frankly, we really hate the idea of selling your information or cluttering your calendar with ads.
- We’ve had some questions regarding our macOS version. Rest assured – nothing has changed with the Mac version. Because we don’t sell it on the Mac App Store, we have the flexibility to use the traditional upgrade model. Informant for macOS is unaffected by this change and existing and new owners will continue to get free updates (such as the upcoming M9 and 1.0 releases) through 1.x. We will at some future date that we haven’t even considered yet have a 2.0 which most likely is a paid upgrade – but that’s a long time away.
-Yes, we are a company selling a product, but all of us are also consumers... We get (and felt) the initial tension with subscription. But we also realized that for the software that we really love – we buy it…and the next year when there’s a major upgrade, we buy the upgrade…there’s no practical difference until you decide to stop upgrading. This is ultimately how we came up with our final model that we feel like is really unique blend and beneficial to everyone involved.
-Value. We are quite confident that Informant can save you $25 in gas by not having to make extra trips to the store. It can help you get that job promotion by staying more organized, it might even save your marriage (by reminding you to bring flowers home on your anniversary). We hope that you think that Informant is an amazing value at any price and we certainly hope you feel that is worth $25/year.
Oh yeah…..Informant 5 will be available in iTunes on November 29th, 2016
Free
Always- Essential Calendar functionality
- No Tasks
- No Contacts
- Color/Icons
- Connect Bundle
Subscribe
low price- Full Feature Access including: Multiple calendars, Tasks, Contacts, Notes
- Email Integration
- Connect Bundle (Sync & Weather)
- Reverts to Free version after subscription ends
- 3 Subscription choices: $2.99/Month, $6.99/Qtr, $24.99/yr
Buy It!
Yours forever- Keep Full Feature Access even if Connect Bundle subscription ends
- Full Feature Access including: Multiple calendars, Tasks, Contacts, Notes
- Email Integration
- 1 Year Connect Bundle: (Sync Services & Weather). (Renew annually for $24.99)
A question: will Informant Sync work seamlessly for one user/device on iPhone4s/iOS9/Informant4 and another on iPhone6s/iOS10/Informant5, syncing on the one common account? And if so, will this continue to work into the foreseeable future?
Well after supporting informant since the wince days, I’m out. I’m one of the old timers who likes to own my software and not fall into supscription models (I still buy my microsoft office software). It’s a shame, PI was always the first software I installed on my new phone/tablet. I’ll miss you, but I WILL NOT support subscription based software (or at least I’ll hold out as long as I can). Its been fun….
So after learning that those already subscribing to informant sync will be considered fully functional without buying another subscription right away, I’ve decided to give it a little time before choosing another calendar app….I’m still looking, but I’ll give the new version a fair shake first. I still am not in favor of subscriptions, and I’m pretty sure that I’ll be switching. I just need iOS integration and due to my android children, the ability to merge google calendars in the mix..loved PI for that, but others do that now for a fixed price much less than $25 ($7 for the one I think will be most likely to replace PI). Weather, notes, all that other stuff is low priority for me. I feel you’re asking me to pay for a premium product and multiple services when I really just need one. For me I look at it as low end users will be forced away, as will our praise and reccomendations for the product. It’s a shame because you guys catered so well (remarkably in fact) to all users basic and power users alike, I think that made you stand out from all the other developers.
I really am sorry to see our old friends go.
I have an iPhone and iPad. Do I have to purchase 2 subscriptions??
No just one!
Glad to hear that the new release is finally about ready to be rolled out. It has been a long wait.
Related to the new pricing model – hoping this is a phenomenal upgrade. That would be an expensive price for a full featured purchase, and is very expensive for an annual subscription for this type of software.
I will likely be trying the software, but this substantially increases the liklihood that I will begin to look for other options. The current version does not differentiate itself significantly from a variety of other options currently on the market, that are much more reasonable in pricing (and not subscription based)
I hope I am enthusiastic about the new release and that it justifies the new pricing. If not, I wish you luck.
Especially when you originally purchased the app when it was first out
I am ok with the subscription model, but I do wish you would reconsider the a la carte option. I don’t personally need or use the weather feature, google, toodledo or evernote sync so the idea of a $25.00 annual subscription seems high, especially considering a large chunk of that money isn’t even going to your company, but instead it’s going to pay other companies for features I’m not using.
Perhaps you could have an “Informant Only” option that’s just Informant Sync and email integration. I’m happy to support a company whose product I love, I understand you need to make a profit and pay operating costs, but I don’t like the idea that I have to pay extra so your product does things I don’t need it to do.
Also, you mentioned in your last blog (or maybe in the comments) that all Informant Sync customers would get Informant 5 as part of the package. Does that mean that us Informant Sync users get Informant 5 for free, up until our current subscription ends (for me that’s March), then we renew at the new price?
Thanks
1. I absolutely agree with Mehill. Although weather is a nice option I am personally not interested or using it. Same for other sync options. Why would I pay for those things I don’t use. And it doesn’t even support you as a developer. So I think that an Informant sync option would be great option. Like for $12 a year.
2. My other thought was that if I buy a subscription to a service (which I already do with other apps like TextExpander) then logically it should include access to the desktop version as well because I am buying access for a certain amount of time and not to “own” the app. This hybrid model where I have access to the mobile version and not the desktop version is a little bit confusing. It would worth to retink to include that as well.
3. I have no doubt you put a lots of thought in creating this subscription model. It seems from the responses that it is a very sensitive question and many people are not satisfied the alternative you are offering. Changing can go wrong and cause a lot of damage like it did with Textexpander. And can go smoothly like 1password where they’ve found a great transition.
I don’t think most of your users are cheap and want things for free. Probably most of us understand the benefit of the subscription model. It is surely the best way to keep your developer creative and productive and not worry about how to ger new users. And it gets us regular updates, useful features, etc
I hope you can refine your model so both sides can be satisfied.
I am OK with the subscription model too and I don’t object to the $25 fee, in principle. But I would like to see more pricing choices too. I heavily depend on syncing with Outlook via GSyncit and I don’t sync with Google, etc., at all. So it seems like I am paying for services that I don’t plan to use for now, just saying.
When I “buy it” for $25 will PI5 still sync my calendars with the iOS calendar data after 1 year? So if I let iOS do the syncing will PI5 stay functional after the connect bundle expires? The reason I’m asking is that there is no way I’m spending $25 on PI5 every single year.
Another question: will family sharing be enabled for the “buy it” version? Otherwise I’m looking at $75 instead of $25.
Yes, Apple Calendar/Reminder access is part of the main app – not the Connect Bundle.
Family Sharing – I don’t actually know. That’s all Apple – we don’t turn off Family sharing. That said, I have heard that it does work in Family sharing.
Sounds fair — just wish it would work with the native iOS Notes app in the non-subscription $25 purchase.
So do we! But Apple needs to give us an API to access Notes.
and again, what will that mean for the android version? please let us know your plans for that. will we have to look for other apps?
I know people want to know about Android – but that’s another press cycle – not this one.
Too expensive. Missing 12USD as one time upgrade and 12USD/year for services, as expected
Good morning!
I subscribed to Informant Sync about 3 months ago, and I’m pretty sure I’m going to buy Pocket Informant 5 when it’s released. Your pricing table says the Connect Bundle is included for one year when I chose the “Buy it!” option. Will this be added to my existing subscription, or will the remaining months of my current Informant Sync subscription be lost?
Thanks in advance!
If you have Informant Sync – then you already have access to Informant 5! Isn’t that awesome? So you’ll be able to use the full features of Informant 5 day 1 by just downloading the app.
Informant Sync == Informant 5 subscription.
I understand the clearly explained rationale for what is happening but am puzzled by one thing. If I’ve understood correctly there is one key difference between the annual subscription (at $24.99) and the outright purchase at $24.99. If the annual subscription is not renewed the app reverts to the free version (with basic calendar functionality). If the outright purchase is not renewed the app remains full feature but without the connect bundle.
If I’ve understood correctly the advantage seems to lie very clearly with the outright purchase—renewed annually if required. Have I misunderstood something? Is there anything that makes the annual subscription more worthwhile for the customer than an annually renewed purchase?
Stephen
There are only three options: Annual Subscription, Quarterly, and Monthly.
With an annual subscription you ALSO get the ability to keep the whole app functionality except for sync and weather even if you cancel the subscription.
Will Pocket Informant 5 be a universal App, or do I have to pay twice if I want to use it on both iPhone and iPad?
We have been Universal for quite a few years and will continue to be so.
Hi. Sorry if it is not translated correctly into English, but I write this with google translator. I am Spanish.
I have seen the prices and I have some doubts and some questions.
The purchase for $ 24.99, once the year is over if I do not renew, what I would not have would be: Synchronization and Weather?
Will it have phases of the moon?
Do you have holidays according to the country?
Will it be translated into Spanish?
Regarding the purchase (3rd option), the purchase is mine forever, but is it really a subscription ?, if so if I buy and cancel the itunes subscription will not renew? Or if it is really buy, I have everything for a year but to renew it the app will be in charge to remind me that if I want to renew it or not ?.
I do not know if I explained well. I love this app, I use it many years, but I want to know those nuances of “Buy It!”
Thank you very much if the forum responds to me, and if you do not respond, I also thank you.
Still not clear where this leaves the dSyncit users and Outlook
Nothing we’ve announced affects gSyncIt/Outlook users at this time.
When do you think version 5 will roll out? Can’t wait!
The launch date is at the bottom of the page 🙂 Next Monday. After Thanksgiving.
Actually Monday is the 28th. The 29th would be Tuesday…….
To be honest, I don’t see any difference between subscribing for one year and “buying”.
Anyway, this is where I stand: I am a subscriber to Informant Sync, so I seem to understand I will have full feature access (although I’m not sure whether for one year or until the end of my current Informant Sync subscription). This means I’ll give Informant 5 a try, and I will stay with it only if I really really really love it. If not, I’ll look for something else.
I synchronize with Google Calendar and with Toodledo. I can live without Evernote sync, and I don’t care at all about weather (the presence of weather actually annoys me, more than anything else). I think 25 USD/year is a hefty price to pay for Google and Toodledo sync. Although I tend to agree that paying a subscription for that is reasonable, I think that the proposed price is way too high.
As for other features, (1) I am an email-aholic as well, but I can’t see any use for email integration in Informant, I hope to be proven wrong, (2) Contact view has proven to be completely useless to me, hopefully in the future it will serve some purpose, (3) Notes are completely useless as well, as I can’t attach a note to a calendar event or to a task, I hope this has changed.
FInally, I really resent the fact that a desktop version for Mac has been developed, while Windows users have been abandoned.
I repeat: I am extremely strongly against subcription models. This is why I’m abandoning Microsoft Office after having used it for a lifetime, and I won’t use any Adobe subscriprion products. I also understand the need to have a paid subscription for sync services, but I think your price is too high.
I also understand the difficulties with paid upgrades on the Apple store, but if I had paid an upgrade for each major release of PI iOS, in all of these years I would have probably spent less than what you now want to get ON A YEARLY BASIS, which I frankly consider almost unacceptable
best,
Gennaro
I agree with much of what Gennro has said. I, too, do not care about weather, e-mail, or contacts. I DO depend upon Fanatic sync, but nothing else. As I just noted in another blog thread, $25 may prove too rich for my blood when all I really want is the ability to sync my PI/DI account, nothing else. For that, I would happily continue to pay $15 a year. Well, I have nine months to decide, so I will wait and see, but I will (regrettably) probably also investigate other possibilities.
Can you please please please make it available BEFORE and NOT after the long weekend :-)!
Thanks in advance!
André
Yes, it would be nice to have PI 5 this week. 🙂
We would have liked to release before Thanksgiving but right now we are waiting on Apple.Their review times have gone from 1 day to almost 1 week right now.
Does that mean it will not be released on Tuesday the 29th??
Will the apple watch complication be available with this 5??
Yes, but in a later vetsion. Not at the release next week. ;-(.
I’ve been a supporter of Pocket Informant since my Pocket PC days in 2004. I’ve also encouraged my friends to purchase the app since it has the best calendaring functions in terms of presentation, features. In 2004, I paid USD24.95. In 2006, I paid USD34.95. In 2007, I paid USD12.45 (after a 50% discount from you). In 2010, USD9.99. In 2011, USD5.99. Total USD88.33 (in my currency: SGD132.50). It is the most heavily invested calendar app for something I get for free on Google.
The 3 most important and commonly features I use is Calendar Sync (to Google via gsyncit – which I had to pay for) and customised tags.
My opening page is at month view which is pretty nice as I have customised the layout with the colours I like.
On my home page, I like seeing the date as a notification on the app. Very handy. Also, I put a password lock on the app so no one can access my calendar when using my phone.
For years, I have purchased every iteration of the app. Earlier on, as a an upgrade, then later, as new apps. It’s fine because I like to support a good product and the alternative apps were still far behind. I didn’t care that I did not use the other features like multiple calendars, weather or that there were tasks, notes and contact functions. I cared that I could see all my events in multicolor glory. I also cared that you guys have done a great job for us users and it was a win-win.
Why?
Because I had already paid the price for the premium upgrade. Once. As a consumer, I do not want to worry about renewals or subscriptions which is recurring costs on top of the other subscriptions I have to pay for. When I pay for a subscription, it is because some form of cloud storage is involved which allows me to access from any smart device. However, for Pocket Informant’s case, your plan to charge for additional features like Informant sync (Google sync is good enough for calendar syncs) and regular maintenance (which should already be factored in when you price your new version) just does not seem like value for money on a subscription basis. I noted on your blog post that you have made more UI changes to the app and tweaked the suite of features to make it more user friendly. I’m sure all these changes are appreciated BUT you already have a good product in place that did not need to be refreshed to the extent that you and the team have done. It’s a matter of best and good enough. And I believe for most of us protesting this pricing change, we belong to the “good enough” club.
I’ve read your blog post and the comments made by other loyal users like me. While I understand it takes time to continually revise the app to make it work with each OS upgrade, you and your team should understand that a subscription model for a calendar function is just going to force us to look for alternatives – and trust me, Google calendar is a close one in this case. I really hope that you will reconsider the pricing model before you a big percentage of your loyal fans . In this day, once you lose us and we get used to the alternative calendar, it is unlikely we will turn back. Yes, I noted that you have a free calendar with basic calendar functionality to appease your current pool of low usage users who never paid Premiums for your app.
I usually don’t take the time and effort to give feedback to app developers. But I took the time today to share my opinion because I have supported you and the app for over 12 years. Much as I would like to continue the relationship, it has to be based on the grounds of mutual value. Most of us did not ask for a brand new iteration of the Informant. If you really want to do right by us, pleaseanalyse your data and find out what we (paying users) have been using frequently and give that to us in a once-off payment. Sure, you can say that I can unsubscribe from the service so I can have the full app without the sync and weather features. But then again, we don’t get the minor upgrades do we?
I’ve said my peace after you’ve done your public broadcast on the blog. You know where most of us are at and I hope you also value our loyalty and support and do something before you lose us.
Michelle,
We do appreciate the time you took to share the feedback with us. We did try to find a balance of subscription with a “one time buy” option with the new pricing model. Is it perfect? Probably not… We might find ways to make more options, or to make it better somehow. We are thankful for you and customers like you who stuck with us over the years. I assure you that we don’t want to loose you now. Please know that we will always do our best to make it right. As Apple makes more options available to us and as we figure out better ways to accommodate the ongoing needs of the business with delivering great value to customers we will find the right balance. Don’t go quite yet.
I dont use sync and weather. So if I upgrade to pi 5 for 25 €, and don’t renew after the first year, I will still get the app updates for the foreseeable future? Until pi 6? Or Does the change to the subscription model means that the app will stay at 5?
You will actually get minor updates until we decide to make a v6.0. We don’t actually have a way to stop. Our idea with offering the 1 yr subscription price at $24.99 was to make it the same as a 1x buy price that would cover the costs of sync/weather(and the full app features) for the first year. Then in 2nd+ year the subscription price (which is only $2.08/month) would cover the costs of sync etc….our logic is that if you are a long term (1+ yr) customer, you would get Sync + weather + ongoing updates for only $2.08/month and if you don’t need any of that, you wouldn’t need to pay for it.
If it finally solves the continuous crashing problems i still encounter, I’m in.
I’m pretty sure it should solve any crash issues that you are having. If not, please make sure you create a ticket with our support team and we will get it resolved.
The app shouldn’t crash.
Keith, the new app is crashing significantly more than the old one for me, on both my iPhone6 Plus and my iPad Pro. I’ve submitted a ticket, but have not heard from anyone on the and I need to do my work and keep organized. So I am installing the old app and deleting PI5.
I think one Problem of this pricing model is your “communication of value”:
You need a subscription model because you want to continue developing the Software and keep the lights on but the reasoning is “Sync and Weather” with the option of “buying” the Software for the initial 25$.
Personally I don’t have a Problem (and I think most who value PI) with a yearly subscription to a full version of PI because we all have to pay rent and understand that one initial payment can’t pay us “lifetime support and continous updates”.
BUT if I buy “Sync and Weather”, it “feels” overpriced because some of us really do not care that much about sync or Weather and worse: we are not even encouraged to buy the subscription to fund continued development of the Calendaring features.
I understand that you want to give the option to “buy once” but maybe you should reevaluate that line of thinking: I want to “own” my Games because maybe in 10 years, I’d like to give a classic a spin but I don’t see me thinking “wow PI 5 was really great, let me reinstall it on my Iphone 15, a shame they went out of business 2018 so they never got to implement the thought-transfer-module”.
I’d rather have you continue developing PI even if that means a subscription to fund it.
Maybe put in an option for subscribers to select which features they value the most: I probably will subscribe just for completions sake but I don’t see me using sync or weather that much. Knowing that my subscription funds the Calendar/Task-Module would give me more “value” for the money than just “Sync and Weather”…
Richard,
Those are good comments. Communicating the value is sometimes harder than it needs to be. Since this is “new territory” for us, we will be keeping an eye on things to see how we can make it better, and communicating the value.
Thanks for your advice.
Another thing (sorry for posting twice) is that non-native sync on Mac is a pain. I came to PI because of its toodledo-integration but since then abandoned toodledo for the Apple-Reminders: They are FAR less flexible but they sync over all devices and iCloud and Applications and kept in sync even if a change is done when no cell-coverage was available.
That is why Informant-Sync never was an option to me.
I am not sure how many people had similiar experiences but I hope you do not overestimate the value of Informant-Sync in a multi-device/multi-Application environment.
Good point.
If I currently sync with Google Tasks & Evernote, will I need the Connect Bundle?
Mark,
Yes. you would need the connect bundle.
Too expensive. I have too many subscriptions and there are too many excellent alternatives to pay this much. I have been willing to pay for multiple WinCE versions, iPhone and iPad and Mac, all totally worth it, but this is too much. I’m migrating away.
What would be an alternative?
I own (and tried) pretty much all Calendering Apps on the App-store because PIM is very important to me but none comes even close to PI. On holidays I tend to switch to fantastical but from a pure Productivity standpoint PI is, to me, the number one:
It integrates well with the Apple-Environment
Smart FIlter are a Godsend
The UI is clean and effective to use
JMark,
I hear you that you think it is too expensive… What do you think is the right price?
Are you against paying for the software or just against subscription? If you are against subscription, then how would you propose we pay for the ongoing costs of things like Sync etc?
I sincerely want to hear your thoughts.
Thanks
Certainly you appreciate the positive responses. But can’t you see the overwhelming negative feedback you’re receiving?
Isn’t it better to sell 1000 widgets at $5 each, than to sell only 200 at $10 ?
You are alienating a large sector of your loyal customer base.
You have been given a chance see what the market will bare, and you seem to be squeezing your eyes shut and yelling ‘i don’t see you’.
Charge more, one time. Fine. Open your eyes! Drop the subscription based model!
tab,
We certainly do hear you and are not closing our eyes to the feedback.
What do you think the right “one time” price would be?
Thank you for the opportunity to respond to your question. $24.99 ! I say that based on the fact you’ve offered a premium product in the past and you’ve promised a premium product in the future. And that’s what you want.
The problem for me is the multiplier you’ll now pass on. For approximately 3 years of use of the current product I’ve paid $5 per year (plus the mistake of the weather subscription I paid) now to sync with web based Google calendar you ask me for a premium of 400%, that’s a 5X multiplier, per annum! I won’t name (out of respect for your product) the plethora of options I shopped. The result of my research, for sync…YOUR ASK IS OUTRAGEOUS ! But I’ll give you $25 to change colors… Wow you caught an idiot in me.
I’d love to see you try to get a backer on Shark Tank. And I can’t wait to see the changes you’re forced to make because of what the market will bare. It won’t bare this price scheme, not long term!
While I do see sense in a subscription model, the Apple Watch complication is a necessity for me to commit to the expense. (I couldn’t find any details)
PI was always my central hub of IOS data, however it is becoming less of my App of choice because my watch is the first port of call to focus on.
Is this part of the initial rollout of v5?
It will have similar watch features as Informant 4 did.
One more disappointed long time user (Windows Mobile, Android, and iOS) at the move to annual subscriptions. I understand the costs to maintain the sync services, but I would very much like to see an in app upgrade that would unlock all local features and would be willing to forego your native sync services and rely on the services built into iOS. I will test PI5 when it comes out (and hope that the new version for Android sees the light of day, before alpha releases halted, it was looking like quite an improvement) to gauge how much value the new version adds to see whether I will want to make the leap from PI4 and justify what for a local user like me would be a premium price.
Progress can be painful sometimes… Paying for this iOS upgrade will definitely help us get the Android update out sooner. We do appreciate you and customers like you who are willing to go along with us through this adventure. I’m sure we will all learn a few things… And Informant will get better along the way.
Good pricing policy. You have to make profit some way.
The challenge will be to keep it worthwhile.
I’ll stick around.
Thank you 🙂
I understand the rationale for a subscription model – as it insures a relatively constant flow of money to support further development…. but I do wish you had considered an intermediate level for those of us who just want to use multiple calendars and tasks accessing iOS calendars & reminders – something like $5 (or even $10$ per year. I have no need for weather or informant sync but will need to pay $28 to get the more limited feature set that I want – $3 for one month so I can make sure the new version of PI will handle multiple calendars & tasks ok, then an additional $25 to buy it outright. I realize that under the current model I won’t have to subscribe again given my needs, but its uncertain how many years PI 5 will be supported and thus what my cost per year will end up being – whereas a $5 (or even $10) annual subscription for these lower level feature would be more clear-cut. I have been a loyal PI user for 10 years (first on Windows mobile, then Blackberry & now iOS), and have always thought that your app provided great value for its price – perhaps too much – but $28 is alot to pay for an iOS
calendar & task app, given I don’t know how long it will be good for.
Greg,
Thanks for your comments and ideas. We have put a lot of thought into it but at the end of the day we ARE trying something new. If we need to make changes in the future or provide different options, or coupons we might consider it. Please keep the feedback coming and help us find the right model to keep development going and keep a great product.
Again, thanks for your comments.
Thanks for being with us for so long. We have thought long & hard about how to provide the right mix of subscription and one-time purchase options. This is the best we could come up with right now. I’m sure we will learn something from it. If we find a better way, we will do it. Thats how we do it around here. Bottom line, we want the software to add 10-100x value that you pay for it. I hope that is true at $5 or $25.
So I used your Pocket Informant for the longest time, now to update and use tasks I am being forced to pay you money when before I used Toodledo and had my tasks on there, I can’t use this app at all now unless I fork out cash to you NOT. GOODBYE is what I have to say this is the worst update EVER, going back to 2do.
Jim are you just looking for free apps, or are you open to paying for them. What price do you think is fair? How would YOU structure it.
We are listening.
Keith
No one seems to want to answer your fair price question. But here is my take:
$25/year for all the bells and whistles
$12/year for the app and just Informant Sync
$5/year for just the app
This seems reasonable to me, if I were to continue to use PI5
Anyone else ticked off at their money grab
Used since WinCE days and this is one of my “must have apps.” Thanks for a great app. You have great tech support anytime I have trouble and I realize this is expensive for you, and a lot of really good apps that sell with a one-time purchase (or sell an occasional upgrade) fade out, Informant has lasted longer than some Microsoft or Apple software apps.
So I understand your need for a subscription model. But $25/yr seems like a lot!
Some thoughts for you:
I already have to pay for phone, internet, subscription for Apple iCloud storage, Microsoft office software, Evernote, online crash backup, and on and on.
For me $25/yr is high for what Informant does, and I suspect you’ve far exceeded the price point at which you will maximize customer numbers + net revenue.
One single subscription option is attractive but not if it’s so expensive. Even $1/mo. for each a la carte (weather, Google, Toodledo, Evernote, sync) would be too much. Perhaps you could charge $4/yr. for each a la carte.
Or do some kind of partnership where for $25/yr you split revenues with Toodledo and automatically include upgraded premium Toodledo access, for example.
In terms of “psychological price points” as a consumer for what you offer, as a stand alone bundle, I suggest $1/month ($12/yr) on an annual plan for all functionality for iOS.
For $25/yr I’d like to see Mac OS Desktop Informant and a year’s worth of updates for it included (I bought that separately and to have to pay periodically $50 for that once it stops being on sale, and a separate iOS subscription to get an integrated product is a lot).
Or at $25/yr, some kind of partnership with Toodledo that gives them some revenue and is a joint upgrade to premium levels of Informant (iOS and Mac OS) and Toodledo silver (which by itself would cost $15/yr). Maybe Toodledo would be happy to get more premium users for a discounted $7/yr ongoing with no acquisition or advertising costs, and you’d still get $18/yr., you’re both smaller independent firms and a cross-partnership might be a good idea?
Great feedback. Definitely a lot to consider here. We are trying to find a balance and your comments are VERY much appreciated.
I am a very long time customer, buying all your apps since your very beginning. As a professional software tester and technological architect, I can definitely see the reasoning for requiring a higher price, but the current annual price is way too high for what it is, especially considering that by default Google Calendar is free, as is Toodledo and Evernote. Toodledo and Evernote are already offering premium versions with an annual fee. Toodledo has the most reasonable pricing of the bunch. As such, I find mtgdrive suggestion for a partnership really interesting. I am a paying customer of Toodledo already. Paying a little more to add Informant 5, including Google Calendar, I wouldn’t mind at all. I would be glad to pay.
For $25/year, it is a dangerous gamble that will surely drive away a huge portion of customer. Part of my job is building solution architectures and as such, I already know all possible alternatives and I have tested and evaluated all of them. The competition is very high.
I sincerely hope the best for you guys as you have been providing the best calendar and task management mobile app for many years. While Informant 5 looks very promising, the current annual fee might very well be it’s downfall.
My personal tolerance level would be at $15/year at best. Once again, the partnership idea might be a very good idea to consider.
Thanks for your thoughtful comments. We are considering many options right now.
I was considering whether I really should invest the money for Informant, given the fact that I am frequently switching systems and actually struggle a lot with all the different subscriptions. While reading through the still-relevant Ninja productivity guide on PI, it dawned on me that it is a symbiotic relationship: I give You guys some of my energy, I make an informed choice and empower you to continue supporting me in the struggle to stay on top of my stuff through innovating with PI. The mutual common ground is trust and reliance. Without my dedication, expressed in payment of the request money, there is no Pocket Informant. Without your dedication to innovate and always improve the experience that is PI my productivity would suffer in the long run.
Sure, there is a cheap way around the whole thing: paying once and using a specked-down version after a year. But then I am holding back and likewise am not experiencing the fullness of the benefit that PI potentially delivers.
So, I am in 100%, building on the trust I experienced over the years. Switching tasks now to PI from Reminders. I am deeply thankful for such a lively development of this app. Keep on innovating.
Mathias….Can I give you a big Hug!!! You are awesome. With a new launch like this we hear a lot of criticism & a lot of people tell us we are crazy but I think your comments really hit the nail on the head.
You are so right… The only reason we are here doing this is because of you…. And the only way we get better is with your feedback. I appreciate SOOOO much your kind words and your willingness to join us on this journey…. We really do want to change the world and make your lives better and more productive along the way.
BTW: I think this is my favorite comment of the past few days…. Great way for me to go into the weekend.
Mega Thanks,
Keith
Different “price points” properly refer to different products. When Apple launches an iPhone with several memory options, each of those is a price point. The whole idea of a price point is that when you pay more, you get more. Informant has only two price points – free and subscription. Paying per month, per quarter, or per year does not affect the functionality at all. There are only two user experiences.
Paul,
I do understand you point. I do agree that there are basically 2 ways to use Informant 5: Paid(full) and Free(Calendar Only).
The current price points simply allow someone to “try it” for various periods of time to accommodate price sensitivity. One person might say I’m willing to put $3 up to see if I like it, whereas if you commit for a full year you would pay $24.99 (USD) but save $12 over the monthly pricing…. So the current 3 price points are simply a way to discount the Full option based on the term of your commitment.
Another analogy that may be relevant is the idea that when the first iPhone came out you could only get it in Black. Now you can choose from multiple colors. Because Informant 5 was rebuilt as a whole new app, there were certain complexities (like pricing complexity) that were not included. We thought that some of those were optional for a 5.0 release. As we test out this new pricing model, and get feedback we may introduce new features, or new bundle options (no promises today, just suggesting it might be possible).