I’ve been following the magazine ‘app’ discussion with interest, but not a whole lot of surprise. I have bought exactly one book ‘app’ in my life, and following the recent iPad release of said app, will never do so again. There are two reasons. Firstly, I don’t need all these apps cluttering up my iPad screen when I could buy a hundred plain old non-enhanced ebooks and access them all through one little iBooks icon. And secondly, because I strongly resent the expectation some publishers seem to have that I would be willing to pay more than one time for the same content.
The lone book app I bought was ‘How to Cook Everything’ by Mark Bittman, and at the time, I felt it was a very good little purchase. I already owned this book in print (so there’s payment #1) and felt it was worth the perfectly reasonable $4.99 to get it all searchable, sortable, filterable etc. in a way you could only get electronically. So I paid, again, and bought the app. Judging from the app store reviews, it seems many people bought it based on prior experience with the book, so I am not alone in paying twice either.
I enjoyed the app, but was dismayed at how terrible it looked on the iPad. I kept awaiting an update that would make it universal, but it never came. Instead, over the holiday break, Culinate Inc. quietly released a brand new iPad-only app—at double the price of the iPod version.
This is a fail of epic proportions. Firstly, Bittman is a brand name already. People are buying these apps because they already have the print copy and are familiar with his work. The iPad-only app would be the THIRD time I am paying for the same content! Secondly, to penalize iPad users by charging them double the price of the previous app—when many of the potential users will own the iPod app already—is highway robbery. Completely unjustified!
I know what the producers of this app would say. They’d tell me that they added features to this new app to take full advantage of the iPad’s screen, and that is worth both the higher sticker price and the expectation that people will pay again. To that, I say hogwash. I would rather give up the ‘extras’ and have a plainer app if it meant I could get a universal version and not have to pay—a THIRD time—for the content. And I would ask them if the extra revenue they’re getting from double-dipping on the people they’ll sucker into buying both versions will be worth the lifetime boycott of their app—indeed, of all book ‘apps’ from whomever—from customers like me who will be wary of getting burned again.
I will not be purchasing the update, obviously. Nor will I ever purchase a book or magazine ‘app’ again. You work with the more universal platforms—Adobe ePub, Zinio, anything I can read on more than one machine or platform—or you don’t work with me at all. Culinate, Inc and Mark Bittman by extension are in my bad books now. Culinate, Inc—you should have gone with a universal app, and if you absolutely could not have made that work, you should at least have kept the prices equal. And Mark Bittman, you should have known better than to lie in a bed with such fleas. This will cost you some PR points from the techies like me who still buy your stuff in paper.
I can’t quite agree with you on this one. There’s a HUGE history of apps going “HD”, up to and including those #1 apps like Angry Birds / Angry Birds HD. I generally find that the total cost of the app / ebook / whatever is still quite cheap compared to, for one example, a boxed PC or Mac cooking CD-ROM application bought in a store or via Amazon.
I realize we all want everything cheap / for free, but there’s a huge history of software developers charging for upgrades that Apple’s App Store essentially wiped away. They are trying to reclaim a little of that by asking for a few more bucks for an iPad specific version. Yes, some people release universal apps, but it sounds like you’ve still spent $5 for an app more useful to you then a $20 cookbook, and no doubt the iPad version would still keep you under the price of the hardcover dead trees edition.
This is not about wanting something for free, since I have already paid—TWO times—for the content.
I have to say I liked The Photo Cookbook ~ Quick and Easy and the Baking one they did those were worth purchasing. Whenever anyone looks at those on my iPad they like the format.
I have tried to stay away from Apps created by text publishers those usually turn out to be lackluster.
“since I have already paid—TWO times—for the content”
That you bought the book can’t possibly have any bearing on your entitlement to an app version of the content, especially given your acknowledgement that it’s got indexing, searching and other premium features. You can make your argument that an iPad app should be an update to an iPhone app, not a new release, which is debatable, but surely you don’t presume that owning the book entitles you to anything special under your iPhone?
You wouldn’t expect a PC or Mac CD-ROM (or an Android or Windows Phone) version gratis since you own the app on iPhone, either, right? The book (paper) is irrelevant, it’s a completely different platform. iPad versus iPhone is at most a completely different platform, and at least a subtly different platform, so there’s a possible argument there.
Don’t forget, there are benefits, too, with this model. Almost every single update is free (some developers have pulled older versions and released “new apps” on MAJOR updates, but it’s quite rare to this day), and also every single iOS device gets use of the app you already bought for free. I have an iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch, and old iPhone my daughter uses, and my wife’s iPhone. That’s 5 free copies of apps for us, where-as with a book I could at best “lend” a copy.
In any event, I’m not trying to pick a fight with you, I just disagree that the expectation is you get every app universal – it’s clearly a developer’s decision, and apps have been marketed that way since day 1 of the iPad App Store. But for sure, I can’t disagree more than you own it two times already – the book has no bearing on the software.
PS: I own the NIV translation of the bible in print form, I have a second copy that came in a small group study set I purchased, I have a copy on my Kindle, and then I own two more copies, one via Olive Tree (iPad, iPhone) and one via a subscription to Logos (Mac, PC, iPhone and iPad). That’s five copies I’ve paid for, and knowing me, there’s another one somewhere I forgot. Since they are all different platforms, I don’t complain.
Joanna – You aren’t just paying for the content; you’re paying for the form and functionality of the software, which I’m guessing is at least somewhat differentiated for a cookbook. You wouldn’t want this item if you didn’t value it. Why should you get the iPad version for free? Do you expect a free version for your Macbook too?
Ultimately, the ‘double dipping’ (which as Scott points out is quite common across all apps and software in general) will either maximize revenue and profits or it won’t. There’s lots of discussion on this site about publishers trying new business models but no patience to wait for the market to speak for itself. Whining about it by saying ‘I already own the content so I should be able to own every version ever created in the future for zero additional dollars’ is being intentionally dense and/or ignorant about the economics of App publishing.
However, where I would agree with you is that a ‘straight-text’ book like a traditional novel should not require multiple purchases, as the form and functionality of straight-text can not really be differentiated.
Scott, the point is that if I had bought a straight-up epub version without the ‘extras’ like video or whatever, it would work on ALL my devices. So to me as a consumer, that will be a better choice than paying multiple times to have the ‘special’ app. That’s what I want the content makers to understand here. By making this an ‘app’ and not a ‘book’ and then expecting people to pay again for content they bought already, they are not making people feel great about the whole e-experience—and when it doesn’t pan out for them because a burned-once customer like me stops buying, they will blame the ‘pirates’ and complain that nobody is thinking about the authors.
Anyway, whether iPhone is really a separate ‘platform’ than iPad or not is perhaps debatable. But feeling ripped off because, when they do ask you to pay—again—they charge you double—you really think that’s unreasonable?
i didn’t realize that it wasn’t a universal app in the first place. glad i didn’t buy the ipad app earlier, and now it’s more expensive than before? after reading this, i’m probably going to abstain from getting the app at all.
It’s like you said Joanna, it’s debatable. And to be fair, it is “usable” on iPad, but it runs at the iPhone resolution, which is to say you have to hit the 2x button and it doesn’t look great. 🙂
Here’s a somewhat similar example. Let’s say you owned a nook children’s book. Now they came out with a highly colorized interactive one for nook color. Should you get that for free, or should your nook color be stuck with the largely B&W ePub that you would have on the eInk reader?
In other words, is it fair that the content you bought shows up on all your owned devices wtihin the same basic platform… but if they spent developer time “fixing” it or “upgrading” it to run ideal on a newer platform, that it isn’t a free upgrade?
To answer your question, Scott, no, I do not think it’s ‘fair.’ I think it is price gouging and it’s why people are resisting buying these apps and people like me will not buy them again. Compare it to something like Zinio—it too uses a proprietary format, but it has apps for Mac, PC, Android, iPod, iPad etc. You can download any of these apps, log in with your account and access all your content. To me, this ‘premium’ app business is just trying to swindle people into paying more than once since if you do want a reasonable appearance on your iPad screen and you pay for the ‘premium’ app, but then you have an iPod too, you have to pay again, or vice versa.
It would be like if I sold you a bible and said that it was only a bedroom bible, and if you wanted to read it in the living room, you would have to buy a separate living room bible too. And then an outside bible. And then a kids bedroom bible. Yes, they are ‘allowed’ to try and sell things this way. Plenty of people do go the universal app route, but as you point out, plenty of others do not. They are not breaking any rules here. But I do think it’s unfair to the customers, and I personally will not contribute my dollars to supporting such a model.
And if it fails, as a business model, I think it will be because others will agree with me and will resent being asked to pay again and again and again every time they get a new phone. People will favour multi-platform content over device-specific content, and for perfectly logical reasons. They can sell the app books this way if they want to, but then they should understand that if it fails, it is not the ‘pirates’ fault.
Fair enough – we disagree! I’m not sure we’ll get past that (nor do we need to). On an aside, however, a living room bible is 100% identical to a bedroom bible, which is not the same as a kids bible, so no, I don’t need a bedroom and living room version (but do need a children’s version). An iPhone compiled app is not 100% identical to an iPad app, although it has more similarities to it then a Mac OS X app (even though there are quite a number of similarities down to the tools developers use to make them).
In the end, however, the app description (just checked) mentions iPad specific features, but doesn’t actually stipulate to what they are (other than screen layout).
To me, I appreciate iPad versions with extra features. I’m not too keen on buying an iPad version just to get the 1024×768 resolution. Angry Birds HD had extra levels versus Angry Birds, so there was something “to it”. The $30 SlingPlayer app has just about nothing different than the $30 SlingPlayer HD app, that’s price gouging.
$5 versus $10 with no differences big enough to advertise is somewhere in the middle. I wouldn’t rule out the possibility that other apps DO have extras that might just be worth it to you.
It is important to note, however, that Amazon sells the book for $21+, and the Kindle version for about $19. So at $15, you still are way ahead, and getting the plus features inherent to the app and not to the eInk version. Maybe you didn’t think $15 was a fair price, but if you did, you might just look at it that way.
I cannot personally see the value in buying book-apps or story-apps. These are software applications written not only for one specific platform but also within one specific version of that specific platform. In other words if I buy one of these apps for my iPhone, and I change next year to an android phone, I lose my purchase !
NOT ONLY THAT … but what about when my iPhone iOS updates to v4.6 or v5 ? The chances are high that I will also lose the purchase then too.
I don’t see the logic, other than willingly paying the price for the pleasure of reading the book for an extremely short time, in which case it is grossly overpriced.
Scott, I think you make a good point that noone is “entitled” to anything.
But, in this case there are alternatives available to the consumer that don’t have this problem- epub, etc. So why wouldn’t they prefer to use those when they can. It’s not entitlement, it’s just competition.
And it’s in some ways Apples fault- they won’t tell the app publisher’s any identifying information about the app purchaser- so there is no easy way for them to credit you for having both versions even if they want to. Although I’m sure someone will come up with a work-a-round.
Book apps in terms of an app that’s essentially a book, I agree – what’s the purpose? Buy it on the Kindle app, or through Kobo. I don’t even buy through iBooks, since it’s less universally available.
However, there’s an extreme difference between those apps (I’m guessing – never bought one) and some of the children’s books out there with interactive videos, multi-touch games and puzzles, etc, that tend to be much cheaper than a Kindle children’s book anyway ($0.99 to $9.99 at the high end).
And in reference to this thread – it’s a tradeoff. Buying an ePub or Kindle version of this book opens it up to many devices. Certain reference books lend themselves to apps. For example, a cooking app that lets you click on ingredients as it filters down to recipes you can make with materials on hand. Or a bible app that lets you flip from book to book, chapter to chapter and verse to verse through a fast picker.
Also, I think it’s fair to say that most iPhone apps from the initial v2.0 days when apps were new continue to work. With v4.0, some apps needed updates, and no doubt some vendors had stopped updating the app by then, but I still have a large number of apps that have never been updated since original release that continue to work. It’s a far bigger issue to see apps that use new features in iOS 4 that aren’t compatible with older phones, especially games.
As an iOS developer and an avid reader, I can sort of see this one both ways.
The truth of things is that people want a version 2.0 of an app. They want a new version for the iPad that handles new features, and so on. But developers still need to be paid. If you spend a year writing a new 2.0 version of something from the ground up, you probably still want to have your rent paid. On desktop apps, you can charge upgrade fees… but the App Store doesn’t allow that. You either have to branch the app, or just give it for free to anyone who’s ever bought any version of it once, no matter how long ago.
Putting it in desktop terms, let’s say that it’s 1998, and you just bought Adobe Photoshop 5.0. It’s a decent program, right? Now in 2000, Adobe comes out with Photoshop 6… but you bought Photoshop 5 two years earlier, so you should darn well get version 6 free! Okay, then in 2002 they come out with Photoshop 7… and by golly, you’re entitled to that one! 2003, Photoshop CS. 2005, CS2. 2007, CS3. And so on.
It’s a nice picture, in theory. Lord knows those of us who do photography wouldn’t mind not having to spend money on Photoshop upgrades every two years. But on the other hand, Adobe probably would’ve found little revenue in Photoshop by the time they’ve been giving away free copies to people for 12 years.
The ‘I’m going to introduce a separate iPad app’ is a way to recapture some money when you’ve just had to spend time writing a new version for a new usage model and so on. I tend to like the universal approach because it’s simplier and more popular with users, but I also understand as a developer why not everyone’s going to take that path.
So I can concede that apps… sometimes someone’s going to sell an iPad version as a separate product. It can be annoying for users, but developers are going to try to recoup their costs… be it by ads in products, or selling a new version as a separate product.
But then we come to books, and this gets murkier.
Now, I get annoyed if I buy an eBook and can’t read it conveniently on multiple things. If I buy a Kindle book from Amazon, I want to be able to read it on my Kindle, but also my iPad and iPhone in a pinch, or my Android phone, or my desktop computer, etc. I would never make the same assumption about an app; I wouldn’t expect to pay once for, say, 1Password for Mac back at version 2.0, and get the 3.0 Mac, 1.0 Windows, plus iPhone/iPad and Android versions all for free a year later. But eBooks? If suddenly Amazon went, ‘okay, this book can now ONLY be read on Kindle, not any of the other devices we make our app for,’ I would be breathing fire and storming the gates.
Yet if I think about it as physical books… well, if I bought the hardcover of a book when it came out, that doesn’t mean I get the paperback for free when it comes out. They may have the same /content/, but they’re different /presentations/, and that’s what I’m actually paying for when you boil it down. Whereas with an eBook, I see myself as not buying the /presentation/, but rather the /content/.
The problem arises when you have book apps. Conceptually, you feel like you’re buying the content (just as with an eBook) since you’re buying a digital thing you can copy around and all. But in actuality what you’re buying is the presentation (as in buying a physical print copy); what differentiates a book app from an eBook is all the added non-standard features. Magical search! Animated table of contents! Etc.
This seems to lead to a mental disconnect that can be jarring, as you’ve found.
So, er, in summary… no, I don’t care for book apps, simply because generally if I’m reading digitally I don’t care about the presentation, and I want to buy the
(Well, I got a little verbose there and that got cut off.)
So, er, in summary… no, I don’t care for book apps, simply because generally if I’m reading digitally I don’t care about the presentation, and I want to buy the content to use it where I please. But I also have to sort of accept that book apps /are/ selling the presentation. And just like paperbacks and hardbacks are sold separately, an app set up for presentation on the little iPhone screen and one for the big iPad screen may well be sold separately, too. Especially since they do likely have to cover the cost of developing it a second time.
Rachel, I get what you’re saying in the sense that I don’t think buying the paper book entitles me to the app for free (I only mentioned it because in this case, I think the app developers were banking on at least some of the customer base coming from Bittman being a known brand and users wanting this specific content electronically). Where your argument falls apart for me is in them charging iPad users double what they are charging for the iPad-only app. I found this especially galling since many potential iPad users already had the iPod version, but even over-looking that specific issue, I think it’s still an issue. It’s like charging a tax on people who use one device over another!
If they had kept the price the same, I would have grumbled, but might still have paid it. Now, though? In concert with the other issues I’ve mentioned, they’ve lost me. And I would be very wary of buying any other apps from these people again.
Rachel you make some excellent points there and elucidate some of the finer points well.
Later versions of computer software always provide additional functionality. Hence additional payment is justified (well, they are justified in asking anyway, and note here that many upgrades come at a cut price). On computers the OS does not change often, and incremental changes don’t break apps written for that OS. So I am still using MSOffice version 2004 and accept that I would have to pay for MSOffice 2011.
I don’t believe people expect upgraded versions of an Book App for free. I believe that they will understand and accept that a genuine updated version that brings improvements to the App comes at a price. What they DO expect is the assurance that they can continue to use the version they buy for a reasonable period into the future! I believe there is a broad acceptance than unlike a paper book, software cannot be expected to be usable for ever. But ten years is not too much to expect imho.
So if there is a system software upgrade on the eDevice in question, that breaks the Book App, I do not believe it unreasonable that purchasers expect either an upgraded version of the Book App, or a way of upgrading it themselves with some kind of easy upgrade tool either on their device or online. Free.
I believe the same principles applies to plain eBooks. Readers expect to be able to continue to read the version they bought for a reasonable amount of time – which I believe is in the vicinity of 10 years.
In passing I believe that there is an important connection here with price of eBooks. If eBooks are priced at the right level, the way so many Indie publishers are doing, then the antipathy to buying a second time or a third time will evaporate. Just as it will evaporate the urge to download illegal copies, it will evaporate the barrier to buying multiple copies as gifts to friends, instead of getting involved in lending, and the same barrier to purchasing subsequent versions in the future.
I told myself I wouldn’t jump back in… but…….. 🙂
It sounds worse when you say “charging iPad users double what they are charging for the iPad-only app”… but there are three big factors:
1) A great number of iPad apps have more functionality (and therefore took longer to develop) then their iPhone counterpart.
2) Mac apps have even more functionality (and therefore took even longer to develop) then their iPhone counterpart.
3) The eBook and hardcover book does less in this case, and costs more than the iPhone AND iPad version combined.
To me, #3 automatically justifies the argument. If you can get the entire content of the Kindle version, for $3 less, AND get more features, why is that galling?
But #1 and #2 are interesting and important to note. iPhone apps tend to cost a bit less than their iPad versions, which both cost less than typical desktop software. It’s the way the market has evolved.
I guess I’d have more of a question why eBooks would cost more than two mobile apps.