Boxcar is easily my favorite Push Notification app on the iPhone. It’s 1.0 version was great, and it’s recently approved 2.0 version is even better. Unfortunately, some users complained because it was $2.99 to buy, but used Apple in-app purchasing system to extend its features, charging $0.99 for additional ones. So developer Jonathan George is trying something new.
Following the announcement today that Apple would now allow in-app purchases for free apps (the feature was previously only available for paid apps), George has decided to make Boxcar completely free. With this free version, you will still get 1 free service (Twitter Stream Push Notifications, Twitter Search Push Notifications, Facebook Notifications, etc), and you will be saving the $3 that you can then use towards buying other services, which will now be $1.99 per service.
George has already made the change in iTunes, and the new free price just rolled live. It will be very interesting to see how this new pricing dynamic helps or hurts developers. From a piracy perspective, this seems like a good move. And certainly, there were no shortage of developers that wished they could charge nothing for the app up front, but then charge for features or upgrades later.
Of course, there’s always the fear of “bait & switch” scams when that happens, but I would bet Apple will be watching for those closely — as if the App Store approvers needed more to worry about.
Find Boxcar in the App Store here. Yes, for free.
“Following the announcement today that Apple would not allow in-app purchases for free apps ”
supposed to be NOW not NOT
People can afford to buy and iPhone and give AT&T over $100 a month, but they can afford to support the developers of apps?
Good job George
Who said anything about people not being able to afford paying AT&T.
A lot of people hate on AT&T because their service sucks and they’re a big corporation that doesn’t deserve the money.
Whereas, these developers devote a lot of their own time building great applications for their users. They deserve the money so people are willing to give it to them.
because a lot of us want to see if an app is worth it or not before we buy it?
if you get a crappy meal, or coffee, do you vomit and ask for a refund ?
you tire-kickers and freebie seekers are the reason why piracy exists
in order for the software industry to move forward, programmers need to put food on the table you know
Thats because TV informercial whores have spoiled you Americans with the “refund” BS to get more leads, and now everyone thinks that software is something like a free beer during happy hours.
NEWSFLASH:
refunds only happen in the US, and few other countries with few exceptions.
for the rest of civilised-non couch potato world, buyers are actually RTFM and the fine print.
p.s.
Techcrunch: get some auto-typo-correction plugin for your blogposts, will ya?
Typo! You said : Following the announcement today that Apple would **not** allow in-app…
thx. meant “now” fixed.
where’s my stikipad data?
it’s a good news.many apps are too expensive for us.
I’m just going to point out that the android apps on my G2 can do push notifications on their own. No additional app required. So, I get e-mail, twitter and facebook notifications along side my voicemail, missed call, app update, wireless network, etc.. notifications.
Awesome. Now, when we talk about all of that, as opposed to the topic at hand, we will care.
I’m just going to point out that I don’t think Android does push notifications, but background notifications.
jonathan george is evil:
http://mentaliz...loud_goes_sour/
As someone who recently paid for this app, I’m disappointed in this decision. Not because I “wasted” my money, but because the quality is going to suffer with all of the freeloaders. In fact, it’s already started…I haven’t gotten any notifications for the last hour or two, even though the messages are definitely still coming.
Same feelings, bought the App 2 days ago!
I just downloaded the app and sent myself some test emails but nothing instant yet .. are your servers getting slammed?
“Its” not it’s.
Seriously, you guys are professional writers.
We launched iFax Pro a few days ago. (http://bit.ly/2S86PU)
It just $0.99 and the first $0.99 in-app purchased fax is free, effectively bringing the cost of the app to FREE.
So far the results have been tremendous and iFax Pro has, within 24 hours, jumped to the top 30 Paid Business Apps in the US (and top 3 in other countries such as Greece :) )
We do believe, however, that the FREE app segment is generally perceived as second rate, especially in the Business category. That being the case, our approach may be more effective in the long run.
Any thoughts?
Our “Tweet Push” app beat Boxcar to the punch here ;-)
Thoughts: Spamming your app on someone elses post is good marketing. congrats.
I think this is really about the tablet – imagine a free “newspaper” with clickable ads that allow you to purchase the item advertised- an ereader that allows you to buy books directly and get them right away, pizza app that allows you to order and pay for pazza delivery wherever you are, and so on forever I don’t think it’s just about buying another version of the free apps at all, or that will be just a sideline .
Incidentally, those who want the full macos on a tablet need to think about sitting on the sofa, running a vnc client on the ‘tablet’, and using all the apps and data on the mac or pc in the basement or attic or wherever, which you can already do on the iphone (but you better have magnifying glasses) You don’t really need the overhead, short battery life, or problems of an unsecured, unlimited app OS attempting to utilize bandwith on a fragiie wireless network. IMHO, all the current wireless networks are fragile and traffic limited, not just ATT- live in a semi-rural area, used them all and have experienced this personally – until someone puts high powered , extremely high bandwith satellites in orbit so everyone, everywhere can get RELIABLE, FAST, wireless access and well backed up data storage, the ‘cloud’ remains vapor for people like me.
So if I already have a Boxcar account (paid when they were still charging last month) does that mean I should get more push notifications for free? Or do I still have to pay for those additional ones?
what the f**k?? I paid 2.99 for the app, yet any in app purchases i make from now on are 1.99 instead of .99. thats BS!