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Folding Text 2.1 out -- now abandoned by Hog Bay
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Posted by Andy Brice
Oct 14, 2015 at 01:26 PM
Perhaps, as an Indie software product developer I can give a slightly different perspective.
I have released 3 software products in the last 10.5 years.
http://www.perfecttableplan.com/
Still going strong after >10 years.
http://www.hyperplan.com
Less than a year old and showing promise. I have been putting out a steady stream of releases.
http://www.keywordfunnel.com
Nobody cared. Abandoned after a few months and now completely free (and still no-one cares!).
If a product isn’t paying the bills, you have to move on. BUT you should never make promises you might not be able to keep. I never makes promises about release dates or future features (except on those rare occasions when someone pays to have a feature implemented).
Andy Brice
Posted by MadaboutDana
Oct 14, 2015 at 03:12 PM
I think you’ve pinpointed the difference, Andy. Making promises and then losing interest in your own product is especially galling.
Let’s face it, there’s always been considerable interest in TaskPaper, and indeed in FoldingText. So I’m not sure the making money side of the equation was the real issue; I think it more likely that, as others suggest, the developer simply lost interest.
There’s huge potential for further progress in the text markup market, so quite why the Great Man decided to leave it all behind is anyone’s guess. As someone who owns all his products, I do find it rather annoying.
But thanks for your realistic perspective!
Cheers,
Bill (a HyperPlan user)
Posted by Andy Brice
Oct 14, 2015 at 05:08 PM
MadaboutDana wrote:
>I think you’ve pinpointed the difference, Andy. Making promises and then
>losing interest in your own product is especially galling.
I don’t know anything about this specific case. But if someone made specific promises and then didn’t keep them, that’s obviously not good.
>Let’s face it, there’s always been considerable interest in TaskPaper,
>and indeed in FoldingText. So I’m not sure the making money side of the
>equation was the real issue;
Stephen Zeoli wrote:
>But when Folding Text was released, Jesse touted it as his replacement for TaskPaper, which was his replacement for Mori, as he searched for the perfect app.
Paul Korm wrote:
>It’s interesting that the App Store is still selling FT for $29.99. That’s a hefty price for software that’s officially on the edge of its demise.
Maybe the fact that these various folding apps have gone defunct means there isn’t that much money in them? You have to make a lot of $29.99 sales per week to make something comparable to what a skilled developer can make as a salaried employee. Especially when Apple take a larcenous 30% cut and doesn’t let you charge for upgrades. And many people consider $29.99 outrageously expensive in the app store. (Thanks for nothing Apple!)
Productivity apps is a very competitive area. I can only afford to work on Hyper Plan because of the income from my PerfectTablePlan product. Hopefully Hyper Plan will be as successful as PerfectTablePlan one day. But that could take a long time.
> I think it more likely that, as others
>suggest, the developer simply lost interest.
That is possible. Many developers suffer from ‘new shiny thing’ syndrome. But if he was making lots of money from it, he probably wouldn’t have lost interest!
Andy Brice
Posted by Hugh
Oct 15, 2015 at 09:58 AM
I share the dismay about Folding Text, and other prematurely-euthanased, or at least sold-on, applications.
At the same time, I try hard to follow the Blountian advice, quoted here previously: “Buy software for what it is, not what you hope it will become.” The trouble is, there are often persuasive reasons for ignoring that guidance.
Sometimes, as with Folding Text, there’ve been real hints or promises of good things still to come. As a consumer, you at least hope that the software will be updated to cope fully with, or even exploit properly, future upgrades in your operating system. And despite what Keith Blount says, you may also believe, perhaps unwisely, that you’re investing in something a little bit bigger than the bytes you download. An unarticulated commitment to the development of additional and better functionality that only the original developer is likely to have the imagination, knowledge and energy to pursue? A promise of something that will make your life as a user slightly easier or more fun at some point in the future? If we as consumers tend to think in those ways, are we foolish?
Posted by Stephen Zeoli
Oct 15, 2015 at 02:59 PM
Tons of sense here from all points of view.
Hog Bay or any other developer certainly has the right to pull the plug on an app whenever they choose. Sometimes, if they’ve made promises to customers that they end up not living up to, that can be an ethical issue, but that’s between them and their conscience.
My experience with Jesse (and he’s not the only one—see Notesuite) makes me more cautious about investing in new software (or should if I didn’t suffer from CRIMP). Smart consumers will wait until an app has established a large user base, which improves the odds of continued development. Of course, that mindset will make it harder for new developers to establish a new product in the marketplace.
I want to support the development of new software that intrigues me. But I think I deserve some good faith from the developer if I’m going to do that.
Steve Z.