Paid apps in Jolla Store

General
#35

As a hobby coder, I couldn’t “afford” to go commercial. First, the money would not be that big, and second, I have a full time job so I wouldn’t be able to invest enough time to the apps in order to justify the price. I wish I had more time, though… For me, currently donationware is the right choice. I have had a few coins that way, and it feels very fair to me.

But I would welcome a native navigator app of great quality with a price tag! And Suomi.fi application, Posti app and all the banking apps I use. For all those I have to have Android app support installed.

#36

There aren’t enough people to support (financialy) an ecosystem of apps. I even doubt jolla would be able to cover the cost of running a commercial shop without getting a big percentage from the devs money.

In my eyes coding for SFOS -and FOSS in general- is more like “art”. Usually you don’t get payed to do it. You just do it because you feel like it. And sometimes money come your way.

@direc85 there is a posti app in the store. No idea if it covers your needs though.

1 Like
#37

Perhaps. But I can guarantee that it will never happen unless Jolla takes steps to make it happen. There’s a saying in the business world: If you’re not growing, you’re shrinking.

How would you buy it? There have been a couple of app developers here-and-there that have ventured out on their own, such as Meteora Softworks (from whom I purchased Quasar MX Pro). But those are few and far between. Jolla taking the time and resources to invest in a no-kidding App Store would pay off in spades. I’ll let Fry speak for all of us:

image

1 Like
#38

A bit off topic, but I got curious. Seems that implementing Suomi.fi app is not as straight forward as some others: https://palveluhallinta.suomi.fi/fi

Not a seasoned API expert, but what I could gather, they require the developer of the app and the user of their API to go sort of the extra mail, instead of just connecting to their service.

1 Like
#39

I’m no API expert either, but I assume in this case (Finnish government level official API) it aint easy.

#40

And do you think that app-developers will make apps just for donation forever? If there is a way how to enable them to earn some money, they will double their effort. I have no problem to pay for good working app.

5 Likes
#41

I totally agree with @unmaintained about Jolla Store vs. OpenRepos.
I don’t think the extra revenue from like 2 apps will be worth anything for Jolla. And people will start to complain about 30% is too high or whatever.
Sailfish Secrets explicitly shows how to store License codes. :upside_down_face:
Also if Jolla would use stripe, Lots of people would shout “Privacy!” for a good reason.
As an developer, you can get lots of support if you explicitly ask for it and I doubt that the SFOS userbase is big enough to get more revenue out of a smaller amount of people buying the App than some of many like your App and donate 20 € or something.

Edit: Grammar

2 Likes
#42

If 30% is too high, then don’t create a paid app. If Stripe is a problem, then don’t buy a paid app.

But give developers the freedoms and ability to create some incentive to work on the platform. Even if it’s just to port something simple.

2 Likes
#43

Why not just make like paid software in Desktop Linux. That is vendors create their own system of selling their apps or use 3rd party systems or app stores.
I’ve bought a few Linux software directly from vendors and the process is quite smooth and easy.
Not everything should be centralized by the OS vendor.

#44

Given the current Userbase I assume:

  • Development of Apps for SailfishOS will currently not “Pay Off” from the monetary side.
  • Due to no way of monetization the Store is not overloaded with crap-apps for 0,99€ from people that want to make “easy money”.
  • I assume encouraged developers at the moment develop high quality software for SFOS in there spare time and “for fun”. They are interested in getting a working solution for there own problem, some nice or helpful feedback, contributions and probably donations to prove, that others respect there work and effort.

I think what we need primarily over monetization concepts:

  • A much more more encouraging review system to provide better feedback and communication with the users and devs in Harbour.
  • Probably some kind of connection of Harbour to GitHub/GitLab/CodeBerg where the Issues, Translation and Development happens, so that the user can be involved in the software development with a lower hurdle.
  • Could think about including a “donate” button.
  • A reasonable fast roadmap to get the most wished API-Features available for Harbour, to prevent “unexperienced” users from Update Issues due to be dependent on OpenRepors, as most apps are only there for no good reason other than “basic feature $feature is not allowed in Harbour”.

However, if someone wants to sell a app, there are concepts like “Wagnis” from @Ygriega, which is an App-Based system that was(?) Harbour compliant. So the framework already is there.

6 Likes
#45

I would prefer to see the Store overloaded with 0.99€ apps from people trying to make easy money, than to have a complete lack of apps. Besides, the days of easy money on App Stores are kind of in the past.

I’m not convinced that free applications leads to higher quality, or at least have not seen the evidence. While it is of course great that there are people creating fun and useful free apps, and that is to be encouraged, equally you find many free apps are half-baked with poor usability or no support.

Paid apps would open the doors to some small businesses who are passionate about Sailfish and feel like dipping their toes, and for games or entertainment developers to port (a game can often be ported quite easily, but that depends on the level of support for GL stuff in Sailfish).

As mentioned elsewhere, in the early days of Jolla I had an app or two I was thinking about developing, but I didn’t want to do it as a free app, so I waited until the Store would support paid apps. I’m still waiting :slight_smile:. It’s not so much the expectation of getting rich quick, but more like feeling some financial reward for spending the time to learn a new platform, and spending it new gadgets or whatnot, plus an incentive to continue to support the app.

#46

Nothing is preventing developers to sell their apps directly or on 3rd party stores. Sure being able to sell apps on the Jolla store is great, but it is not the only way.

Many of you coming from Android or iOS with the walled garden culture and a centralized store controlled by the OS vendor, might miss the open ecosystem that an open platform provides.
Such as Linux or even Windows. The lack of paid apps on most Linux repositories, or the lack of a centralized App Store in windows for years didn’t prevent developers building high quality apps and selling their software.

As @fridlmue pointed, the main issue is the lack a of diverse and big user base willing to pay for basic apps.
Home users on mobile platforms usually pay small amounts in micro-transactions and often under influence of aggressive marketing and behavioral ads.

The user base in SailfishOS, I understand it’s mostly developer, or tech enthousiastes, and many aren’t looking for a clone of Candy Crush, or to have a free app filled with ads and tracking, or pay 1€ or 2€ for a simple calculator or weight tracker. Maybe in the general public some are willing, but I doubt the user base here would do so sufficiently to make a developer rich.

The closest demographic of SailfishOS users, from what I see in the forum, are probably Linux users. Few software get sold in Linux, and they’re mostly for business or advanced users, or some games on steam. Donations seems to work better.

4 Likes
#47

I was waiting for paid Apps too, but gave up in the end and just started coding for free; just means updates take 3 months instead of 1 as it’s spare time only now :slight_smile:

5 Likes
#48

Certainly with the attitude that Sailfish is only for developers, it will remain that way and never gain a larger foothold. I don’t believe that would be good for Sailfish or Jolla as a company, but rather having diverse users. In fact for me the appeal in Sailfish is the user interface rather than the ability to hack it (there are other options for that). I would prefer to see more apps using that user interface.

The beauty of the App Store is that it takes care of deployment, upgrade functionality, payments. Makes it dead easy to create a useful or fun app and make a few bob as a result.

As for not wanting some paid clones of CandyCrush, or even the original itself, why not? If someone makes some dough out of that, and someone else has fun for a while, more power to them. If you don’t want it, then don’t buy.

#49

Sailfish, for all practical purposes, is a walled garden. Unlike the literally hundreds of Linux distros, which offer installation paths for dozens of architectures, Sailfish essentially only runs on a small number of Sony phones right now. Yes, I know there are some other supported models and manufactures, and I know that there are “community” forks, and that Jolla is attempting to woo governments and large businesses, but the majority of people that are active in this community are pretty much owners of Sony devices. So it might as well be a walled garden.

And if it is, then take advantage to start a revenue stream. It might start out like a trickle, but so did Apple when they started selling digital songs, almost 20 years ago. Once the system and process of an app store are put in place, the potential for growth will skyrocket. This is a perfect time to both implement and advertise, as enough people are interested in “third way” to break out of the mobile platform duopoly.

4 Likes
#50

I would rather see the impossibility to install unreviewed third party apps than the use of a restriced set of devices as the defining characteristic of walled garden

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#51

Well, I’m not exactly new to SFOS, or QT/QML and C++ or the world for that matter, but it is labor. True. True True.

Nevertheless, the 99 Cent apps and even the free Ad supported apps so contaminate the Play store(s) (I don’t know about IOs) that it’s impossible to make informed decisions. The quality of most apps is sub, sub, sub. Now, I’m just gaming up again (taking on mostly maint. or future dev.) with work from others I’m picking up. But I’m doing it because it matters. Not because it pays. That comes later.

Yes. It matters. Ok, so I can afford it. Yes. In fact, I must afford it. And in part that is demonstrated by following story:

  1. I note, hmmm, no mahjong. I know. it’s dull. but i like mahjong.
  2. I note, well, I could port this opengl version … ah, damn … have to use another library …
  3. I note, ah, there’s this old hack (that’s broken)… ah, easy fix.
  4. My first release in the jolla store is a quick hack. nasty. sigh.

The point? I’m being cheap too. Can’t help it. Quickest route to the median ‘happiness’.

Why am I telling you this? Well, since I can do the math, the money from SFOS development is not going to pay my mortgage anytime soon. The pleasure from doing the development in a context that’s ‘nice’ ™ is a reward. AND it’s a great bit of labor to get over the first hump. And much of the effort is just about getting inspired enough to go for the real heavy lifting (which is going to take me some time to get to).

But that lifting is coming. Maybe in a couple of years it’ll pay. Doubt it. Don’t care.

2 Likes
#52

Found this recent talk from Purism about using Interledger for paid apps in an app store. An interesting watch and shows in theory the possibilities.

1 Like
#53

Nah, it’s just a very small garden, with only a few people wandering about in it, and no hawkers and games of three card monte.

Makes its sounds rather nice doesn’t it

#54

What is the business idea behind paywalled (native) apps?

  • android has everything → from a standpoint of functional needs, we are covered with anything
  • android is lacking privacy

One reason could be a “warranty” of privacy. But does that fly? I doubt.