When Google acquired Sparrow last week, the creator of the successful email app, many customers were concerned that the app won’t be getting any new features, that the anticipated iPad version won’t be coming out, and even that the Sparrow crew won’t be working on their own, preferred projects.
The Verge takes a look at the perspective of other app developers and asks whether it may be time for a new distribution model.
“Sparrow did everything right. They built an incredible email app with broad appeal and released it into the hottest software market the world has ever seen. And yet it was a financial flop,” wrote David Barnard, the founder of App Cubby. “The age of selling software to users at a fixed, one-time price is coming to an end,” disrupting consumers’ desire to get “more and more value from software while paying less and less for it.”
Marco Arment of Instapaper agrees the current climate explains Sparrow’s decision to sell: “In the reality of our fast-paced, boom-and-bust industry, even very strong support from customers may not be enough for many companies to stay in business,” he wrote in a post.
“The Sparrow guys have homes, and families,” wrote developer Matt Gemmell. “They have every right to cash out and take new jobs. They’re winners.”
If Barnard is right and the one-time fixed price is on its way out, could new app start-ups have a better chance of going it alone and being profitable?
When Google acquired Sparrow last week, the creator of the successful email app, many customers were concerned that the app won’t be getting any new features, that the anticipated iPad version won’t be coming out, and even that the Sparrow crew won’t be working on their own, preferred projects.
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