Free of charge: economy enabler or disabler?

Christian Zibreg at Geek.com writs an article on so called App Store economy that using free applications can bring up to more than 900$ a day of possible earnings (full article at http://www.geek.com/articles/mobile/the-app-store-economy-how-to-make-900-a-day-with-free-apps-20091014/.

I think that App store strategy of having low cost and at same time high value apps is a winning one, because enables customers buying more at lower prices and helps programmers having well diffused applications to sell.

On the other side I’m quite convinced that if free could be the key for earning more money, at same time is not the key for having internet cleaned of malicious or unwanted ads. I agree on the fact that some providers pay for in applications ads, but some people don’t like having ads shown everywhere. I prefer to pay a little bit rather than having ads everywhere.

I know it could be very personal, but I think that “free” is not the way economy goes on.

This comment as a post also at http://www.geek.com/articles/mobile/the-app-store-economy-how-to-make-900-a-day-with-free-apps-20091014/comment-page-1/#comment-2357671

Is Desktop shop the next stop for users?

Christian Zibreg (http://www.geek.com/users/dujkan/) at Geek.com writes an article asking the question on possible implications of a desktop application store (full article at http://www.geek.com/articles/chips/opinion-what-we-really-need-is-a-desktop-app-store-20090827/).

Seems to me a good idea especially for the average user and especially for the following reasons:

• average users can make “impromptu” buying if price is low enough (like 0.99$ price on app store)
• average users are often afraid of security and tend not to buy if not sure of the site. If the store is considered safe (like app store) will be a plus
• average users can get centralized assistance on software bough, started by store (which can be payed by a small fee) and delivered by the software maker (that can get the rest of the fee)

Seems interesting… 🙂

This post as a comment also at http://www.geek.com/articles/chips/opinion-what-we-really-need-is-a-desktop-app-store-20090827/comment-page-1/#comment-1845072

Office 2010 and web based application

Christian Zibreg at Geek.com comments on Microsoft information on Office 2010 and its web free apllications (full article at http://www.geek.com/articles/news/microsoft-strikes-back-office-2010-arrives-in-h1-2009-includes-free-online-apps-that-rival-google-docs-20090713/). Same thing does Dvice (full article at http://dvice.com/archives/2009/07/microsoft-to-ma.php)

We are moving again towards a full webbization of applications, while Internet isn’t so fast and so accessible everywhere.

And average users are not so skilled to use everything on line.

This comment as a post also at http://www.geek.com/articles/news/microsoft-strikes-back-office-2010-arrives-in-h1-2009-includes-free-online-apps-that-rival-google-docs-20090713/comment-page-1/#comment-1663441 and at http://dvice.com/archives/2009/07/microsoft-to-ma.php

Google OS considerations

Scott Gilbertson at webmonkey writes an article on Google OS (full article at http://www.webmonkey.com/blog/Five_Questions_About_Google_Chrome_OS) also Ron Schenone at Lockergnome has some considerations on Google OS (full article at http://www.lockergnome.com/blade/2009/07/10/google-chrome-operating-system-is-kind-of-an-anti-operating-system) and Christian Zibreg at Geek.com (full article at http://www.geek.com/articles/chips/because-its-free-googles-os-spells-trouble-for-redmond-2009079).

I recall what I wrote some days ago:

“I’m feeling that for an economic interest we are taking a leap back, where everybody’s got his own OS.

I’m not for or against Microsoft.

But I also think that the standardizations we have these days are an achievements on IT side and informatics diffusion.

Advantages are on part of Google OS project, but incoherencies (such as bundled browser)and quite total dependencies on internet should be taken into account”.

This post as a comment at http://www.webmonkey.com/blog/Five_Questions_About_Google_Chrome_OS#comments and at http://www.lockergnome.com/blade/2009/07/10/google-chrome-operating-system-is-kind-of-an-anti-operating-system/#comment-186758 and at http://www.geek.com/articles/chips/because-its-free-googles-os-spells-trouble-for-redmond-2009079/comment-page-1/#comment-1638041