HanDBase Related News Update!

[mjhanna]

Dave,

Thanks for sharing your thoughts and issues about your continued development of HanDBase. I wonder if a three-pronged approach would be financially successful as well as appealing to a wider market?

First, I would still prefer an option of an outright purchase of a specific version. That should allow me to continue to use that version indefinitely as long as I was satisfied with its features (and bugs) [and as long as a change in the underlying operating system did not break it <groan>].

Second, I believe many would be willing to pay a subscription fee to subsidize new developments if that meant an option of early access to beta versions and/or early access and a reduced price for the final new version. I think it would be reasonable for these beta versions to have a "sunset" feature either to cause them to no longer work after some period of time during which a new replacement beta was likely to be provided, and/or would cause them to no longer work if the subscription lapsed.

Third, I think any significant upgrade, especially which included a new/enhanced feature, should require purchase. There might be a discounted price for an upgrade to the immediately prior version, but full price otherwise. [As I have mentioned previously, I think the price for your product is too low based on the features and functionality it provides.]

Finally, you also might consider providing a way for individuals to simply donate to your development efforts as a way to express their satisfaction of your product along with posting wishes for new/enhanced features. I would guess that the number of such people is greater than zero.

Another satisfied user since back in the Palm days,

[reinbeau]

I'm not a fan of subscriptions, however, I have no issue at all paying for updated versions. I would pay for it just as I pay for WinZip upgrades, for example. The .1, .2, .3, etc are included, but 2.0 to 3.0 to 4.0 are all paid upgrades. Thing is, particularly on phones now, they want everything free or cheap. That's what you're really up against.

[mjhanna]

Yes, I agree with reinbeau that we should pay for updates. While .1, .2, .3 , ... should be free, they should only be bug fix releases. In my opinion any new or modified functionality should be a new main release number, requiring payment.

[b2b]

I concur with most of the others Dave, keep up the good work. I for one ...hope... you can, and will be a able to get a full fledged Mac version up and running in the near future. Set up so we could develop forms to the exact sizes that would port to the iPhones, iPads, and iPods. Yet also be able to create forms more specific to the Mac's screen size saved with an alternate name or something to distinguish it separate from the previous mentioned devices.

As far as new ideas, I don't know if it's possible but is their anyway to create a stand alone, i.e., runtime version of HanDBase? Then if anyone were to create any runtime apps and sell them DDH Software could get a percentage based on sales of same. I for one would be very interested in this concept. And I know from discussions in my field/s of interest I could sell some of my databases that run in HanBase. This would be much easier if I could just sell them as a stand-alone app.

Likewise I would have been more then happy to pay more $$$ for what you just gave us for free regarding the larger screen capability on the 6, 6S, and 6S Plus. To me that's not just an update, that's a new feature capability.

Quite frankly, I think your basic HanDBase is too $$$ cheap anyway. I know you don't want to ask too much, but an additional $8-$10 bucks isn't out of the question in my book.

I'll keep thinking and if I come up with anything more I'll post it.

Bob


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[StargazerLily54]

I too am a long term user, just never posted to the forum before. Please continue with your efforts, finding a good db product for iOS took quite a bit of research, and I was willing to purchase the product, and would also be willing to pay a small subscription fee or update fee to see the product maintained.

[mjhanna]

And with the major new features you added, I don't understand why the iPad update doesn't require a fee.

[griffinr]

Thanks for the update Dave. Looking forward to the next release. Any thoughts to adding alarms back in HanDBase?

[MidlandDeltic]

Well, that answers a question. Frankly, as an Android user, I had felt somewhat let down by the lack of support over the last few years, but as I too have had periods of unemployment I see where you are coming from.

I would suggest that it is time to formally drop Android, given that you have stated several times that it apparently does not sell as well as Apple. It would be a win-win; we Android users could stop hanging on for non-existent updates and look to move elsewhere (even though in my case with 100 odd databases and into 6 figures records wise that is no small undertaking) before an Android update finally cripples the product, and you could concentrate your energies where you get most return.

That may sound harsh. I am a long term, generally satisfied user of HandBase (back to Palm days), and use it almost daily. However, I abhor the subscription model as it allows the software industry in general to get away with small, incremental "updates" which do not represent value for the end user (and usually require subsequent patches thanks to lack of testing and treating users as beta testers). If an update is worth it, I will pay a fee; if not, I won't install it. This puts the onus on developers to produce worthwhile updates; the subscription model removes that incentive.

As it is, I will now start looking for an alternative. It's been good, but all good things must come to an end, and maybe Handbase has come to that time, on Android at least.

Regards

Sean

[delsandberg]

Count me in as a subscriber. What a wonderful product.
How much annual income would you require to make supporting this product worthwhile?
If out of 50,000 users you could secure a $10 annual subscription fee on 20,000 users then certainly it's worthwhile ($200,000).

[MidlandDeltic]

Count me in as a subscriber. What a wonderful product.
How much annual income would you require to make supporting this product worthwhile?
If out of 50,000 users you could secure a $10 annual subscription fee on 20,000 users then certainly it's worthwhile ($200,000).

That figure is well out. Play Store is showing 10000 downloads. Given that you can have it on three devices, and a significant number of downloads will be for trial purposes, and given the lack if development a significant proportion of users will have moved on, I suspect the true number of users is around the 3000 mark. So to get your $200,000 you are talking around $70 per year.

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