In January, we launched the 2.0 version of our popular iPhone app, Streaks. We decided to take the old version and release it as a free/trial version. We wanted to provide future customers with something to play with before they threw down their $2.99. Today, we did it again for Summizer.
Summizer Free features every single feature of the full version of Summizer ($2.99). The only difference is it only lets you save two trends. This allows someone to use Summizer and learn why it’s the best Twitter trend tracker on the iPhone.
Apple provides no simple means for trial ware. Time limited demos of full featured applications would be a huge boon to iPhone developers. Every Xbox Live Arcade title is available in some sort of demo. This allows customers to download it for free, try it out, and make a buying decision. The game is already downloaded on their Xbox 360. Purchasing just unlocks the full version ready to play right away.
There’s absolutely no reason Apple couldn’t do this in the iPhone app store. Their DRM already supports timed expirations. Movie rentals become unplayable after 24 hours. Why can’t iPhone apps? All the screenshots, reviews, and screencasts in the world can’t do what actually using the software does. Trials let the user fall in love with the software or helps them realize the value it will play in their day to day work/life flow. Screenshots cannot do this.
The third party software market on Mac OS X (which is one of the most thriving software circles around) would be no where without allowing their users to try before they buy. Shareware and Trialware has been around forever. It became obvious to software developers VERY early that letting people use their software was the best marketing they could come up with. Apple ships iWork trials on every computer they make. Why, in 2009, do we have a whole new platform that is rejecting this proven idea?
The current solution is to just release a “Free” or “Lite” version of your iPhone software. This means the developer has to maintain two branches of their iPhone app. A free version and a pay version. This isn’t fun. Depending on how you want to ‘limit’ the free version, it can get complicated. If Apple added time limiting DRM to the iPhone app store it would mean free trial versions for everyone. This lets developers concentrate on adding awesome new features to their software, not removing them for trial versions.
For the record, Streaks 2.0 has sold 30-50 copies per day without a single piece of press. Seriously, do a Google search for it. You won’t find it anywhere. 30-50 might not sound that great compared to what the top downloaded apps do with links from popular blogs or being featured by Apple, but considering it hasn’t received a single piece of big press, something must be selling it. We think it’s the free version.
Alot was going on when we released Streaks, so it never got a proper announcement. But that isn’t going to happen with its 2.0 version!
Announcing today, Streaks 2.0. Streaks 2.0 is all the greatness that was Streaks, but with the absolutely #1 most requested feature: Multiple Calendars.
Yes! You can now track multiple calendars using Streaks. Its a very simple interface. Just go into your settings and add a new calendar, give it a title, and you’re in business. Simply slide your thumb up and down to drag the calendar you want into view.
The second big feature that comes with Streaks 2.0 is the ability to browse future and past months. No longer are you trapped looking at just the current month. Need to fill in some dates from last month? No problem, just tap the arrows on the right and left side of calendar and you’ll shift months.
Streaks Free
After adding all of the great new features to Streaks and bumping the version to a well deserved 2.0, we thought maybe the old version could be put to good use.
Announcing today, Streaks Free. Streaks Free is almost exactly what Streaks 1.x was, but without the themes. And its FREE!
Streaks Free was designed to be used as a kind of demo for Streaks. So if you’re still not sure if you want to buy Streaks, give Streaks Free a go. We know you’ll love it!.
Thanks!
Thanks to everyone that posted reviews or contacted us. We really wanted to test the waters first with Streaks 1.x to see if anyone was even interested in the idea before investing more time into it.
It was immediately clear what everyone wanted and we really hope that we delivered that.
Come have a (good) beer with us at the second Richmond Tumblr meetup! We’re going to be at the downtown Capital Ale House at 6:30 on Wednesday, December 10th in the downstairs bar. As usual, everyone pays for their own food & drinks, unless you want to pay for a round, in which case, we really want you to come ;)
Again, we have two favors to ask of you if you live in the Richmond metro area:
If you know Richmonders on Tumblr, please share the meetup details with them by reblogging this post or by copying and forwarding it via email. (Reblogs will have the added benefit of helping Richmonders discover each other on Tumblr.)
If you are coming to the meetup or are likely to come, please indicate that in your reblog. And, please also indicate if you are likely bringing others with you.
Summizer supports most of the advanced queries allowed when searching Twitter. This allows you to create really powerful trends. Here are a few examples of advanced queries.
Summizer 1.1 has finally showed up in the iPhone App Store. If you’ve been holding out on downloading it, then now is the time. If you’re already a Summizer fan, go grab the free update!
Read here about the awesome new updates in Summizer 1.1
AppVee.com gave a nice review of Summizer 1.0. They obviously get the whole idea of Summizer and realize what an invaluable tool it is to be able to follow trends.
They had a few complaints about the lack of functionality, but the great thing is, all of their complaints have already been resolved with the Summizer 1.1 update!
So it looks like the implemented features for 1.1 were well chosen!
Summizer 1.1 has been submitted to the App Store. The new features are really exciting!
The #1 feature with this release is something that everyone has been begging for, active links. Tapping on a tweet now allows you to choose to follow the link that was posted in the tweet. The link also opens in an embedded browser window to avoid disruptions in trend watching.
The other big feature is updating. You can now check for updates on your saved trends from the main view. No need to travel to each saved trend to see if there are updates. Summizer will let you know with the typical “Blue Dot”.
All in all, I think Summizer 1.1 is a pretty big update and makes the application even more compelling. Be sure to let us know what you think!
