So the software does pay the bills for all of the "free" stuff I'm able to offer. I also sponsor many dozens of home brewing competitions - in fact I can't remember the last time I turned down a request to sponsor one. Even which now has 10,000 members and 3,000 shared recipes is free for the vast majority of users. I've written hundreds of articles for my blog for free, offer a podcast every other week for free, send a newsletter to thousands of people every week for free, authored and run (free), and authored BeerXML - the recipe exchange standard that most programs now use for beer recipes. I do offer quite a bit to the home brewing community for free. Considering the average app sells less than 1,000 copies, the stores take about 30% up front, and beer software does not sell like "Angry Birds", I don't think I'll be retiring to the Bahamas on my app earnings anytime soon. I spent the last five months full time writing apps, and the software is how I make my living. Its handy to be able to pull your latest recipe while at the store or have it remind you to add that 10 minute hop addition. The beta testers that carried their recipes with them, had access to the BeerSmithRecipes search anywhere and brewed using the timer found it worthwhile. Regarding the price of $3.99 - I think the app has value. If I'm running low in space on my cloud folder, I can store some recipes locally on my phone - as many as I want. I can paste a recipe in my cloud folder in BeerSmith, walk into the garage and run the brewday timer on it using my phone. I decided up front to keep a consistent look across platforms, and also to integrate it tightly with the cloud to make it easy to move recipes between the desktop and your mobile device. If you want to wait for the full app, that's fine too. Its a free market - if you don't like the "iphone like" layout or don't need the functionality then don't buy it. Nevertheless - I'm not forcing anyone to buy the app. I think we need to keep the pricing in perspective here. They will then turn around and think nothing of paying $8-10 for a pint at the bar. I have friends that refuse to pay $0.99 for an lifetime license for an app for their $300 phone that they pay $75/month to operate. I personally think the app market is a bit warped regarding pricing. Apparently the tradition on Android is to offer apps for free and then pack them with ads. I've taken a lot of heat over the $3.99 price for the Android version the last few days.
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