Free vs Paid Apps

The First session at the BlackBerry DevCon 2010 is all about Free vs Paid apps. And whilst listening to the leaned speakers telling us that "having a free app helps you get you more downloads than just a paid apps" - I was thinking "What is the future for the freemium model?".

We have successfully operated a "freemium" service with our BuzzMe Product since April 2009 - and its worked quite well for us - and for our users, but it that what people really want? The commercial alternative seems to be to introduce advertising into the apps, but I personally don't really like apps that include lots of ads - unless there is a real benefit to me and my use of the device - which most apps are just not able to provide.

What about a model where (a bit like what Pandora has done to the music market) where users pay a regular monthly fee to download any number of utility style apps - now that is something that I as a user might actually pay for - and that is also something that could reward developers for their work.

Challenge there is that might provide a way for developers to make a "hobby living" but can it create sustainable businesses? I doubt it.

For developers to grow to scale and create real value in their companies there needs to be a service that users are willing to pay regularly for in a way that the service actually either a) gives them a real cost saving over other commercial alternatives, or b) provides them with a lifestyle benefit that is worth paying for.

We have some ideas about this - but how about you? We would love to hear your comments

BigTinCan in San Francisco

So its DEVCON time again, and we are in San Francisco (well today in University Ave, Palo Alto).

Its going to be a great ride with lots of news about new BlackBerry products already in the rumour mill - check out this story on Engadget reported initially on the WSJ.

Its also a great chance for me to "eat my own cooking" , as I am using all the features of BigTinCan Connect this trip. So far so good.

What I have done is forwarded my Aussie mobile number to a BTC inbound number in Australia and then pointed that number at my ATT prepaid SIM card (that is not sitting nicely in either my Bold 9700 or iPhone - depending on what apps I want to run;). So people at home can call my mobile and it will ring here in the USA - but even better I have created a time of day rule that means that people who call me outside of normal hours here in the West Coast will just get sent to a voice mail - which is then sent to my email.

Then from my ATT SIM I have setup BigTinCan Connect to add this number as my callback number - so now when I call Australia I am calling at US domestic incoming rates. Pretty cool huh! Oh and it shows my Australian mobile number as the caller ID when I call someone in Aus - so they know its me!

COST?

I purchased a $25 pre paid credit pack for my SIM here.

I then used $4.99 of that credit to purchase a 1Mb data pack - to send the call requests to the BTC server.

And now I've got $20 left over for the minutes - which actually gives me plenty of minutes for the calls.

Compared with roaming charges this is going to save me I think hundreds of dollars!

I will post back here on my experiences with the US cell phone network - but for now its working great!

BlackBerry DevCon 2010

Last year's DevCon was a blast, and a great opportunity to learn about the future of BlackBerry as well as doing some great networking - so this year we are going back to DevCon - September 27-29 at the San Francisco Marriott Marquis for more.

Its interesting to see that an event normally in November has been scheduled to end September. What is RIM trying to say ? Focus on OS6? "Blackpad" introduction? new devices? maybe all of those.

We will be blogging and tweeting from the event - so if there are things that you would particularly like to hear about just post it here.

BlackBerry Alliance Membership

As a mulitplatform smartphone developer we work with a number of vendor programs. One of the programs that we think is worth special mention is the BlackBerry Alliance Program. What this program does, is not just give you access to the standard development and marketing tools, but it also lets developers like us get access to other benfits including access to special BlackBerry hardware, training, and other programs.

If you are a BlackBerry developer you should check out the program. Its certainly worth it.

And we would love to hear what you think of it and how it compares to other smartphone developer programs in the comments on this entry.

BTC Connect wins Brothersoft Editors Choice

We are really proud to mention that BTC Connect iPhone has won an Editors Choice award on Brothersoft app review site.

Check it out here

Its a great review from a major app review site - we are pleased to be able to win this award!

Thanks to all our users from around the world for your support.

BTC hits the Australian

The Australian IT has published an interesting article about the iPad revolution and how the technology can be applied - as well as a good update on BigTinCan and were our opportunities are. Its worth a read http://bit.ly/be71sR

Outage notification

We are currently experiencing an outage with our upstream carrier for phone calls in Australia and some other regions. Estimated restoration time is 3pm AEST Tuesday 6th July 2010

Service fully restored 2:38pm AEST

If you have any remaining issues please contact our support email

support@bigtincan.com