I have an older (Carbon) app in the Mac App Store. If you aren’t aware of it, the MAS has a way of letting you see end-user crash logs. Or at least it claims to.
The website seems… buggy. For example, I have a customer complaining about a 10.10 crash and yet I see no crash logs in itunesconnect.
I have crash logs from 10.7.5 and 10.8.4 and yet when I click the download button, the crash log is zero bytes.
I wonder if the MAS is just buggy? Or could this be something specific to REALbasic / Xojo apps?
Anyone had good luck with this?
As an example of the bugginess, here’s one of my data points:
[quote=156878:@Michael Diehr]I have an older (Carbon) app in the Mac App Store. If you aren’t aware of it, the MAS has a way of letting you see end-user crash logs. Or at least it claims to.
The website seems… buggy. For example, I have a customer complaining about a 10.10 crash and yet I see no crash logs in itunesconnect.
I have crash logs from 10.7.5 and 10.8.4 and yet when I click the download button, the crash log is zero bytes.
I wonder if the MAS is just buggy? Or could this be something specific to REALbasic / Xojo apps?
Anyone had good luck with this?
As an example of the bugginess, here’s one of my data points:
It is somehow. When a crash occurs, Mac asks politely if you want to report.
My apps probably don’t crash because they are not using critical methods and high flying declares. And have been Cocoa since day one on the App Store. But you never know. It is good to have that information.
The fact that the crash logs I try to download are 0 bytes long, and that the statistics are off (“200% of submitted hangs”) suggests to me that the MAS is buggy.
I did get the person to email me the crash log itself, and I was able to help them work around the crash, but that was only possible since they emailed us directly.
You got to accept that the MAS is a “fire and forget” situation. People will get back to you only if they want. Otherwise, refunds are so simple, they may not bother. I do have customers who chime in once in a while, but have noticed that for some products that require a bit of effort on the part of the user, there is a small percentage of refunds. From what I can tell, a bit higher than on my direct sales.
Apple created this whole, buy now and if you don’t like it refund process. I still don’t understand what they have against trial apps. Outside of the app store, almost 80% of sales come from within our applications, which means that a customer has downloaded the app, tried it, liked it and bought it. I’m sorry but IAP is not the same![quote=156941:@Michael Diehr]The fact that the crash logs I try to download are 0 bytes long, and that the statistics are off (“200% of submitted hangs”) suggests to me that the MAS is buggy.[/quote]
To be honest, I’m not surprised. IMHO Apple have spread their software resources too thin and tried too hard to update everything at once. iOS 8, Yosemite and iTunes connect (I know they have separate teams) all seems rushed out to me. I’ve spoken with a great deal of users who’ve run into issues with the new iTunes connect (especially with new applications). Suffered an iPhone that couldn’t browse the web for longer than two minutes, and as you probably know a multitude of bugs in Yosemite.
I would not dare believe that Apple has not considered trialware, since they do offer samples for music. We have to admit that the MAS is probably the most impressive commercial endeavour in matters of end user software, and the formula works. Maybe they have weighted the enormous bandwidth wasted by trialware, and decided they were not going to throw away huge amounts of resources and data center power for it.
On the Windows side, where trialware has become the universal model, the perverse side effect has been a general perception of no value. Free is good, but worth zip, right ? I would not be surprised if in more ways than one, the huge mass of torrent and cracks sites were the direct result of the misconception that paid software is a ripoff. In app purchase is not that much of a different thing. Most successful trialware today use an in-app purchase button, where a user can have his app unlocked by simply entering his credit card or Paypal details on a web page.
In commercial terms, maybe Apple culture, as a hardware company, is a tad more mercenary than the shareware culture. For the user, the end result of a full refund is equivalent to trialware. If he does not like the app, he he gets reimbursed and moves on. But an inconsequent, brain dead user who downloads everything in sight, will not waste Apple’s time, since he has to commit his money before the try. After 25+ years of using shareware marketing, I tend today to lean towards pay first, after one year in the MAS. Results are impressive enough to warrant respect. I cannot help but appreciate the check
That said, I wonder if it were not possible to have one’s cake and eat it too, by telling users they can download the evaluation program from the author’s web site ? Since the description of the app is under your entire control after the app has been approved, if done in a tactful way, it could work.
Ironically one of the companies that Apple always promotes (MacPhun) has a cheap version on the App Store, and then links to a Pro version on their own site. This is 100% against the guidelines!
Would not MacPhun simply pay for the advertisement, so it explains the promotion ?
To stay on the hookie side, all my apps have a built in help section that is an HTMLViewer. It would be extremely easy instead of using local files, to point to a web site, and after the app has been approved, change slightly the content to heavily promote a Pro version.
The other way, nothing would be simpler than take the user to a download page where he can have all the evaluation versions at his disposal.
Maybe what Apple does not want is to have time limited versions or stuff that does not save or put watermarks on images in the MAS. That could potentially damage the squeaky clean image of the MAS quality. Already, all sorts of free junkware with extremely limited features as excuses to sell Pro, are just borderline demos.
As I said, the free trialware is the norm in the Windows world. Yet, it seems people buy much less apps for that platform than Apple users. Cupertino must be doing something right, and I do not believe in the crappy notion that somehow Apple owners would have more money to spare.
[quote=157181:@Michel Bujardet]To stay on the hookie side, all my apps have a built in help section that is an HTMLViewer. It would be extremely easy instead of using local files, to point to a web site, and after the app has been approved, change slightly the content to heavily promote a Pro version.
The other way, nothing would be simpler than take the user to a download page where he can have all the evaluation versions at his disposal.[/quote]
Which is one of the tricks that MacPhun use, their help open up your web browser, and points to a page on their site. I always believed in doing it right and abiding to Apple’s guidelines… How much of an idiot do I feel, a big fat stinking idiot.
I’ve seen apps on MAS that watermark until you pay an IAP fee, these get very bad reviews. The next to no features IAP seems to be the way to reach many potential customers, our own records show that FREE gets much higher rates than cheap, but if you give too much away, then people don’t pay. However if you have an application that people are looking for, it’s a different ball game.[quote=157181:@Michel Bujardet]As I said, the free trialware is the norm in the Windows world. Yet, it seems people buy much less apps for that platform than Apple users.[/quote]
IMHO, Apple users have always spent more on software than Windows users. In a galaxy far far away and a long time ago (8~12 years ago)… I made a living selling a watermarking application, just one app, for $20 a copy. Using the power of Xojo I had an OS X version and a Windows version, no matter how much money was spent on advertising and in different publications and other things we tried, at most we’d sell 50% windows, 50% Mac. On average it was more like 70% Mac and 30% Windows.
How does it go … “Business is business” ? Until Apple decides to take out that kind of practice, it maybe time to use the same trick. After all, if they even give it “best app” status, that says a lot about do as I say practices…
Cheap is only valid if it brings in enough value for the meager ¢99. And then, user experience remains terrible. I see quite a few apps free, with a Pro version separately available. Is it because it is not possible to have IAP into a free app ?
