[ANNOUNCE] SqueezeCommander 0.9 for Android

[pippin]

@bluegaspode: for the 200€ you are deducting tax and insurance twice. And the 100€ per hour would be including all of the taxes and stuff. Which doesn't invalidate your point, of course.

[socistep]

Just to do the math correctly for the Google World:

He had 5000 sales in April 2010 and 10.000 sales in Feb. 2011 (can be seen on other sites). So expect him to be at 14.000 right now. (Also expect that his daily sales will have drastically dropped since there is the free Logitech App).

In Okt. 2009 he released the first version, so he is involved for 2 1/2 year with this project. Google takes 30% share, German income tax again around 30%. Social insurance contributions 20%.
VAT shouldn't apply for him as I think he configured Google to add it to each purchase where applicable.
Accountant to support his GmbH might be around 3000€ / year, purchasing some common test devices one needs for Android development will be 1000€.

Even if we don't substract german taxes and social contributions and calculate it from his companies point of view:
14.000*3€/2,5y*0,7 - 2y*3000€ - 1000€ = 4760€ / year = 400€ / month.

Economically at common rates 400€ justify 4h of development or support per month, now much less due to the Logitech App.

If he just paid it out to himself, he'd get around 200€ / month. People not working at all in Germany get around 700€ / month ("Hartz 4 + Wohngeld").
----

Don't want to argue, if it's a good income or not.
Everyone has to decide for himself, if it's a good decision to stick (or start) with Squeezebox App development as a hobby.
At least one shouldn't try to found a company based on those numbers

I think you also need to consider that the app was on sale for 6euros at some point, according to the website, also there was a major rewrite in May - see post #440 - I bought on the back of this and many other would have done, so potentially would have seen a peak in May.

I guess this is the risk that you take in purchasing an app that the developer may reprioritise

[Goodsounds]

Bluegaspode and Pippin, your comments about the financial aspects of the app are irrelevant. Who cares what the tax rates are or what other expenses he has? People are buying an app, not a share of his company. How much or how little money he makes is his issue. Businesses fail all the time, just usually not in this way.

I'm sure a big part of his starting the project was, like you guys, the challenge/fun of it. But whether it's been a great success or a dud is nobody's concern. The people this guy is screwing are the ones who paid to contribute to his success.

I think this guy's disloyalty to the community that supported him is sad. Just some minimal "Not enough business, good bye, good luck" would have been enough. He should pull it from the Android Marketplace if he's decided to move on.

[pippin]

The people this guy is screwing are the ones who paid to contribute to his success.

I think this guy's disloyalty to the community that supported him is sad.

Sorry, that's nonsense.
He sold an App, not some community participation.
If you purchased the App and it doesn't work, send a support request to his support e-mail. If he doesn't answer, THEN you've got a reason to complain.

Writing stuff in the community is fun/marketing/service but it's not part of the business he's doing there.

And he's not screwing anybody, SqueezeCommander for most people is still the best working Android App around. Is Logitech screwing their customers because their Android App doesn't work on a number of devices? That lack is much more serious than SqueezeComamnder's.

[Mnyb]

Of one stops development, it would be nice to just say that this app suports sbs up to 7.5.x or 7.6.x wherever you draw the line, there are poeple here who are not leaving the older versions off sbs for a long time for them such app is still good and valid, pulling it would not be a good option.
i have no andriod ( yet ) so, what does the sale blurb say ? Which version should it work with ?

No one can promise endless upgradability, especially in squeezebox context, If I understand the 3rd party devs , the " interface " against the server changes often.

The best effort any third party app can do is to clearly claim which ss/sc/sbs/lms version(s) that work and something of the short term future if such plans exists.

Another way would be to eventually develop "squeezeblob2" or what you have and charge again if you practically have rewritten "sqeezeblob1" from ground up to support all changes, this is not uncommon practice for longlived software often with discounts for owners of the old software.

[bluegaspode]

I think this guy's disloyalty to the community that supported him is sad. Just some minimal "Not enough business, good bye, good luck" would have been enough. He should pull it from the Android Marketplace if he's decided to move on.

I just wanted to present the facts about the economic side, that shouldn't be a statement about Flattermans behaviour or if its justified by his income or not.

I think the current development here is sad indeed, but obviously flatterman decided that there are more important things in his life now than observing the community.

And why should he pull the trigger? His 3€ app is working fine on most devices and still serves many people very good. It's still the much much better alternative compared to what we get for free from Logitech - it would be an even bigger miss if it was removed from the market (even if it doesn't have support via the forum anymore).
I still recommend it to everyone asking.

And for those where it doesn't work, there are very easy ways to get the money back on the Android market. Much much easier than with Apple for instance (I can click an a single button myself for each purchase to just refund it, also every user has a simple 'Request refund'/message button in Google Checkout)

Logitech also doesn't stop selling their devices, just because for some users the alarm doesn't work.
Or the iTunes integration.
Or the [put in your favourite personal bug(s)]


Don't understand me wrong: I'm definitely on your side. Everyone who sells Apps on the AppStore should provide good and excellent support.
But if they don't lets try to be objective about what one can really expect from his purchase. Its often much much less than we are used to.

[pippin]

Of one stops development, it would be nice to just say that this app suports sbs up to 7.5.x or 7.6.x wherever you draw the line, there are poeple here who are not leaving the older versions off sbs for a long time for them such app is still good and valid, pulling it would not be a good option.
i have no andriod ( yet ) so, what does the sale blurb say ? Which version should it work with ?

It works with 7.5.4, 7.6.1 and 7.7 for me right now.
I suspect issues are more related to Android versions, 2.3 seems to be a problem on some devices right now. Honeycomb, too.

[mherger]

> The so-called "scrolling bug" on the free app isn't a simple
> inconvenience, it's debilitating. To be polite, it makes the free app
> completely useless on some hardware. There doesn't seem to have been an
> update in 6 months, notwithstanding numerous complaints about it being
> broken.

Please test the pre-release build you can find here:
http://bugs.slimdevices.com/show_bug.cgi?id=17528

I'm trying to get this out asap.

--

Michael

[Goodsounds]

> The so-called "scrolling bug" on the free app isn't a simple
> inconvenience, it's debilitating. To be polite, it makes the free app
> completely useless on some hardware. There doesn't seem to have been an
> update in 6 months, notwithstanding numerous complaints about it being
> broken.

Please test the pre-release build you can find here:
http://bugs.slimdevices.com/show_bug.cgi?id=17528

I'm trying to get this out asap.

--

Michael

I'm a non-technical person. I'd be willing to pitch in, but would need more clear instructions on how to load it on my phone (which does seem to allow non-Marketplace programs).

[Jeff Flowerday]

I'm a non-technical person. I'd be willing to pitch in, but would need more clear instructions on how to load it on my phone (which does seem to allow non-Marketplace programs).

Just open the apk file on your phone and it will install. Use the file explorer app.