Will database fix require new version and paid upgrade

[Andrew Mead]

Hi

I am on he verge on buying your product but reading through the forums there is obviously some issues with large databases.

I know you are working on them but my question is when this is fixed will it be a free update for existing users ?

Thanks
Andrew

[Brendan]

Hi Andrew,

I’m still about 6 months away from the next update. I haven’t made any final decisions yet as to pricing. It’s a pretty big update I’m working on. I’m still working on the Mac migration to the new database engine. Well, that part is pretty much done, but there’s other parts I’m working on. Then I will move on to the iOS versions and migrate them.

Thanks,

Brendan

[Andrew Mead]

Hi Brendan

Thanks for the quick response. Are you able to confirm if the move to the new database engine will be a free update ? I realise that a major new version may require a new subscription but I am concerned that the product needs to be able to handle a few thousand records so would not want to have to pay for an upgrade for just that database engine migration or are the 2 things linked ?

Thanks again

Andrew

[Brendan]

Hi Andrew,

You’ll have no troubles with the current version handling a few thousand records. It does matter how many fields you have with those few thousand records though. If you have 100 fields with 3000 records, then that’ll perform worse than 6000 records with only a couple dozen fields.

Why don’t you download the Mac trial version and try it out yourself.

The update I’m working on I’ve tested with over 117,000 records (on the Mac version) and it has decent performance on my MacBook Pro with that many records. Takes about 6 seconds to load up. Plus the way I’m designing it you’ll be able to have separate database files. So you may have a form with a ton of records in its own database that’s separate from forms with fewer numbers of records in another database. So the big database won’t impact the performance of the smaller database.

In all likelihood it won’t be a free upgrade though. There’s just too much going into the next big version to warrant that. Plus I’ve offered free upgrades for the past 8 years on all versions. That’s pretty amazing value, don’t you think? And for everything that Tap Forms does, it’s still cheaper than Bento ever was, especially taking into consideration the iPhone and iPad versions they also used to sell.

And again, I’m about 6 months away from having anything ready with this one. Especially since I’m still working on bug fixes and things for the current version which of course are free updates.

Thanks,

Brendan

[Frank Tikket]

Brendan,

I think it would be fair to consider perhaps two different pricing models when looking at the upgrade.

Lots of people have spent their money believing in this product, only to find the software didn’t do what they expected. Instead of giving up, they came to the community here to contribute ideas and patiently waited without giving up hope on this platform called TapForms. I think it would be fair to have two models….One full price paid version for new comers, and one which current paid users could upgrade at a discount.

This would be fair to community that has contributed ideas, patiently waited and painstakingly endured for updates to fix their problems or issues. Great program!

[Leo]

I disagree,

I use TF for 2 years now and have a very large database with about 20 (cross)linked forms.

The speed is very good. I know Brendan is working hard to get us users a brand new version with a lot of new wanted and asked features.

I think its fair to pay for such an upgrade. You can’t expect a free upgrade till the end of time for the price TF is. Or do we want prices like MS or Adobe systems for it and then stil. MS and Adobe want their upgrades paid for.

I’ve used TF for 2 years now for the initial price. that is with the OS versions lets’s say a dollar a month. And every month becoming less and less and that with all the support Brendan gives?

Leo

[Frank Tikket]

I wasn’t asking for a FREE upgrade. I was thinking if the new price is going to be $100-$150, at least we should get some sort of credit if we bought the first version. People buying the software today are buying a much better software than what some early adopters paid for years ago. Simple as that.

[Brendan]

Hi Frank,

I would never charge $100-150 for Tap Forms. Don’t worry about that. The price may go up $5 – $10 USD, but I haven’t decided on that yet. Rather than adding in-app purchases for new features, in the past I’ve raised the price by $5.00 to account for the new features. For example, when I added the layout designer, I raised the price by $5.00 going from version 1 to version 2. And again from version 2 to version 3 when I added barcode printing and the label printing engine and the improved multi-column list view.

It’s really hard to offer upgrade pricing for any app purchased on the Mac App Store since Apple doesn’t give a way for developers to do that. The only option is to have a sale on for a limited time and then the people who purchased before get it for a discount (for a limited time), but then also do new customers. I’m not sure that’s fair to the existing customers though. And I’m not sure if Paddle.com offers a way to provide upgrade discounts either for my direct download version. I haven’t asked them about that yet.

That being said, anyone who purchased Tap Forms for iPhone on September 28, 2008 when it first went on sale has received free upgrades ever since. So that’s 7 years of free upgrades. Not a bad deal I’d say. Now, the iPad version came out about a year later and the Mac version about a year after that. But then that’s 4 or 5 years of free upgrades too. Obviously some customers are going to get caught in the “I just purchased the previous version yesterday/last week/last month/last year/5 years ago” scenario when I finally bring out the new version. I’m not sure how to handle that but I suspect it would be something like them asking Apple for a refund and then purchasing the new version I would think if they wanted to do that. Not an ideal situation, but I don’t know how to handle that any other way on the iTunes and Mac App Stores.

Thanks!

Brendan

[Brendan]

Also, this is a great discussion to have. I’m really interested in my customers opinions on this issue. I know everyone would ideally want every upgrade for free for the rest of their lives, but I don’t think that’s a realistic solution to the problem.

Here’s a question. If you’ve been using an app for 2 years and paid $34.99 USD for it and you’ve had good use of that app all that time, is it terrible to have to pay $34.99 again 2 years later for an upgrade with more features than the previous version? Just curious. I pay $119 every year for Photoshop CC. I also pay $79 or so every year for Parallels updates. Would I like them for free for the rest of my life? Sure. Is that going to help the company to pay for continued development of new features? No, probably not. So I don’t mind paying for the value I receive from those great apps.

Thanks,

Brendan

[Frank Tikket]

No I think its a fair price $35 for a major overhaul. Im just curious about those who do not update, will there continue any support for their software. I guess with a new release, I don’t want my Brendan bogged down by users who do not want to pay for an upgrade but still require the support of ongoing updates to support new/later OS updates.

I think you should only support the latest update. I also think it might be sort of tricky for those who bought the software one day, just to find its “old” the next day. Tough question, I wonder how other developers do it in these similar scenarios.

[Brendan]

Well I’ll aim to do whatever is right to make my customers feel good about their purchase.

I know a good friend of mine who writes the Mac version of Tweetbot said they probably should have charged for their version 2.0 of Tweetbot for Mac. They did recently charge for the iOS version upgrade to version 4 though. They of course got a bunch of backlash from angry customers who called them “greedy developers”. And this for a $4.99 USD app upgrade. I think though people tend to get more angry in these situations with smaller priced applications because they perceive them as having less value. And with higher priced apps they perceive them as having more value and tend to realize that nothing in life is free, so as long as the developer is fair about upgrades or whatever it is we’re able to offer then that’s acceptable. I hope that’s the case with Tap Forms.

I know I’ve said this for the past month or so, but I’m still about 6 months away from a new version. I just started working on the migration to Couchbase for the iOS version the other day. Took me almost a week to get it to compile without errors. Now I have to make it work as I did for the Mac version. It took me 3 weeks to get the Mac version to compile without errors though. The good thing is that at the database access level in Tap Forms, the Mac and iOS versions share the same code. So it’s mostly the user interface and interaction level that I have to modify the code. Still, I have lots of work to do and will have to send it out for beta testing for a while too to uncover as many of the bugs as possible before release. So there’s still plenty of time to enjoy the current version.

As for maintaining the current version to support future OS upgrades with updates, that’s a tricky one. Because that would mean that you have to have the previous version still available for sale in the App Stores along with a new version.

Thanks!

Brendan

[C F]

Brendan is super responsive on this forum and when I needed support with the program. His work needs to be compensated obviously, and even though I am a new user I am sure he will price fairly for both upgrade and new customers. The main thing is there needs to be enough financial incentive for him to continue on development and support. I want this software to last a long time after all the migration and customization I’ve put into it. I used Filemaker for 30 years before (talk about ridiculously pricey for a single user) and don’t want to be stuck with databases I can’t use. I think the price is more than fair.

[DrJJWMac]

> Here’s a question. If you’ve been using an app for 2 years and paid $34.99 USD for it and you’ve had good use of that app all that time, is it terrible to have to pay $34.99 again 2 years later for an upgrade with more features than the previous version?

I’ve had Tap Forms for more than 2 yrs. I will pay for the upgrade. The price is entirely realistic based on other apps that I purchase. A six month to one year grace period for those who bought Tap Forms in that period is reasonable.

—
JJW

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