[NSBlog date:@"8 August 2007"].comments = 0;

A topic I feel strongly about is trial-ware limitation. The most used solution these day is time limitation, and I hate it.

On the MacSB mailing list:

Hi all,

I’ve got a client who really wants me to work up an expiring trial-ware system
for one of their
 apps.

However, I have to say that I’m always really wary of such solutions. I regard
them as easily
hacked (vs., say, a build that just doesn’t contain certain features) and
bypassable; therefore,
I usually try to steer clients away from them, and don’t use them in my own
 stuff.

But, I’ve known these people a long time, and don’t want to just give them a
“gut reaction”
answer. I thought I’d ask here first to see if anyone has any real-world
experience in favor of
either solution.

For that matter, if anyone is willing to discuss how they created a good
expire-ware solution,
I’d love to hear about it.

Many thanks,

B

My reply:

I don’t like either expiring demos nor feature limitation because of the following reasons:

Expiring demos: Easily hackable (easiest to hack, infinite demos). Say a user tries out V1.0, but doesn’t like it. When V2.0 comes out, he hears good about it, but can’t try it and therefore will not buy it.

Feature-limited demos: Can’t try out the full product.

What I prefer, and what I do is Nagging.

It works surprisingly well. It’s timeless, and annoys the hell out of the future customer without impairing functionality.

There’s different kind of nagging:

-iGetter/Ambrosia-style nagging. You gotta wait for a minute or so before being able to use the software.
-Exces-style nagging. A nag comes up periodically. The user can immediately close it, but it comes up in front-most ever so often.
-The 3rd nagging style is where a window is constantly open (user can’t close it) reminding the user to register. That’s IMHO the most annoying one.

Cheers,
 Kenneth

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 8th, 2007 at 2:04 pm and is filed under Apple, English, Internet, Programming. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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