I admit it, I like to Twitter (Tweet). To help me feed this addiction even when I’m away from the computer I’ve been using the 0.9 beta versions of Twibble Mobile, a free J2ME Twitter client that works perfectly well on my Nokia handset so I can Tweet wherever there is a 3G connection.
Just recently Twibble has moved out of beta to a final version 1.0, but in my opinion they’ve handled it badly and risk alienating and losing the users they’ve gained up until now.
Twibble Mobile
Simultaneously with the move out of beta the developers have introduced a charge for the software for the first time. At under 5 Euro it’s not much to ask and the software is worth it, but that isn’t the issue.
The 1.0 free version has had its functionality reduced to the point where it’s almost useless, by restricting the total number of Tweets you can view to just 10 and introducing an annoying nag screen when the application first starts. The problem is that, since the last 0.9 series beta version had expiry code built in, users are being forced into either paying the charge or “upgrading” to the crippled version.
Those who had a perfectly usable mobile Twitter client a couple of days ago are now left with crippleware, and there are also reports of long delays processing upgrades for those that have actually chosen to pay. It’s little wonder that many previously loyal users are now looking at alternative offerings. Imagine how you would feel if Google started charging to see the second page of results – you’d be giving Bing a try I suspect. Now think of the difference if they just started charging for newly added search features instead.
By all means charge for 1.0, but why force a downgrade on your users by making 0.9 expire? Instead of taking functionality away from the free version, why not follow the path trod by many a developer before (for good reason) and provide new or extra features only for the paid “premium” version?
When you offer features to users for free and give no indication that they will have to pay for them at some point in the future, they logically form an expectation that they will always have those features for free. When you then hide those features behind a paywall, your users will get upset. This isn’t rocket surgery.
Twibble is good, stable, usable software, but the jump from beta has been handled very badly and is a real customer relations failure.
John Girvin is an experienced a software engineer and web developer based in Belfast, Northern Ireland. He draws on over 14 years of hard won, real world experience of different projects, clients and working environments.
John is currently working with the Art Technology Group (ATG), developing J2EE based, market leading e-commerce technology.
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I quite agree with what you have to say. I also wrote a post about this same topic, outlining how I think Twibble should and shouldn’t have handled the launch of their paid version:
http://jaron.nl/blog/2009/twibble-how-not-to-launch-a-paid-version-of-your-free-app/