Most TextExpander users are familiar with the Statistics window:
It’s really too bad more applications don’t track such things.
In truth, every time I use a program like 1Password to fill a login or use LaunchBar to do some action in split seconds, they’re paying me back. Many multiples over.
Good software is virtually free, regardless of its purchase price, because the payback dwarfs the investment. If your time is worth something, you’d be rational to pay hundreds of dollars for applications you use every day.
Of course, people aren’t rational. They’re not very forward-thinking either. Most people this month will, without question, spend more money on half-consumed, milk-diluted espresso drinks than they’ll spend on time-saving software, one time.
Software makers are stuck pricing products based on the perceptions that govern buyer behavior.
But still. I wish more developers would show you just how cheap their products really are. Or better, just how expensive it is not to buy them.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Not sure how most developers would implement this, and to be honest, I’d forgotten that TextExpander even had that statistics window. But I couldn’t agree more with the underlying premise, and have often been dumfounded reading user comments and “reviews” that get snarky about the few dollars less that *they* think a developer should charge for a simple utility program. Especially since I think that in my case, your examples of 1Password, LaunchBar and TextExpander had probably each paid for themselves in time saved during their respective trial/demo periods, before I even paid for them!
Nice post. I would add Divvy to this software category. They need to add Stats feature.