We have been getting so much great feedback that I wanted to take time to answer some common questions.
When will the beta start and who will be in it?
We plan on starting the beta the week of May 11th. Because of the complexity of distributing iPhone/iPod software outside of the App Store, we will be keeping the beta group small. Our testers will be chosen so as to cover diverse set of functionality; if you are not among them, it’s only because we can’t manage everyone who wants to participate. (Of course, we are gratified by your enthusiasm.) We expect the beta to last two to three weeks before we submit to the App Store for approval.
How will syncing work?
I tried to answer this question before, but I must have not done a very good job because a lot of people have been asking for details.
We will support three types of syncing, covering most of the features that people have requested:
1) Local Area Network Sync: This means syncing with your Mac over a local area wireless network (AirPort). You simply launch iBank on the Mac, and iBank Mobile on the iPhone/iPod Touch, then ask iBank Mobile to sync. In practice, this means you just have to be at home, or your office, or wherever your desktop Mac running iBank is set up. It doesn’t require MobileMe or any other web access and/or web service. The data is encrypted for transmission.
2) MobileMe Sync: This requires a MobileMe account and Internet access. iBank Mobile can sync with the MobileMe server even when iBank on your Mac is not running. The data is encrypted for transmission, and because it is sent to the MobileMe servers, you just launch iBank Mobile and sync; your desktop will update whenever it next syncs to the MobileMe cloud.
3) WebDAV Sync: This works the same way as MobileMe syncing, but it can use any WebDAV-enabled server.
Some of you have asked that we support syncing through the dock connector on the iPhone. Unfortunately, it’s not our call. Apple does not currently allow this, but if it does become available then we can consider it.
Will iBank Mobile support budgeting?
In this first release iBank Mobile will not support budgeting. You can see how much money you spend in different categories, but it will not let you set or view budget targets.
How much will iBank Mobile cost?
An obvious and entirely reasonable question… for which we don’t yet have an answer. Given the way the App Store works, we can’t offer one price to existing iBank users and a different price to people who only want iBank Mobile. That’s too bad in a way — what seems to offer the fairest price structure isn’t an option. But after months of development and testing, we know we won’t give it away free. And $9.99 just seems too high. So be reasonable, be honest, and tell us: what do you think is the right price point for a time-saving, money-monitoring mobile app like this?
As always, we love hearing from you.
Thanks,
James
- Direct Access 2 and Open Banking Support in the UK and EU - February 17, 2021
- A chunk of sync update - June 27, 2014
- 2013 In Review - December 17, 2013
I look forward to the release of this!
As for a reasonable price? Honestly, being as invested in iBank as I am, the $9.99 point doesn’t seem to be too far from what I’d pay.
Personally, I think $4.99 would be a sweet middle ground for current iBank users, as well as those just trying out the program.
Thank you soooo much I can’t wait for this app… You have answered all my questions!
Why does $9.99 sound like too much? If it’s a stand-alone app and provides the functionality you suggest, that sounds good to me. I’ve paid as much for SimCity and InstaPaper Pro which will be far less useful to me on a day-to-day basis.
Maybe $5.99 as an introductory price would get some early adopters, but I don’t think $10 is unreasonable. This is a $2-300 device you’re talking about…don’t let the 0.99 fart and flashlight apps taint your perspective 🙂
Luke Hartman’s post was eloquent and well stated. There’s no reason for me to duplicate his sentiments. I think the .99 fart apps do a disservice to the real apps for this device. You spent valuable time developing this app…you should be paid for it.
To me $9.99 does sound a bit steep for those who have paid full price already for iBank.
Didn’t I read somewhere that with iPhone software 3.0 this summer will come a more sophisticated pricing system in the app store? If so, and if you’ll not be ready to launch until then anyway, could I suggest the following scheme-
Make a trial version of iBank for iPhone available as a free download from the app store, but with limited functionality (i.e. Demo mode) so that users can decide if they like the interface and design.
Then offer 2 options of paid upgrade:
(1) $3.99 Upgrade to full version for Mac users who already purchased full iBank – conditional on them entering their Mac iBank serial code
-or-
(2) $9.99 Upgrade to full version for users who do not have a licenced version of iBank for Mac – provides them with a serial code to unlock functionality in iBank for iPhone but does not work for iBank for iMac
This should be possible – some games for iPhone already work on the principle of “free demo with limited levels, then paid upgrade to make the remaining levels accessible”
I would be happy to pay anything in the range of 4.99-9.99. I think anything cheaper than this would lower people’s expectations of how good this product will be.
You did answer all of my questions.
I would be glad to Beta test.
For me a price between 5 and 10 would be faias well.
thanks for the update!
WOW! THIS is what I have been waiting for for the past year from yall. THANK YOU! Sounds great and I for one would happily pay $5 for it, maybe more! If you want to get newer users, you may want to stay around the $5 area though. I can’t wait. No more biweekly finances! I can do it on the go now! THANK YOU!
I don’t see a problem with pricing at $9.99, especially for an app that I would certainly be using daily. I paid more than that for OmniFocus and don’t begrudge them that at all. When I think how much I’ve spent on Apple apps including Adobe Creative Suite, Final Cut Studio, Logic, Ableton live etc.
$10 is nothing. I’ve just spent twice that on a chinese takeaway that lasted a whole 10 minutes!
Again, I’m happy to Beta, also have a dev account and v3.0 if needed.
Thanks for the update James. It will be nice to have sync options! And thanks for including spending by categories in advance of full budget support.
I think many of us would pay $9.99 for the app, but you may get more new users with a lower price. Maybe just something lower as an intro price as some have suggested.
p.s. to beta Cha-Ching Touch all we had to do was send our device ID and they sent us the app and a provisioning file. Piece of cake.
9.99 sounds very fair. If you need a beta tester I am a apple dev also and have the sdk.
KJ
Hello from Switzerland, where we’re all mega wealthy and don’t mind paying anything 🙂
I think Ilium Software (eWallet) had the same quandary a while back. If I remember correctly they did a special intro price or free for a short period so their regular users, who were eagerly waiting in the wings, could get the software before rapidly bumping the price up, I think to 9.99.
Looking forward to the release, and also available to be a beta tester!
In my opinion a price greater than 4.99 would be perfect. I think 5.99, 7.99 and 9.99 are the prices iBank mobile should cost.
$9.99 is fine. I’d rather pay more and have you committ major resourses to the software. I hope this is something that I’m going to use everyday and so 10$ is fine if it’ a great app.
Technically you can offer a lower price for current iBank users because you can send them an iTunes promotion code that can lower the price by however many dollars you wish to lower it. So if the app is $9.99 you can give a promotional code for 4.99 or something no?
I agree with everyone that $9.99 is not too much to ask- especially for an extension of a desktop app that I use near daily- and an app that is so important to most users. I might be inclined to think of it in terms of percentages- what percent of the cost of the desktop app should be the cost of the mobile app? 10%, 15%? If you guys are sinking a fair amount of time into this $10 isn’t to much to ask. I paid $15 for a weather app that I use ALL of the time. It now costs $5, but I have never regretted spending $15- they’ve put out some choice upgrades and it’s a valuable app. If you’ve got a feature rich app that just works, people will pay for it.
I think a question that people here have is how you are choosing beta testers. We would ALL love to be a tester, but I think no one has an idea how to become one. Is it like a lottery where you pick people who comment on the forum, or do you have a stash of brutally honest friends from which to choose?
Thanks!
Well, for me I would think “reasonable” would fall into the 3-5 buck range. I’ve already invested in the software and the iphone app is nice, but not totally necessary. I’m likely to buy it as long as I don’t feel I am getting milked and taken to the cleaners for an app.
Again, 3.99 to 4.99 sounds reasonable to me if the app is going to be supported and built out to support ibank. I’ve been pleased with the software on my mac and have no reason to believe this app won’t be fully supported and useful as well.
Thanks,
I would gladly pay $9.99 for this app. But starting at $5.99 or so would bring more people on board to make it an even greater app later down the road. Either way I am buying it!
I also agree with a $5-$10 price range. I also agree with RiK about Beta Testers, how are those to be chosen? And how do I get my name in the pot? Thanks for the update, it answered a lot of lingering questions! Can’t wait for the App!
Looking forward to the new mobile app! $5.99, $7.99 or $9.99 all seem fair for real productivity software we’ll use everyday. Thanks for the effort!
I had abandoned iBank for its lack of a native iPhone app and am working quite comfortably with a 2.99 application just on the phone now. So, while I’d agree that 9.99 is not UNreasonable, anything too high compared to competing products would make me hesitant to get back to iggsoftware.
(And please can we stop the “this is a $300 device” nonsense. It’s totally irrelevant to the software running on it, and my iPhone came free with my contract anyway.)
I think the Special Introductory Price (hurry while stocks last) type of thing, followed by a hike would be best. Most Apps appear to sell best for around 3.99, so I’d start there and see how it sells, you can always boost it up a bit later on. I’m curious to know how well 7.99 and up Apps sell. I bought OmniFocus for 11.99 (I think) which I think was really too high – particularly as the Desktop version to sync it with costs… what? $40? Plus, Things does the same thing and is way cheaper. You aren’t just selling to your existing iBank customers and there are already a lot of inexpensive finance Apps. Clearly, this will have distinct advantages, but even so. If the price is “sweet” enough, although not in the Fart ‘n Flashlight zone, you could sell shedloads of copies.
I’ve paid $9.99 for lesser apps. For the use I’m going to get out of this, $9.99 is not an unreasonable price at ALL. But, of course, I wouldn’t hate you if it was less expensive. 😉
I am _so_ looking forward to the iPhone/Touch version of iBank.
The big seller here (for me at least) is syncing with the desktop app. Oh, the joy of not having to do double-entry!
For pricing, I think a regular price of $5.99 would be attractive to most users.
If you choose a higher price, then a special intro price for a limited time would be appreciated! Most of your early customers will undoubtedly be iBank desktop users.
I’m still using version 2 of iBank, not having Leopard, but that should change very soon. As such I will be investing in the version 3 upgrade. I know that the App Store prices sound like peanuts but it does add up…
Adelus
Gonna’ throw my 999 cents in here, and say I think 9.99 would be fine! Of course, you might have to consider an introductory price slightly lower for early adopters. Of course, there will always be complaints about bugs, despite the reduced price. I would pay $9.99, and not worry about bugs as an early adopter. But I might have more patience than most folks.
And I just can’t wait to see it in the app store! Thanks again (in advance, again) for this product!
Lawrence
so what do we have to do to get a our name thrown into the hat to beta test this?
Based on what other apps are selling for and that ibank mobile will be early into its life cycle and likely have a few bugs that will need to be ironed out which may or may not cause a bit of grief I would say that $4.99 would be a fair price.
Considering the screenshots and the features you have described, $9.99 sounds entirely fair, and I’d pay that. Anything else in fact seems too low. The best apps I’ve ever bought were in that range, classing them apart from the crap sub-$5 deals.
A lite version is of course a good way to go to gain new users.
Just wanted to add more comment regarding my reason to price at $4.99. When you indicated that there would be no budget feature I was a little disappointed but understand that this is the original release and that you will eventually add this feature, hence the reason to price at no more then $4.99. For myself, the budget feature is the most important feature of a mobile accounting app, much more then adding transactions.
Using your logic James, the update that adds budget features needs to be a PAY FOR update, not a free one. Or you can pay for the budget functionality now, and have it be a free update.
I would say start it off around 4.99 for the first week, then increase the price to around 9.99. As many have said those of us who constantly “monitor” your status on this 1.) are iBank Desktop users and 2.) are chomping at the bit to get this app in our hands (no pun intended…ok maybe a little).
As for beta testing +1 here…As others have mentioned I kinda remember Apple talking about some way for enterprises to release their apps to only enterprise members. Would this not fall in the same category??
I agree with the majority here that $9.99 is not too much to ask. I would personally like to see it between $4.99-$6.99. I use the current iBank webapp every day and cannot wait for this one. I will use the native app everyday as well once it is released and I can’t say that about any other 3rd party app for the iphone, so for this reason I would gladly pay a $9.99 pricetag for this superior product.
Pricing aside, I can’t remember anywhere it’s mentioned that this app will support photographs of receipts. It would be nice if that could then sync them to a folder on the desktop computer and linked to the transaction in the desktop version of iBank. Ok, maybe I’m asking for a lot there. But that would be a dream feature for me, since I use it to track my business expenses.
I’m a hard user of iBank Desktop.
I have a mac.
I would pay US$9.99 or even more for iBank Mobile.
I’m belong to a minority.
The pricefication is one of the most important things in a product developement, and I think you guys should plan it well, not only based on about 35 others hard user’s comments. Users that belong to the minority.
Most of the iPhone/iTouch users don’t know iBank Desktop or don’t even use a mac, and they are used with the .99-2.99 iPhone finance apps. You should think in all users of the appstore that would love to know iBank. Users that would buy the desktop license after try the mobile version. And even if some of them are PC users, you should think in bring them to our plataform, showing iBank Desktop as one of the fearures Mac Users have.
Remember that you can find a lot of well known personal finance apps in appstore. And remember that you can earn a lot by quantity there and that the Desktop pays you better per sale.
I really think you should realease it with a promotional price between .99 and 1.99 the rise it after a couple of months to 3.99.
You will earn a lot at appstore and you earn a lot selling desktop licenses.
After you guys get rich, I’ll send you my bank account, ok?
I support Rodrigos opinion.
I would say that 3.99 seems to be the sweet spot after initial promotional period that should be between .99-1.99.
Devoted iBank AND iPhone users would buy it even at 9.99 at day one. But keep in mind, what analyst says about Apple and hallo effect – according to them, Macs are back to market in good shape thanks to other products like iPod and iPhone
Same effect may be appear here – you may have number of new iPhone only clients, some of them may migrate to your desktop application, but for sure not all (just have a look at your iPhone and honestly admit how many apps you have that has not been in user almost ever), and you may count on your current user, as far as we are using iPhone at the same time.
I also agree that luck of even simplest budgeting is a weak point.
I support Rodrigos opinion.
I would say that 3.99 seems to be the sweet spot after initial promotional period that should be between .99-1.99.
Devoted iBank AND iPhone users would buy it even at 9.99 at day one. But keep in mind, what analyst says about Apple and hallo effect – according to them, Macs are back to market in good shape thanks to other products like iPod and iPhone
Same effect may be appear here – you may have number of new iPhone only clients, some of them may migrate to your desktop application, but for sure not all (just have a look at your iPhone and honestly admit how many apps you have that has not been in user almost ever), and you may count on your current user, as far as we are using iPhone at the same time.
I also agree that luck of even simplest budgeting is a weak point.
I myself would pay $9.99 for this application. Perhaps something less, between $6 and $8, is needed to draw in new users. However, I think the application has to cost more than $5 in order to demonstrate its seriousness and differentiate it from all the crap applications on the iPhone App Store. Of the many applications I’ve bought on the Store, it has only been the ones at $5 or more that have been of real quality (e.g. OmniFocus, Air Sharing, Zen Bound.)
Doesn’t matter what price we’d be willing to pay. What most people above are missing is really this: how much profit does IGG want from the mobile app? Pricing it at $9.99, for example, does NOT necessarily mean they’ll get paid more in the long run. If the price is too high, many people won’t purchase it. The app has to be priced in a particular range where it’s cheap enough for people to casually purchase it without having to think about the expense, and it should be priced high enough to pull in a decent profit for IGG.
iBank Mobile is going to be a niche app for sure, it won’t be a huge seller like some other apps out there. Windows users are already left out of the picture right off the bat. I think $2.99-$4.99 is the perfect range for this app. Anything lower and IGG may not profit enough. Anything higher and we’re looking at potential lost sales.
Just my two cents.
Ok.. this is getting a bit ridiculous… Cha-Ching has a app out, and now quicken has a app out.. when is this going to be released?
$9.99 is a fair price as long as the app is awesome. If it’s buggy and not very featureful, then it’s a rip.
IMO you guys should do an intro price (say, the first month) for $3.99 or so, as a “thanks” to all of us who kept using iBank.app even though the iPhone version took 100 years to come out and we could have switched to different finance software but we didn’t.
Regardless of the price, it would be nice to have a chance to play with new toy ASAP.
Current webapp is only substitute, not a real solution, so please give it to us, and we will see if we can afford it 😉
Agree with users here that 9.99 is not too much to pay and sounds like a fair return for your work. But you might want to consider the psychology of different price points in other currencies, depending on how much of your demand comes from overseas. At 6.99 you may attract more domestic (US) users and also (mostly) stay under €5 and $10 Australian, for example.
if you want to give package users a discount (although I don’t really see that being necessary) given the advantages of syncing), couldn’t you do it on the price of iBank?
I do like the idea of introductory pricing too! 😉
Good luck with it. Can’T wait.
So?
Any date?
According to this post the beta has been out for 2 weeks. Can we get an update on how it’s going?
I agree ( different Jacob!)
We Are going on a month with no updates?!?!