"The app is free for now (in private beta), while the founders consider monetization options involving freemium services, search offerings and mobile CDN models."
Can you blame them for being free while in beta?
Also remember that Instapaper was a free web app before it was an iOS app, and that Instapaper Free for iOS existed as recently as early 2011. It didn't seem to hurt Marco's sales.
Yes, you're right, I forgot that Instapaper had a free version for a long time. I took out the "in private beta" parenthetical because I thought it was a way to include a link to the beta rather than as a way to specify how long "for now" is. I can see you're interpretation now too.
I will say that the big difference between Instapaper and Spool is that while Instapaper did have a free version from the get-go, it was feature limited. It's going to be hard trying to balance the feature sets between the two when their users are already used to having the whole thing for free.
Comments
You edited out a key part. Here's what you cut:
"The app is free for now (in private beta), while the founders consider monetization options involving freemium services, search offerings and mobile CDN models."
Can you blame them for being free while in beta?
Also remember that Instapaper was a free web app before it was an iOS app, and that Instapaper Free for iOS existed as recently as early 2011. It didn't seem to hurt Marco's sales.
Yes, you're right, I forgot that Instapaper had a free version for a long time. I took out the "in private beta" parenthetical because I thought it was a way to include a link to the beta rather than as a way to specify how long "for now" is. I can see you're interpretation now too.
I will say that the big difference between Instapaper and Spool is that while Instapaper did have a free version from the get-go, it was feature limited. It's going to be hard trying to balance the feature sets between the two when their users are already used to having the whole thing for free.
But you don't know what's being offered in beta! Is it the whole service? Or are they staggering feature releases while testing load?
We'll be offering the whole service, just letting people in off the list slowly so we can make sure everyone has a good experience as they come in.
Avichal, Spool Co-Founder