Re: Re: Funding for ShadowPlan

I also pledge 50$ upfront for an Android version (more if it arrives
and is good plus money for Desktop improvements).

However, by now, there are several outliners for Android plus several
"note taking" programs that for the average user will look similar.
And Evernote (and possibly others) gets a HUGE amount of financing.
Many of them are written according to the current fad - IOW synch via
the cloud, be flashy, cost a dollar or less.

Here is my take on your target audience and whether/how you can find a
niche:

- First of all, compared to Android the number of smartphone users is
huge and growing, so a small market share would probably be enough. Of
course this means you would not be listed in the list of top apps,
which further reduces sales. Right now the smartphone is driven by
people that want to look cool. Hopefully over time this will slowly
and partly change and people actually want to do something useful on
their expensive phones.

- At least in Germany, quite a lot of users (IMO between 20 and 50%)
are quite conscious of data privacy issues. IMO Google and others
created the "cloud" fad as it is in their interest and told users it
is in the interest of the user also (access your data everywhere), but
people are getting more and more suspicious. So, if you would synch to
the desktop version, that would be an advantage to quite a few people
and would be easy to sell (unfortunately, allowing arbitrary
hierarchies is hard to sell, most people are content with a complete
kludge there). I think this is THE asset you have going into the
smartphone market. Other companies won't want to change as they
advertised all the time that they are about sharing your data over the
cloud (for example Evernote). Other companies of outliners that are
more like shadow also seem to be single persons working on it on the
side and won't have the manpower to make a desktop version from
scratch.

- I think the price point is crucial.
Starting to read Android forums, I am still absolutely shocked about
the opinion of the vast majority of both users and "opinion leaders"
like writers of reviews about price.
For the average person, anyone buying a low or middle class phone is a
looser.
Anyone buying an app or at least anyone buying an app that costs more
than one $ is stupid.
This to me is mind blowing, as I am still holding back on buying a
400-600 € smartphone, partly for lack of a good outliner, so for me a
good outliner on Android would be worth at least 100 € for me.
But reading forums it seems people are only interested in how things
look and everyone knows how much the different phones cost so you can
brag with a high end phone but regarding apps it simply needs to be
flashy. Even reviewers will only give full grade on price/performance
for free apps; And for anything over one $ or € they start to write
how expensive it is and whether it is worth it.
(Still they put in hours into the app. So what is their own time worth
to them???)

Again the DT version will help as people are used to say 50$ for a
Windows application.

Anyway, I hope this changes a tiny bit and that in future maybe say
10% of users (as oposed to developers) will begin to understand that
it is in their own interest to pay more, get a better product, and
save time. So you might well try to price your app like a Windows
application (say 20-50 $) but I am sure this would immediately cut the
target audience by a factor of 10 on Android (I dont read iOS forums,
so cant tell from own experience, but it seems iOS users are a bit
more sane in this respect). But still, 20$ / 10 is more than one $, so
swimming against the flow might be worth it.

One thing you should definitely do is have a stripped down version for
free. That way people can see how well it works on their smartphone
and they can be convinced that a full hierarchy is something they
want.

- Featurewise:
You might first target for reimplementing the Shadow features and as
we all on here know you will have a product that can help its users to
change their life in a major way. Unfrotunately most people wont know
that and wont believe it if you tell them. They will compare to other
programs and even when f.e. they see the full hirarchy and the synch
to desktop as a plus, they will still see some advantages with other
apps, for example:
* ability to like from one node to other nodes, 
* have links to the outside world (for example URL opens a broswer,
telephone number dials etc)
* manage other data than text, for example pictures, videos, audio
notes etc.


I saved a crazy dea for last:
Start work not on the mobile version, but improve the Desktop version
first, for example with a better search. I would pay for that and you
probably would have some additional sales so you start earning fast
and of course later, once you have the mobile version, the improved
desktop will be an asset as well.


HTH,
Wolfram.