Imagine putting a ton of work (months of development) into building outstanding software, pricing it at less then a cup of latte (2 minutes of 'development'), so you can reach everyone, and then only being able to get on average 1 purchase/day. Discouraging, no? Well, that's my experience with Typeli- a note-taking app I launched a few months ago.

On the upside, those few "spenders" who bought it, loved it. And not only did they like it, they thought the app was worth the money.

So I researched a bit and it seems that we've collectively exhausted our trust. I think we cried wolf way too often- said that note-taking app, a todo list, a chat-client was ground-breaking, revolutionary, worked like magic- except it didn't. And $1.99 after $1.99, our patience steadily diminished. When you buy a $5 Starbucks, you know what you're getting. When you get the $2.99 Typeli, all you have is the sour taste of some unpleasant previous purchases.

Now, we can't easily change the status quo, but once we understand the environment, it's much easier to align yourself with people's expectations. So since yesterday, I'm been giving away Typeli for FREE.

Reaction? New daily purchases grew from 1/day to 1355/day.

Obviously my revenues are $0 but I think of this as an investment. I'm acquiring new users for $10/each (average price for similar apps). Once I have the base I can then add value by offering extra features that people need and are more than willing to pay for.

(e.g. ability to type auto-highlighted code- hell yeah I want that for $1.99, pictures in my notebooks- definitely worth $0.99 etc.)

I wanted to marinate you with this data to get feedback and spread the word about the realities of the Mac Appstore. Please feel free to share your thoughts and questions.