Paid vs. Ad Suppprted

Inside RogueSheep: “First, the good news. Putting iAds into an iOS application is as easy as the documentation says it is. And in its first week as a free app with iAds, SnoGlobe had respectable downloads, over 50,000 ad requests, and made 3 times what it made in all of November.”

My brother and I have struggled with the idea of making RxCalc free with iAds support. These results seem to support that idea but a Snow Globe app verses an Pharmacokinetics Calculator? I don’t have the slightest clue how that would work for us. We made RxCalc free for a day just over a year ago and downloads exploded, but there was no telling how many were by medical professionals.

We’ve also struggled to resolve our feelings about changing to ad supported because of our current user base. I think we’d do it in a heartbeat if there was any way to know if we were upgrading an existing user and turn off the ads. If there is a way to do that I’d love to hear about it. We could then make RxCalc ad supported with the option of turning off the ads for $0.99, for new users, and turn them off automagically for existing users.

Oh, and you’d be surprised how many folks are reluctant to spend $0.99 on iPhone applications.