solve-sleep-and-energy-problems-with-pzizz

I had the opportunity to talk with Edward Laing, the CEO of pzizz technology limited. Pzizz technology is the company behind the excellent iPhone app, Pzizz relax, a nap application that helps you to release stress or to get the most of your Powernaps . (App Store link)

We’re talking a lot about app prices lately and I know you’ve made some surveys about pricing, could you tell me more about it ?

Yes, we did conduct a survey from existing desktop application customers – and the response was that 75% said that they would be happy to pay $19.95 per module (or more).

However, Matthew (the inventor of pzizz) and I discussed this at great length – and we decided that we really wanted to try and make the benefits of pzizz available to everyone.  That’s basically why we ended up offering ‘pzizz relax’ for just $2.99 – we didn’t want price to be an issue for anyone.  (We may decide to increase the price a little in future, but no immediate plans to do so.)

The application entirely duplicates the desktop version which costs more than ten times more, isn’t the price too low ?

Is it “too cheap”?  I don’t know!  I personally prefer to think of it as being one of the best deals on the iTunes Store, but perhaps I’m a little biased?  ;-)

We are also working on a free version now that Apple has brought in the ability for “In App Purchases” for free applications.

Anyway, we’ve been working on pzizz for 10 years now, and we are extremely grateful to still be going strong after such a long time.  So many other small companies have disappeared during this time.

We will be translating this into something special for the desktop version very soon, as we really do want to ensure that pzizz is available to as many people as need and want it.

These are very difficult times for millions of people, resulting in record levels of stress and insomnia.

We believe that pzizz is, if not the actual solution to the root of people’s problems, certainly an incredibly powerful tool that they can use to help them to carry on and get the most out of life.  However, at $59.95, price is obviously an issue for exactly these sorts of people, so we will be doing a special offer to redress this.

What’s your take on the App Store ?

Do I think the App Store is a good platform?   Good question!

Whilst it’s obviously great for developers to have another channel by which to make sales, there are a few niggles from my point of view:

1 The commenting system in the iTunes Store doesn’t allow responses from Developers.  Whilst I think it’s laudable that Apple allows customers to give their feedback, shouldn’t developers also be allowed to reply to complaints made in public?

2 “What’s Hot” / “New and Noteworthy” categories don’t seem to be real indicators of what’s hot or new and noteworthy  (From experience – despite thousands of sales / hundreds of reviews during the first few days – Apple didn’t feature pzizz)

I understand that “Staff Picks” is a subjective category, but shouldn’t the other two categories be *true* indicators of what’s going on?

3 The application / approval process takes a very long time.  Apple apparently has to deal with 8,500 submissions each week, with 40 – 45 staff members having to manually approve them.  Each application has to be approved by two people.

This means that applications take about 2 weeks before approval, even with simple / minor updates.  Part of the problem stems from the fact that there is a LOT of rubbish mixed up with the “real” apps!

I would personally welcome a 3 tier system

i) Major developers (Household names such as Adobe / Google)

ii) Developers that Apple already knows and has featured on Apple.com

iii) New / Unknown developers

In fact, I’d even be happy to pay a premium if a “Fast Track” service were implemented, whereby serious developers were given the opportunity to pay to get their application dealt with more quickly.

As it stands, I have tired / grumpy / stressed customers waiting for requested features that I’ve already dealt with.  If I were able to sell to them directly they’d now be happy, but instead they’re grumbling because they have to wait!

4 Developers have no way to contact their customers except via their Apps.  I know that sometimes my customers *want* to hear from me, but I have no idea who they are as Apple doesn’t share their name / email with me after they’ve made a purchase.

I am a customer of Apple, and Apple is quite happy to send me lots of marketing emails, but they don’t allow me to communicate with MY customers!

The desktop application has a second module which helps you sleep, is it also coming to the iPhone ?

‘pzizz sleep’ is now in development and we hope to have it in to Apple by the end of the month; it will
also be priced at $2.99

Thanks to Edward Laing for his answers and I recommend you once again Pzizz relax, on the App Store.