Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Premium
I hit my teens during the golden age of Napster. I can still remember the feeling when my older brother first brought me on board the HMS Napster for my first foray into piracy. Music with a few keystrokes and a click. I was hooked.
From that moment on the internet could only be free. Movies, books, and software were all obtainable for the price of persistence and the equivalent of knowing the secret knock to a speakeasy. Through the power of an insanely fast internet connection and some motivated geeks I could obtain a terabyte movies during the course of a day in college.
My point? I am just a drop in the ocean of hackers who, inspired by the efforts of organizations like the RIAA, vowed to not pay for that which I could easily obtain through a download and a key-generator. I couldn’t afford the $15 for a CD, or the $20 for a DVD let alone the $50+ cost of software packages. Since I didn’t have a job my efforts went into schooling myself in the dark arts of computers and the internet. This carried me through college keeping my iPod full and my entertainment costs at a minimum.
Then I graduated and got a job… Making software.
Shit.
I was finally making money and being the gadget-head that I am, the first paycheck arrived and it went to directly buying a Droid-X and getting my hands on that oh-so-sweet unlimited data plan. I had selected the Android Os for two purposes.
1) It wasn’t made by Apple.
2) Most apps were free.
The second reason is why, despite Android’s dominance in market share, developers aren’t cashing in at near the rate they are on iOs. As a result developers are tending to pursue more ad-supported applications. Ad-Supported applications are infuriating. There simply is not room for advertising on the small mobile screens these applications are built for.
After a year of trying to muddle through using these application and my accidental clicks and ads which pull me out of what I was doing and launch my phones browser, I reached the end of my rope. I was desperate. I committed an unspeakable act, I plunked down 99 cents of my hard earned money on an app. It made me feel like I was shooting heroin in a back alley. I was ashamed, I couldn’t tell me co-workers and fellow Android fanboys what I had done. How could they respect me after what I had done?
But when I launched that app and saw it’s clean uncluttered screen without a force-close in sight, I was hooked. It was purchasing applications daily. I had become Mr. Moneybags and I could buy whatever I wanted when I wanted. Then my credit card bill came in the mail. Oh the horror, I had dropped a whole $10 dollars on applications!
For less than the cost of lunch one day of the week, I was finally experiencing my beloved platform in all it’s glory.
Calling all cars, calnlig all cars, we’re ready to make a deal.