News: all updates for our software and apps
Last week, we released version 1.1 updates for all CLZ data viewer apps.
These version 1.1. updates, and all future app updates,
are *only* available through the Android Market.
If you originallly bought your app(s) via the shop on the Collectorz.com site, you can switch to the Market edition for US $0.99. This deal, originally planned to end on October 2, has now been extended to October 31!
Re-download your apps for US $0.99 (or equivalent) on the Android Market here,
or just search for “collectorz” in the Market on your device itself.
IMPORTANT: Before you download the new version from the Android Market,
you MUST remove the old version. If you don’t, you will get an error that says:
“Package file was not signed correctly”.
Why sell the apps in the Android Market only?
In the past, we have been selling our Android apps both in the Android Market and in the shop on our own website. In fact, when we started, the apps were available on our own site only. At the time, the Android Market blocked most countries from buying paid apps, so it didn’t make much sense to put the apps in the Market. When the Android Market started supporting more countries, we decided to put the apps in the Market. That is after all, the place where most Android users expect to be able to buy their apps.
In the meantime, many users who purchased directly from us were emailing us, asking us why they could not update their apps via the Android Market (answer: because the Market does not know you own the app). This was causing much confusion and annoyance…
So now, to avoid further confusion, and because the Market finally allows most countries to buy paid apps, we made the next step and switched to selling in the Market *only*.
Why 99 cents? Why not FREE?
Of course, I would have preferred to let you re-download the apps from the Market for free, but the Android Market system does not allow us to make apps free temporarily.
Yes, I know, the Android Market of course does allow free apps. And yes, it does allow me to make my apps free, but it does not allow me to switch the apps to “paid apps” afterwards. So it basically does not allow developers to do a temporary “free” promotion.
Strange, but true. You can find Google’s warning about this here (read the yellow box at the top).
Examples of developer outrage about this can be found here and here.
So we did the next best thing:
We temporarily (until October 31, 23:59) changed the pricing of our Android apps to
the lowest price the Android Market allows: USD $0.99 (or equivalent).
I apologize for the inconvenience and the extra costs involved.
Please understand that this is not an upgrade price or something like that. By now, I hope most users know us well enough to understand that we would never charge for a small maintenance update like v1.1, with just minor tweaks and some bug fixes.
The 99 cents charge is only a one-time fee, just to be able to switch to the Market edition. As soon as you are on the Market edition, all future updates will be free (and easy to find and easy to download via the Market).
Direct Android Market links:
Click the images below to go straight to the corresponding Android Market page:
