Connect to TVersity – Where does the money go

I often get asked why this application is here, what does it do, and why use it.

I try to be as straightforward as I can on the application description. See, I rely on media servers that have a flash port for the application and I link to that flash engine. This is to keep the cost of the client low with maximum reliability to the media server. So, as a user, you often see more or less what you would in a normal webbrowser.  The result is a lot of people asking: what is the money really for?  And rightfully so!

The price of the application gets split into paying for the application development and into the development of new (free) applications.

I’ve sunk about 36 hours into the app itself.  And that is with the video engine just using the native web engine whenever possible.  4 more hours have gone into tutorials most with photographs and detailed explanations.  And 20 hours have gone into testing and researching multiple servers and finding the best browser provisioning for them.  Including testing PlayBook Tablet OS changes.

The guts of the application is really what is different to a normal web browser. Most of the development time went into bandwidth reductions on the browser, memory reductions to the PlayBook, native Full screen video support, error trapping and network detection improvements. The feature list is 52 items long albiet many small features.

But the best use so far is the technical support for the client, server, network and domain name customizations people get. I have helped many many people setup this software on their systems and I want to keep helping for the remainder of the product.

So, for those who feel the $1.99 cost is too high – I am sorry and I am always happy to help set you up with a refund. I will likely make this app free if/when I do break even on the project.  As of today I have recouped about the cost of 6 hours into the project at the price point.

I am looking at our own native server in the future, but this will add ~300 development hours. Bringing the price to 19.99 per download over a 6 month period to recoup the development time.  Which I think is of questionable value when we consider that fundamentally it would do the same thing as the flash engine today. Users can also have a good experience with TVersity, PlayOn, etc using a standard web browser without this application and I never want someone to feel mislead about this application.

But for those who support me with this en-devour, thank you. And keep suggesting servers for me to add. I’m working on Orb, PlayOn over the network, TWonky and PS3MediaServer next.

Thanks all.  I just wanted to let you know where your money goes as it is continually being reinvested into the application.

Cheers. -ed