Mr.GuzbeKnot:As far as the app goes it would be nice
to use the forums check messages and buy stuff from BAF. Look at it as
an extension of the site, do it right and remember how many extra
things it would bring to the site.
That's an interesting
thesis, but I question your base assumption. How many extra things
WOULD it bring to the site? Do you mean to imply that someone with a
three or four hundred dollar phone (and the disposable income to pay
for unlimited internet service on that phone) lacks access to a secure
internet connection on any other device? Or are you positing that the
chance to browse on one's iPhone will increase accessibility to the
point that large numbers of people will make purchases they otherwise
would not have? I find both these situations implausible, though I am
open to a tertiary explanation, that an app would increase individual
psychological saturation to the point that one centers more of one's
finances around the object of that concentration (BAF), but to my
knowledge there is insufficient research to determine just how much of
a positive change that would have on sales; which brings me to my next
point.
Mr.GuzbeKnot: If you would charge for the app it would cause loss in downloads and uses.
For
those of you who haven't had Business Calculus, here's a simple
introduction to Cost/Benefit analysis. Imagine a graph with two axes:
price of the application on one side, and number of users on the other. Note that 'number of users' is the simplest statistical model
we can use for benefit, because trying to track how often each of those
individuals use the app, or how much it changes their spending habits
on BAF, would be extremely difficult at best. Now, there's a curve on
this graph, and that curve shows how many people will buy the app at
any given price. The ideal business model concerns itself with finding
the critical point at which maximum profit is attained, which is rarely
either endpoint (most users on one side, highest price on the other),
but is generally somewhere in the middle. Unfortunately, as with many
business models, this one is COMPLETELY USELESS, because there is no
way to get the data BEFORE setting the price point, so our imaginary
graph is just that: a figment of the imagination. In the end, one can
only guess.
So the problem is as follows: is it worth the (very
expensive) time of the BAF programming team to build an application
which may have zero (or even negative) impact on sales? Imagine the
increased cost to the company of customer service having to explain to
people that they DID order that particular piece of jewelry, and that
BAF is not responsible for the fact that your tiny phone screen didn't
show you a very high quality picture of the piece you THOUGHT you
wanted.
Is it worth MY time, to work for free? You will note
the lack of a "BAF Employee" sticker next to my name. If I make an app,
I will not receive ANY benefit from increased browsing, shopping, or
forum crawling. How often do YOU work for free? I may roll something
out, purely for my own joy and pleasure, but that
is because I like the community and desire to see it grow, and even
then, it will surely be a dollar or two. The antithesis of your
argument, to which I personally subscribe, is that someone who is
unwilling to shell out a buck or five for the convenience of visiting
BAF on their iThingy will also be unlikely to take advantage of that
convenience and increase their BAF purchasing.
Finally,
making all this jibber-jabber I've been doing completely irrelevant, a
little birdie brought to my attention the fact that several people
ALREADY access the forums and cruise the site with their iPhone. Your
problem may be as simple as a Settings switch, or could even be a
product of the new restrictions being put on some phones/service by the
company itself, rather than a functionality issue.
I hope this
clears a few things up. I'll continue looking into the possibilities
(including the compatibility/restriction issue), but, again, as I am
not expecting any form of compensation, this is solely a free time
thing for me, so don't expect meaty progress any time in the next few
weeks.
6g lobes
Ink: Hidari Gomon (right forearm), Sacred Chao (left forearm)
My Wishlist!