Roadmap Pattern: From App to Service

Paprika is a thoughtfully designed recipe manager for the iOS that first launched on the iPad in September of 2010. I purchased it then, squeamishly, for about ten bucks. Motivated by my growing evernote notebook of cocktail recipes I was intrigued by something purpose built. The app was expensive, but it delivered with polished simplicity. I remember my only complaint being, "crap, how do I get this data onto my iPhone?" Sure enough Paprika for iPhone launched a few months later in December and to my surprise included a sync service circumventing the need for a web app to provide cloud-like continuity from device to device. I happily forked over another $5 bucks for the iPhone app and $20/year for the sync service. Those are big price points for the current market, but I am down the cocktail rabbit hole and it was worth it for me.

I like this roadmap pattern of transitioning from an app to a service through the addition of increased device support and syncing capabilities. I wish more folks would follow suit, wikipanion in particular. Being able to sell top dollar apps individually on all devices in addition to charging for a sync service is a hard sell. But if your service experience is focused (niche) and polished (high quality) I believe your customers will be there. Omnifocus is another example of this model but they have yet to start charging for their sync service which is in beta. It will be interesting to see how these apps gone services fair in 2011. While the web is still addicted to free, people like Paprika are trying to realize the value of context driven access to unique types of personal data. I hope this theory turns into a pattern for profitable businesses.