GoKawiilBreaking up has always been difficult for me. I tend to fall in love with being in love, and continue a relationship well past the point of futility. And so it is with my oldest love, writing desktop software.
I’m sorry, desktop apps. We just don’t have a future together anymore. Its not you, its me.
A bit of background: for the last three years I’ve sold Bingo Card Creator, a desktop app which pretty much does what it says on the tin. It has gone from being a passing fancy to a rather lucrative hobby to, well, a bit more than that over the years. As I gradually became more invested in the business of writing desktop software, I got more and more snippy about the periodic desktop versus webapp flamewars, and defended the ascendancy of desktop software.
What Changed My Mind
Over roughly the same period my day job has changed and transitioned me from writing thick clients in Swing to big freaking enterprise web apps. I’ve learned SQL, Rails, etc and used them to fairly decent effect in selling Bingo Card Creator, which is a Swing app (if all you have is a hammer…). This summer, I decided to try stepping my web programming skills up a notch, and released a web version of Bingo Card Creator. It has exceeded all my expectations: in ease of writing, in features, in sales, in support burden, in marketability, etc. In game theory terms, it strictly dominates the desktop version, when seen from the eyes of the developer at any rate.
If I were starting out today, I would, without a shadow of a doubt, write a web app instead of a desktop app, for these reasons:
The Shareware Funnel Is Lethal
I have never used the word “shareware” to describe Bingo Card Creator, because I think that it is an anacronism that my customers do not understand, but among fellow technically inclined people it describes the business model succinctly. Someone visits your website, downloads your trial, and hopefully purchases your program. That process is called a funnel, and if you break it down into concrete steps, the shareware funnel is long and arduous for the consumer:
Start your web session on Google, like everyone does these days. Google your pain point. Click on the search result to the shareware site. Read a little, realize they have software that solves your problem. Mentally evaluate whether the software works on your system. Click on the download button. Wait while it downloads. Close your browser. Try to find the file on your hard disk. Execute the installer. Click through six screens that no one in the history of man has ever read. Execute the program. Get dumped at the main screen. Play around, fall in love. Potentially weeks pass. Find your way back to the shareware site. Check out price. Type in your credit card details. Hit Checkout.
I could go into more detail if I wanted, but that is seventeen different opportunities for the shareware developer to fail. If you don’t catch the download in the 30 seconds people give your website, no sale. If your customer can’t find the file after they download it, no sale. If it requires a JRE upgrade and after restarting their computer they’ve forgotten what they were working on, no sale. If they play around with it, close it, and can’t remember how to open it again, no sale. If they get to the sales page and can’t operate your shopping cart, no sale.
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