Sometimes it seems like developers just don't listen to consumers, but every once in a while one steps up and reminds us that not only are they listening, but that they actually care about what's being said. Just yesterday
Adam told us about ProInsights, an app developed for the BlackBerry PlayBook by XLabz Technologies to transform your LinkedIn account into something you will actually want to use. Combining beautiful visuals and lots of neat innovation, ProInsights had all the elements of a winner. All the elements except however, the price. The developers set the price at $9.99, and were met with a lot of feedback regarding that pricepoint. I think most people are turned off of an app, no matter how beautifully built, that starts out that high without at least a free trial so potential buyers can get a feel for it.
XLabz took all the feedback and decided to put ProInsights on sale this weekend for half off, bringing the cost down to $4.99. The price will return to normal on Monday, so if you're interested in this one but were put off by the price, grab it now while it's on sale.
More information/download of ProInsights for BlackBerry PlayBook
tstrike34 Jan 7, 2012 at 12:37 pm
Still 10 bucks on AppWorld.
jordandrews90 Jan 7, 2012 at 12:41 pm
ya says 4.99 but confirmation says 9.99
JPMorgan_ Jan 7, 2012 at 12:44 pm
I'm having the same problem,
It's says MEX $50.00 but when I try to pay, confirmation shows the full price of MEX $100.00
Please fix that, I really want to buy this app
diegonei Jan 7, 2012 at 12:56 pm
I still think a 7 days trial is a good idea for this app... If itreally is as good as devs want to to believe, people will end up paying the $9.99... But I don't like "blind-shopping"...
ryanlrobinson Jan 7, 2012 at 1:14 pm
That's much more like it. Still not sure I use LinkedIn enough to actually pay for an app (especially if it is integrated to 2.0 as expected), but I'll consider it.
jordandrews90 Jan 7, 2012 at 1:21 pm
hm, didn't know it was expected in 2.0. Hope it is tho. (but i'm doubtful considering its an app, nothing to do with rim or the os.)
DeliriousGA Jan 7, 2012 at 1:34 pm
App World does not allow an immediate price change by developers. They will post the new price, but at checkout it shows up for the previous price for 24 hours after the developer changes their price. The good thing is when they change it back to 9.99 at the end of the weekend, the price at checkout will still be 4.99 for 24 hours after that. A stupid rule making it hard for developers to have short sales, bit what's new with RIM these days?
newportironman Jan 7, 2012 at 1:56 pm
I'm an avid linkedin user and paid the $9.99 yesterday. It is a beautiful program that I can't figure out how to put to use. Some interesting data and probably worth the $4.99. I need a tutorial to see if I can "do" anything w/ this before deciding if my $9.99 was well spent.
koool1 Jan 7, 2012 at 2:23 pm
$4.99 - I may buy, looks really good.
Anatomy Jan 7, 2012 at 2:57 pm
if i remember to try again tomorrow for the $4.99 price I'll pick it up. Tried 2x so far today but cancelled when it rang up at $9.99
bquinney Jan 7, 2012 at 3:51 pm
RIM really needs to figure that system out so sales happen as advertised and intended. This will cost the dev sales if this issue isn't resolved by the time I look it up again over the weekend.
powellcrazy Jan 7, 2012 at 4:37 pm
just last night I searched for linkedin on my PB and came across this app, but noway gonna spend $10. $5 is still really pushing it for me. I have a hard time going over $1.99
Agree with others, needs a 7 day trial.
mnhockeycoach99 Jan 7, 2012 at 5:01 pm
I bought it on accident at the $9.99 price (multitasking and didn't pay attention to the confirmation screen). I emailed the developer so hopefully I'll get my $5 and change refund.
Ps. The app is pretty cool...although the card screen is very laggy. Hopefully the dev works on making this screen more snappier.
tomzda Jan 7, 2012 at 5:14 pm
Tried to purchase this in app world. The price says $4.99 but when the confirmation comes up it says $9.99.
pblakeney Jan 7, 2012 at 8:44 pm
ditto....
XLabz Jan 7, 2012 at 8:50 pm
We apologize for this mishap but unfortuntely this is completely out of our control and unintentional. We have got plenty of mails from users about this issue and we have already emailed RIM about the issue and trying to work a solution out for this. We will be extending the sale by a day. Please don't purchase it at $9.99 until the real price change gets reflected.
For those of you who have already purchased it at $9.99 yesterday, please email RIM/DigitalRiver support and ask them for a resolution. This should also help us get a speedy resolution to this issue and not end up disappointing the users who by mistake paid $9.99 instead of the sale price of $4.99.
We never thought reducing the price in favor of our users is going to backfire on us but so is the app business :(
RIMperator Jan 8, 2012 at 6:40 am
This kind of app should really have a free trial. When will developers understand that users don't like shooting their money into the dark? There are so many apps that will not get a closer look for this reason ...
Further is this app PBOS 2.0 capable?
TechieAttorney Jan 8, 2012 at 9:56 am
I agree that a 7-day trial would be nice, but would everyone please stop bashing the developers, especially the developer of this app.
It seems XLabz is behaving exactly the way I would like all developers to act. When I first saw the review, I thought the app was wonderful, but knew I did not use LinkedIn enough to warrant a $10 app. Many left that feedback. The developer listened and lowered the price but ran into some troubles getting RIM to process the transaction with the lower price. That is not the fault of XLabz. However, XLabz stepped up to the plate to fix it, says it is working with RIM to resolve the issue, and has extended the sale. Really, what more to do you want the developer.
Now, in party because the developer has been so oustanding, I will purchase the app as soon as the sale price is recognized by RIM. I am not sure it is worth $5 considering my low use of LinkedIn, but I am going to give it a try because I want to support developers like XLabz. Perhaps it will even increase my use of LinkedIn.
Now, a recommendation to XLabz. I would pay $10 for this app, no questions asked, if it could do for the contacts on my Blackberry what it does for my connections on LinkedIn. That would be incredible.
SuperGenius Jan 8, 2012 at 11:04 am
Still coming up as $9.99 when I just tried purchasing it. Sad that it may cost the developer sales.
TechieAttorney Jan 8, 2012 at 1:56 pm
Especially when the developer is working so hard to resolve the problem.
thecsman Jan 8, 2012 at 2:03 pm
Hopefully they will extend the sale until Monday.
SuperGenius Jan 8, 2012 at 8:09 pm
The price has been corrected now, at least for me when I go in to purchase it.
XLabz Jan 8, 2012 at 8:46 pm
@BerryAttorney Thanks for your support and understanding. Though one of the email we got from a user was rather harsh and went on to say that we were cheating, we don't really consider this as bashing and the frustration of users are valid considering that they don't know how AppWorld works and that this is not really because of us.
As far as doing the same for your BlackBerry contacts go, if you can please mail us your detailed feature request to support@xlabz.com, we will evaluate the possibility of doing so and get back to you.
@thecsman We are indeed extending the sale by two more days to compensate for this.
@Everyone From what SuperGenius says, it looks like the price change could have propagated. Can a few of you please confirm this? We have 100's of users who we would need to get back to when the price change has reflected.
TechieAttorney Jan 9, 2012 at 4:22 pm
@XLabz: Thank you so much for your wonderful responsiveness. I have finally purchased the app at the sale price and, per your request, e-mailed you my recommnedation.
thecsman Jan 8, 2012 at 10:40 pm
The price has been updated! I just bought a copy. The user interface is beautifully crafted. Let's hope the new Adobe Flash AIR in the OS upgrade makes it smoother.
@XLabz great job guys, your app has the professional look of publications like The Economist, who tend to come with impressive infographs very often.
tstrike34 Jan 9, 2012 at 12:04 am
Price change is posted. Very nice app.
2 good apps for PB in a very long while. This is a very interesting app that analyzes your LinkedIn profile.
sdk1 Jan 9, 2012 at 5:43 pm
Not sure if my region makes a difference, but here in Saudi Arabia I got charged USD 3.75, not $4.99.