Craig Hockenberry and the Icon Factory are among the earliest and most well respected iPhone developers in the community. In addition to their amazing design work and Mac and Windows software, they created the highly popular Twitterrific and Frenzic for the iPhone.
TiPb: We've been spending a lot of time lately discussing the App Store
and what business model(s) it will evolve From launch, you took the
route of having both a premium paid version of Twitterrific and a
free, add-supported version. What made you settle on that idea, and
how effective has it been for you?
Craig Hockenberry: The desire to have both a free and paid version of Twitterrific came from our experience on the Mac. It's the best of both worlds for everyone: we get some funds to pay for the development of the product, and users get to choose how they want to support us.
We decided on having ads before the final details of the App Store were
revealed. Since there are no demos in iTunes, the ability to have a free
version for people to evaluate has been a big benefit. A lot of my fellow
developers are now looking at this model.
