Exit Strategy: iPhone App tells you where to get on so you’re where you need to be when you get off

Hey James,
Sorry to hear that you are reluctant to pay for Exit Strategy NYC. Do try to keep things in relative terms though! It costs $1.99 . That's less than the cost of a ride on the subway. And you'll own the app forever.

Sure it's not free, but it's pretty damn cheap (besides, i hear free isn't a very good business model...also keep in mind that developing an app isn't exactly cheap - the going rate for iphone developers is $125/hr.)

Btw, I love this line a lot: "If you’re lazy, dumb, curious or all three then this app is definitely for you." Thanks for the writeup!

Hi Jonathan, thanks for your feedback. I just want to clarify one thing. I think your app is pretty ingenious, the UI is very clean and easy to use and it solves a unique problem that no other app has addressed.

That being said I think your price point is a bit high for an app that is really only useful the first time you travel somewhere new on the subway.

What I think would be great to see would be for you to partner with KickApps or another map app and include your product as a feature within a map app.

I also respectfully disagree that "free isn't a very good business model". On the contrary, there are many apps, both web and iPhone, that have started off free with one product to get their name out there and show the quality of their work and later on released either a paid version of the same app with more features or a totally new app.

I think your idea is solid and hopefully you'll keep churning out great ideas. There are never a shortage of those.

Hi James,
A few things -- vimeo deleted our video :(
In case you want to update your post there's a working version now at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTXZrWEV3f8

I don't think our price point is high at all. In fact, 1.99 was our introductory price and our app has now resumed it's normal price point at $2.99. People are trained to think that everything digital should be free -- and that's really unfortunate because that's simply not how the world works. Hiring an iPhone developer costs $125 an hour -- try telling them they should be free! $3 for a piece of extremely useful software that you will own and use forever is really not asking too much.

Further, I believe the value of our app is much greater than a simple map app. It also took much more work to create. The data in our app (locations of exits and how they line up with train doors) has NEVER been collected before so we literally had to hit the pavement and travel to hundreds of stops to get this information. A map app? Well, consider that the MTA hands out free maps to anyone who wants one -- plus they're printed on the walls of the stations! So do I think our app should be a subset of a map app? No -- that's backwards in my mind. The map is not the focus of our app. That's been done well many times over by other apps. And those good map apps (itrans and city transit) cost $3 and $4 by the way.

Additionally, I think you underestimate the value of the app by saying it's "really only useful the first time you travel somewhere new on the subway." -- perhaps you're commuting into the city for work rather than living here in which case I can see what you're saying. Or perhaps you just don't explore the city enough! Personally, I go to new places around the city about 8-10 times a week -- concerts, lectures, lunch/dinner/brunch, client meetings, museums, street fairs, parks, doctor/dentist appointments, errands. I certainly can't remember the locations of all those exits! I'm sure after of a week of riding the subway with Exit Strategy in the back of your mind, just how often you actually go to unfamiliar stops... Our usage stats back this up too: on any given day, 20% of our user-base fires up our app. That's a damn useful product by any standard.

Thanks,
Jonathan