By: Dave

Dave — Sun, 17 Nov 2013 23:55:10 +0000

I for one wasn’t surprised by the clamour about Taptapsee going subscription. Many of the common accusations are right on. Yes, it should have been subscription from the start. Simply saying no one knew how populopar it would become doesn’t wash. No one knew how popular Jaws would become, and it’s always beenh a commercial product. I’ll grant that this trick is somewhat new to the tech world, but it isn’t new especially to the blind world. I’ve lost count of the various small startup phone access solutions that have been popularised over the years simply because they were free. All of them have followed the free gaging popularity model before going subscription, af which, of course, popularity dropped precipitously to nonexistence. No, sighted people don’t have to pay, but then again, they wouldn’t even bother with it in the first place because they have no need for it. Yes, disabilities are expensive, so it’s equally true there ain’t no free lunch. I can remember my first experience downloading Jaws. It was 15 Megs in size and took two hours to download with a dialup connection. I will eventually subscribe to taptapsee both because I need it and because it’s the right thing to do. But would be entreprenewers should take notice also, that simply using the free model to promote a product will only work until people feel they’ve been burned too many times by effectively falling into a trap that they made. For me, it is easier and more justifiable to afford taptapsee than it is a Netflrix subscription that offers no audio description.

Comments on: SeroTalk Podcast 177: WiFi On the Water

By: Dave