I am a reluctant user of QuickBooks for my small-business accounts payable and receivable.  I’ve been using the 2006 edition because I didn’t need any of the features from the later versions.  However, the Online Banking support for QuickBooks 2006 expired yesterday.  I went to the Intuit website using Firefox to purchase my upgrade.  The price was $119.

However, the Intuit website doesn’t work very well in Firefox.  I was having trouble entering my current license code to upgrade.  I switched over to IE, thinking that would work better.   The website does work better, but the price for the upgrade is $159, $40 higher!

Screenshot showing that QuickBooks Pro 2009 costs $40 more in IE than Firefox

I know that companies engage in price discrimation, but I didn’t think that using one browser over another would entail a 33% price hike.  The price difference is also present for initial purchases, not just upgrades (actually, it looks like there’s no price advantage for upgrading). The price difference for multi-user licenses is even higher.  You’ll pay $110 more for a 3-user license in IE than in Firefox.

Price is $119 in Chrome.  I don’t have Safari on this computer, so I can’t check that.  Want to bet it’s higher than IE?

Here’s the product page in question:

http://quickbooks.intuit.com/product/accounting-software/small-business-financial-software.jsp#Upgrade

And here’s my chat with “Ronald”, the customer-service robot:

Ronald: Hi!  Thank you for chatting with us.  May I have your name please?
you: My name is Tim.
Ronald: Hello Tim! Pleased to meet you online.
Ronald: How may I help you today?
you: When I visit your website in Firefox, QuickBooks Pro 2009 Upgrade costs $119.00
you: When I visit your website in IE, it costs $159.00. Why?
you: Any response?
Ronald: Currently we do have several offers on the website.
Ronald: Any of the offer that you select is good.
you: Yes, but why would I want to select the offer that is $40 more? Aren’t you ripping off people that use IE?
you: Your website doesn’t work very well in Firefox, the browser I usually use, and when I switched to IE to complete my order, I found that the price was $40 higher.
Ronald: No, as mentioned there are several offers available on the website.
Ronald: You can choose the $119 option.
Ronald: There wouldn’t be a problem with that.
you: Do you have an offer that will let me choose the $119 option in IE?
you: Perhaps a coupon code?
Ronald: I’m sorry. We don’t have access to coupon codes.
you: So, there’s no way someone using IE, which works better with your website, can get the Firefox price?
Ronald: I highly recommend that you contact the Customer Service Department for that need. We don’t have any control on the pricing offered on the website. I’m sorry for the inconvenience.

People learn Esperanto for a variety of reasons - to travel, to meet people, to stretch their brains, to read new literature, to further some idealistic goals, to satisfy their curiosity about languages.  I decided to learn Esperanto as a challenge to myself - I wanted to become fluent in a second language, and Esperanto was a fun choice.

It’s hard to find objective information about Esperanto.  Almost everything written by non-speakers of Esperanto is wrong or overstated.  Esperanto is a real language; it does have a literature and culture to itself; it isn’t a failed project.  Similarly, almost everything written by speakers of Esperanto is overstated or exaggerated.  Esperanto doesn’t have two million speakers; it has many failings, both linguistic and political; it isn’t going to become the world’s international second language.

But for many, including me, Esperanto has brought many benefits.  I’ve learned more about the world, traveled to places I’d never thought I’d go, and met people both intriguing and bizarre.  Learning and speaking Esperanto has been a great experience for me, and I’d recommend it to anyone with an interest in languages, travel, or literature.

If you want to learn more about Esperanto, I’d recommend http://www.esperanto-usa.org, the homepage of Esperanto-USA, the national organization of US Esperanto-speakers.  (I’m the vice president of this organization.)  Lernu.net is also a good resource for starting to learn the language.

Anyway, I researched the town a bit.  It takes its name from an apple orchard located on high land above a sandy beach, and this was a landmark to sailors.  In 1820 a “Publick House” was built, and in 1837, a summer boarding house began the town’s march toward becoming a haven for summer tourism.  In 1898, the town opened a 1,770-foot-long pier, but a combination of fires and storms in the early 1900’s ruined many early beachfront buildings, destroyed the “White City” that was built on the pier, and trimmed the pier to a (still respectable) 700 feet.  A new pier and the amusement park that’s located there opened in 1980 (current pier length: 500+ feet). [http://www.oldorchardbeachmaine.com/History.htm]

Old Orchard Beach touts itself as the last remaining beachfront amusement park in New England.  Sounds like fun!

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=95047293

The songs are a mix of alternate versions (like Time Out of Mind - era versions of “Mississippi” and a freaky “Most of the Time”), live versions of “Love and Theft” and “Oh, Mercy” songs, a few unreleased songs, and released songs from movie soundtracks that haven’t made it to an album before.  As someone who bought the whole Gods & Generals soundtrack just to get “‘Cross the Green Mountain,” I appreciate this (no, it wasn’t on iTunes at the time).

Avid Bob collectors will likely have most of these songs already, but it’s nice to see some of the bootleg hits make it out to a larger audience, especially the more mournful cut of “Tell Ol’ Bill” that’s been circulating for awhile - I think it’s superior to the released, up-beat version.  I think there may be a few cuts on the new Bootleg series disc that are completely new to the world, though, and that’s fairly intriguing.

Two CD set comes out on October 7th.  (Pre)order from Amazon:

 Tell Tale Signs: the Bootleg Series Vol. 8

 Tell Tale Signs: The Bootleg Series Vol. 8 (Deluxe)

 Tell Tale Signs:The Bootleg Series Vol. 8 (vinyl)

Since the opening of the App Store, I have seen a dip in traffic to my web apps and an increase in the number of people who e-mail me asking for an App Store version or for download instructions (half the time, they mean adding a bookmark icon to the home screen). But the bottom hasn’t fallen out of the web apps barrel. Web apps aren’t dead.

In spite of their many shortcomings compared to App Store apps, Web apps have several advantages. And Apple’s own policies have recently added several items to this list!

You’re not locked into Apple. You don’t need a Mac / Hackintosh to write a web app. You don’t need to learn Cocoa / Objective C to write a web app. Your web development skills are 100% applicable.

You’re not locked into mobile phones. Web apps can more easily become traditional web pages, and vice versa. A well-designed web app, will appropriate separation of presentation and business logic, can be quickly converted into a traditional web page meant to be viewed on the desktop. Similarly, a well-designed traditional web page can get a customized presentation layer to become a web app. Aren’t you glad you took the time to build your layers right?

You’re not locked into the iPhone. If Google’s Android OS takes off, this will be especially important. Likely, an iPhone-optimized web app won’t need a lot of changes to be usable on an Android-powered phone. If changes are necessary, the same principle of well-designed web applications can speed development and help with maintenance.

No F#&@$#%$ NDA. Talk about ‘em all you like!

No developer’s program or license. Build web apps for free, distribute them for free.

No wait time on submissions, no rejected submissions. You can distribute your web app any way you like. If you want to go through through Apple’s web app directory, which is entirely optional, the review is casual and the terms are easy.

No sharing with Apple. You can keep 100% of your revenue.

No Jailbreaking. There are some great apps for Jailbroken phones, but I don’t think they will ever be mainstream alternatives to App Store apps or web apps. Ordinary people won’t “jailbreak,” even if it is extremely easy. Maybe it’s the name. Could we call it “cupcaking” maybe? “I cupcaked my iPhone to run Quake.”

Note: I think that these rules apply only to the iPhone, not the iPod Touch. The limited connectivity of the iPod Touch severely limits the usefulness of a web application. Clever developers have created some workarounds with queuing and caching, but I don’t see a bright future for growth in iPod Touch web apps – until we get our promised nationwide wireless Internet. I bet that would cost a lot less than $700 billion and have a strongly positive effect on the economy as well. In November, I will vote for the candidate that proposes universal wireless access over a Wall Street bailout.

I’m curious to see how the Google’s application marketplace will change the mobile application ecosystem. Will Google’s openness push Apple to be more open as well? Will the appearance of new platforms make people aware once again of the ability of web apps to bridge the gaps between those platforms? It’s why the Web was successful. We don’t have an Internet for PCs, an Internet for Macs, an Internet for UNIX. Why should we have an app store for just one phone?

I am a hobbyist iPhone developer (note), with no real intentions to expand far beyond a hobbyist level. That being said, hobbyist developers can and do create and contribute to excellent applications for the iPhone and other platforms. And, with the right plan, hobbyist iPhone developers can make a little scratch on the side.

My goal for developing iPhone web apps wasn’t to get rich. I don’t think that’s possible in the current web app environment. Monetizing a web app was more a “metric of success.” How would I know that my web app was successful? Because it made a little money. For me, this was more motivating that seeing an uphill graph in Google Analytics.

To start, I wrote a very simple tip calculator (the “Hello, world!” of the iPhone application developer). The only trick to this app was to implement a checksum based on an article featured on BoingBoing at the end of 2007. I dropped a Google AdSense block onto a simple JavaScript tip calculator that I wrote during class, submitted it to Apple Web Apps directory, and was shortly greatly surprised to see, within hours, over a thousand users for my silly little application. That was my first $10 of AdSense’s money.

Over the next few months, I added seven more iPhone web apps. Only two of these stored any data locally - the rest served more as front-ends for APIs, including Zillow, Google Base, LyricsWiki, and Google Translate, with AdSense blocks attached. None took more than a few hours to create. All were written in C#.NET and run off a $5.99 / month hosting plan at GoDaddy. Despite the simplicity, these apps proved to be fairly popular. Three of my web apps (TokTok Translator, WeightDate Daily Weight Tracker, and LaLa Lyrics Search) were chosen as Apple Staff Picks. At their height, the apps attracted about 15,000 users per day, which AdSense converted into $40 - $60 / day. Since launching the web apps in February, I’ve earned about $4,000 through AdSense.

Four grand isn’t going to make me quit my day job, and I’m not sure there’s too much more room for growth, except in adding more applications that can each earn their own daily $5 - $10.

The six-step model to profitable iPhone web apps

So, here is my suggested model for developing a profitable iPhone web app. None of these steps are revolutionary, but I haven’t seen any other blogs lay them out quite so directly. It may be a fear of competitor - there’s only so much room for weight trackers and daily budget calculators. I’ll try to sprinkle in a few tips and tricks that I’ve learned.

Step 1: Develop a web application

Develop a web application around a simple, focused idea that people will want to access frequently. Novelty isn’t going to win over a regular user base. An app that users will visit one time isn’t going to create daily revenue, day after day.

Step 2: Add Google AdSense code blocks throughout the application.

I had the most success with the four-ad, 250 x 250 block, located at the bottom of the page, combined with a one-ad block at the top of the page. On introductory and sign-up pages I hid the top ad block, to give the web app a cleaner look for first-time visitors.

Step 3: Submit the web app to Apple Web App directory.

People use the directory, and there’s no other large, authoritative directory of web apps available. Several other directories pick up on Apple’s RSS feed of web apps. I haven’t found the traffic on these to be substantial, however. If you’re looking for Google Juice, submitting an app to the Apple Web Apps directory nets you a nice, juicy PageRank 10 link (without a “nofollow” attribute!).

Step 4: Wait for Apple to review your web app.

Yes, Apple does look at your web app. The first searches on my Zillow property app HiHome were for Cupertino, CA. The review is not extensive. They are looking to make sure that the web app is usable on the iPhone, conforms to the description, and does not violate the Terms of Service (there are some naming requirements and the usual “adult material” caveats).

The review process typically only takes a day, maybe less, and then your app will be listed at the top of the chronological list of web apps. All the web app and category pages are listed chronologically, even the Staff Picks. You’re going to get far more traffic at the top of the list than after a few days. Apple does not have a rating or review mechanism for web apps, unlike in the App Store. So, the only way people will find your web app is through a name search, or because it’s been recently (re)submitted. See step 5.

Step 5: Resubmit your web app.

Apple gives you the opportunity to resubmit your web app when you make changes or updates. The caution here is that you actually need to make a change or update, or at least write about one in the “What’s New” field on the web app submit form. Not updating this field means that it’s far less likely your resubmission will be accepted, which means you won’t jump back to the top of the list. Being at the top of the list on several of my web apps is the difference between 15,000 visits and 3,000 visits.

Too many resubmissions will cause Apple to ignore your future resubmissions for awhile. I learned this the hard way, but at least I learned my lesson and did not get blacklisted.

The best time to resubmit is on Thursday or Friday. With the short delay for reviewing the resubmission, your web app will get bumped back to the top on Friday evening. Since Apple doesn’t update the web apps directory on the weekends, this gives you the longest time at the top, during the most active period for the directory.

Step 6: Profit!

Or rather, enjoy a modest AdSense income and the occasional congratulatory messages from some happy users.

That’s my model for a modest, hobbyist success from iPhone web apps. Do other developers have vastly different models? Are these more successful or less successful that what I’ve described? I’ve considered abandoning the advertising and putting up “if you like this app, consider donating through PayPal” links. Does this seem like a viable alternative?

If you have an iPhone and want to try out some of my web apps (developed under the moniker “TippyTops,” which was actually just supposed to be the name of the tip calculator but soon grew into a broader label), please visit http://www.tippytops.net.

(*) I do work as a professional web developer for MediaLab, who creates online compliance and continuing education courses as well as laboratory continuing education courses (CEU) for medical technologists. But we don’t do any iPhone development, and we don’t have an advertising-supported business model.