[daddeeo]

I received the following on a new app that easily copies contact info and places it into your Contacts. It's very cool and works well, but they are charging $10 on a yearly basis to use it, which I find an odd model. Not sure if that was the best business decision, but there's a free trial if you want to try it.

HERE'S THE EMAIL I GOT:

Hello Anagram For BlackBerry beta testers! The beta test has been over for a while and we're more than overdue for reaching out and being in touch. We've been focusing on releasing the final product and incorporating all your great feedback but now it's time to pass on big news about the final release and a special for the holidays. If you've forgotten who we are, Anagram is an app for your BlackBerry that instantly grabs contacts and appointments into your address book and calendar from any plain text, like an email message, SMS, or web results. We hope you find this update to be informative!

Big news in this message:
1. Anagram is now called Copy2Contact!
2. How to get Copy2Contact For BlackBerry now (special offer)
3. Not just for mobile phones...
4. Get in touch!


1. Anagram is now Copy2Contact!
Part of the big news is a big change: Anagram For BlackBerry is now called Copy2Contact!



After receiving all your feedback from the beta program we decided Copy2Contact is a stronger brand and will be a starting point for great new enhancements to come!


2. Copy2Contact For BlackBerry is now available!
This might be old news to many of you, but Copy2Contact For BlackBerry (formerly Anagram) is now available in its final form for purchase. Getting a new contact or appointment into your address book or calendar is hard enough, let alone with that tiny BlackBerry keyboard. Let Copy2Contact do it for you!

Of course we have a great price as a thank you for our beta testers - 25% off for the holidays! Get it before January 1st:
https://www.copy2contact.com/cgi-bin...disc-customers

Check out all the details, including a video of the product in action:
On your PC: Copy2Contact For BlackBerry
On your BlackBerry: copy2contact.com/bb/install

See also the Copy2Contact For BlackBerry category on our blog for cool ways to use it. You'll be amazed!
Copy2Contact For BlackBerry � Anagram Technologies Blog

PS. Don't lose that discount link... you won't find it on our web site!


3. Use Copy2Contact on your PC, too!
If you're getting good use from our BlackBerry app, imagine how useful it would be to have the same instant contact and appointment capture on your PC! The PC version of Copy2Contact works with Microsoft Outlook, Salesforce.com, Palm Desktop, and NetSuite to capture contacts, leads, appointments, and tasks. We hope you'll check out the offerings on our new website, Copy2Contact.

Better yet, here's a bundle deal we have going on right now. You can get Copy2Contact for Outlook and for BlackBerry for 15% off both:
https://www.copy2contact.com/cgi-bin...palm-bb-bundle

And if you consistently connect with clients who might find Copy2Contact to be useful, consider joining our affiliate program to earn some $$ for helping us out:
Copy2Contact Affiliate Program


4. Get in touch!
These big changes present a great time for us to be in touch with our user base and find out what's going on with you. Your feedback on the product is critical to its success so we invite you now to drop us a line with any questions, comments, rants, raves, ideas, or suggestions! Reply to this message, post a comment on the blog, or send a smoke signal!


Have a wonderful holiday season and a PRODUCTIVE new year.

[Mailyfesux]

Couldnt you just use BDM to sync outlook stuff? Its free.

[daddeeo]

Couldnt you just use BDM to sync outlook stuff? Its free.

Yeah, but I think the sell here is that when you're out and about, or without your computer, you don't have to copy/paste all the fields, the software fills them in for you directly from the email you got from your new contact. They are also plugging the same function on your computer to work with Outlook. But yes, it's free to do it yourself!

[nmaddix]

Copy2Contact grabs contacts and appointments from any free-form text found in any email, SMS message, or web results. It saves you from retyping or cutting/pasting all those details into your address book or calendar, a near impossibility on the tiny BlackBerry keyboard.

The yearly pricing does seem non-standard. But it's because the app isn't static. We work year-round to constantly update the text processing technology behind Copy2Contact and provide free updates and support to all customers. Hope you'll give it a try!

[vinmontRD]

Having been a developer (and software manager, executive, etc) for many years, I understand the need to actually derive income from your work. But in the context of all the other blackberry apps that are "out there" that don't have annual charges attached, I find myself drawing the line at this. I liked Anagram, Copy2Contact sounds even better -- but I'll have to pass on this one.

So much in our lives now is being billed to us for "just" a few dollars a month, or year, and the sum total of the charges can actually get to be staggering when you add them up -- and even more so when you total them over a number of years.

For some folks, no doubt Copy2Contact will be a steal at this price. Unfortunately for me, the new pricing scheme convinced me to delete the old anagram 0.99 beta and simply go back to manually copying and pasting contact info from emails to my address book. Simply not worth an annual fee to me.

No argument here -- this is a simply a business decision for you, and a personal decision for me.

Best of luck with this.

[nmaddix]

Appreciate your input, Jon. Indeed, the pricing is different from many apps. It sounds like the value isn't there for you to justify it and that's understandable. The app isn't as useful for everyone. Some people live by it and tell us they'd gladly have paid triple. I think a lot depends on whether you need it as part of your daily routine, etc.

Thanks again for your feedback. Regards and happy new year,
Nicholas

[kalyx]

I too used Anagram beta, and raved to anyone and everyone about it. Until you use it, you dont know how useful it is to auto import contacts from an email sig.

In saying that, i was very disappointed to see shift to p.a pricing for just the blackberry app.

I guess you have to ask yourself if the word of mouth advertising you got from happy users, is less valuable from the revenue you get from the few users paying for it.

I for one have forgotten about it, not interested in paying annually for it, and would definitely not recommend it to any friends.

[daddeeo]

Appreciate your input, Jon. Indeed, the pricing is different from many apps. It sounds like the value isn't there for you to justify it and that's understandable. The app isn't as useful for everyone. Some people live by it and tell us they'd gladly have paid triple. I think a lot depends on whether you need it as part of your daily routine, etc.

Thanks again for your feedback. Regards and happy new year,
Nicholas

I want the app, but don't need it. I'm the casual user. Ongoing charges for ongoing services make sense, but for continuing development, it doesn't. If your ongoing development significantly improves the app, moving it into a new version, then charge for the upgrade. I, for one, hope the developer changes their approach on pricing so this becomes a good acquisition for the casual user.

[nmaddix]

I guess it's a matter of how useful it is for you. The casual user may not find enough value in it, but it's a specialty app, for people who live and die by their contacts and calendars.

It's funny... I gladly pay yearly or monthly for things that just work and are inexpensive and conversely I HATE when companies charge for updates that might not be relevant to me. We tried that model years ago and got nothing but hate mail from people who didn't think our updates were worth paying for. Even if they requested the new features themselves. It was lots of wasted time and misunderstandings for customers and for us.

[vinmontRD]

If the topic does not belong to this forum please mod as kind of request to move it in its right section [/COLOR]

wouldn't it make more sense for you to read the thread before posting? How could that post be relevant to this thread?

Back on topic - clearly the market will decide if the pricing scheme makes sense. I will be curious to see how this turns out. My reaction to ongoing fees in general is negative, even when the monthly payment seems low at first glance. In my experience, such approaches tend to cost more in the long run than a single purchase fee - even with periodic upgrades. The approach also tends to leave the user with a "sunk cost" that increases monthly -- I contrast that with a one time purchase: a year later, when competing products appear in the market, I suspect I'd feel more locked in to the product I've been paying for monthly simply because I'd have already put so much into it, and the incremental cost for a competing app at that point would be greater than keeping the monthly subscription.

I've also not been a fan of creating a production environment (in this case my blackberry configuration) that includes a key piece of software that stops working the moment I stop paying). This strikes me as a risk: although I wish the software publisher well, what happens if the company stops doing business, or sells to another with a different business model, etc? I would feel a bit miffed if this were to happen after I had been paying fees for a year or more. With a purchased app, I'd still have use of my product until I felt it time for aq change.

Anyway - to each his(her) own.

- Jon

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[JimA]

I'd pay $10 for a lifetime on this but not annually.

[z06mike]

Just use gwabbit. It works great!!