Help Me Out - Demo Limitations for an App :-)

[iacas]

http://nslog.com/2011/01/14/narrowed_down_demo_limitations

Everything's explained there, and you're free to comment here or there.

Basically, I'd like some feedback on the demo limitations for Analyzr (Home and Pro). I have three choices on that page, and I'm leaning heavily towards "load only one video into each player per launch" (plus the ubiquitous watermarking).

What do you think?

Edit: May as well include the options here, but please still read for context at the above. For example, a watermark applies in each of the three cases here as well:

Option 1: Stop Drawing after Ten Minutes
Just that. The software is fully functional, but after ten minutes, you're unable to draw anything with the drawing tools. People could still import, organize their library, view videos, export (watermarked) screenshots, etc. They just can't draw anything else. We might also consider five minutes.

Option 2: Two Drawing Objects per Viewer
In this option, the software would be watermarked but fully functional, except that on each viewer (the B and A viewers where a picture appears in the screenshot above) you'd only be able to have two objects: a line and an oval, two rectangles, a pair of lines, etc. You could delete objects to create more but you're limited to two in each viewer.

Option 3: Load One Video per Viewer
This option provides the user with a fully functioning (but again watermarked) application, but limits the number of videos they can load into each viewer to one. Once the user loads a video into each viewer, that viewer will refuse to load videos again.

[JetFan1983]

Option A would be kind of brutal looking at my watch to see how much time I had left. B sounds okay, but it also sounds like a lot of features will be disabled.

C's probably the best choice. We get to experience all the features in a one-time pop. I'd enjoy demoing that for sure.

EDIT: Although, option B does mean if we want to stay budget, we could always use this demo for free for some things. That doesn't help the seller much though.

[Zeph]

C or something else.

I don't use drawing tools all the time when looking at swings. Limiting only the drawing options means you can use the software all you want as long as you don't draw too much.

A limitation which render the program useless after a number of days or a number of loaded videos would be the best option to prevent people from using the demo software over a longer period of time.

[iacas]

Originally Posted by Zeph

A limitation which render the program useless after a number of days or a number of loaded videos would be the best option to prevent people from using the demo software over a longer period of time.

Two problems with that:

1) "Time-based Limits" are the easiest to bypass. Set your clock back, delete the file which stores the "cutoff" or "start" dates...use the software in a virtual machine that can restore its state... etc. Additionally, time-based limits kinda suck. What do you do if you want to test out the software but you don't realize you're 16 days into your 15-day trial? You just get pissed that the software won't let you actually test it out... and pissed at the developers and the company for choosing that limit.

2) Time-based limited software sees about half as many purchases as software that's feature limited, and we're trying to "do right by people" in not limiting too many features while still encouraging them to use the software.

Both are good reasons of approximately equal strength, to me. But that's why we're not and never really did consider a time-limited version in the traditional sense.

[jamo]

I think I like C the best, because it lets you see, in it's entirety, what the software does, how things work, how it looks, etc. All options certainly has their own upsides and downsides, but I think C has the most upsides for everyone.

[tristanhilton85]

C is probably best as it gives the potential buyer a good look at what the software can do and yet creates the need for them to purchase if they want to continue to use it.