Recently, I have found FlipBoard for the iPad. If you haven’t seen this product, where have you been. Seriously, they’re even in Newsweek and I just saw them in an iPad ad this evening.
Here’s a demo of the app:
Pretty freaking sweet isn’t it.
And its free! Yes, FREE!
I still don’t get this. Its getting such great buzz around the web, why not charge some money for the app. I get wanting to get a bunch of people using your app and generating growth. But relying on advertisement revenue isn’t always the best plan. Why not get some of that cash in the door now.
Here’s the one problem that I have with FlipBoard (from the newsweek article):
Flipboard hasn’t worked out a business model yet, but plans to put ads next to articles and then share some advertising revenue with publishers. McCue believes that Flipboard on the iPad can deliver better-quality ads than the cheapo ones you see on the Web. And there’s no big rush to make money: Flipboard has raised $10.5 million from venture-capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and other investors. “The first thing you have to do is create an experience that people are excited about and using a lot,” McCue says. That part, it seems, Flipboard has already accomplished.
How in the fuck did these guys get funding? Seriously? Can someone tell me who would invest in a company that hasn’t figured out the business model of how they are going to make money?
This is why we had a dot-bomb back in the early part of the century folks.
I would argue that they do have the model figured out, they just haven’t figured out how to execute on it yet. The app is simply a method of getting ads in front of users and it is only a matter of time until the advertisers come a running. So my argument is, why not make a few bucks along the way selling the great looking by product of your ad platform…the app itself!
