Do we understand value?
There’s something very wrong when society thinks 99c is “too expensive” for an indie-app, but will pay $5 for a coffee to corporate giant.
The above quote is from a random tweet I put on twitter, which received a few favourites and re-tweets.
It was a comment about two things I dislike: the ridiculous feedback that people post when reviewing apps, and the insane amount of money we spend on our coffee culture.
However, it does raise a serious point: What is value?
£1200 a year on coffee?
Over a working year of 240 days, a conservative estimate might see you spending £1200 on your daily coffee. Would it cost you that much if you made it at home? What else could you do for £1200 that would mean more to you? A holiday?
Is your daily corporate coffee really more valuable to you than a holiday?
Free and low-cost apps
A few free apps that I find really useful include Gmail, Harvest, GTasks, Instagram, Instapaper, National Rail, my banking app and a whole host more.
None of these apps are perfect. They have quirks and glitches or poor interfaces and sometimes do very strange things, and yes in the heat of the moment using one, I’d probably gripe about it. But on the whole I can get a lot of my “life maintenance” done while mobile for no cost, so it makes these apps valuable.
Some of the highly negative comments on App review pages (especially when the app is completely free or costs virtually nothing) make me wonder if that person has simply lost the understanding of the value of the app: what does it do for them, what time does it save, how has it helped them? Not to mention the hundreds of hours the app developers put into these tools, for little or no reward. Do we think these developers are worthless?
Sell on eBay for pennies?
I keep meaning to digitise my 20+ year CD collection and then sell them on eBay. But the time involved to do this and the small amount of money I could make doing it, just really don’t make it worthwhile. It might take me 30 mins to rip 5 CDs and list them on eBay, not to mention time to package it up, go to post office, and finally deal with any fraudsters who seem rife there these days.
Perhaps I’ll make a dollar on each one if I’m lucky, after all the extortionate fees. Is it worth me spending all that time and effort messing about to make a few quid? Of course not.
I would rather spend that time with my friends or family, or working on a creative personal project. It’s a simple example of how I’ve determined the value of my time investment, versus the monetary return and realised it’s not worthwhile. There’s no value for me there, when I have better things to do with my time.
What’s valuable to you?
It seems that few of us stop to look at the true value of the things that we use and consume.
- If an app saves you time and money because it helps you to make the most of your mobile time, then it must surely be worth 99 cents, or £2.99 or £5.99?
- Do you really get £1200 of value a year from your daily coffee? How much could you save if you made your own?
- Does the time you spend putting CDs on eBay justify the money you might make in return?
I think we should all take the time to question the true value of how we spend our time and money. We might be surprised by what we learn.