Donated!
BUT…
I think what is happening here is more proof that a sustainable solution is needed to help out community developers. Tomorrow the next developer will ask the same, and the day after another… The donations are heartwarming, but is donated by a relative small group of people who care.
In my opinion there are a number stakeholders that benefit from the work of community developers:
- The developer himself, since it is his hobby
- App users, since they get more value out of their purchased Homey
- Device manufactures, since they will sell more if Homey supports their device
- Athom sales, since it increases the value of Homey, and more users will buy it
- Athom brand, since the feedback that is provided by developers is used to improve the product (they get free testers)
All the stakeholders should contribute is my opinion:
- The developer: by spending huge amount of time developing and maintaining apps and provide feedback to Athom development
- App users: by paying a small amount of money when they install an app from a community developer
- Device manufactures: by donating test devices and give free support
- Athom sales: by donating a Homey, or give huge discount, based on the number of app installs
- Athom brand: hand out company shares of Athom to developers
To make app users pay for apps, a donation button is not enough. Less then 1% of app users actually do a donation. Athom could make a paid store, where they have the official Athom apps for free, and where community apps developers can ask anything from 0 > donate > max 5 euro.
This would be fair: the more users install a community app, the more he gets paid. This also encourages app builders to work on apps that are really appreciated (= good functionality and stable).
Just my 2 cents…
