UDisc Pro price tripling

[TiltedFlipCurves]

I recall using UDisc to navigate for free for a while. Then I got some sort of notification that to keep using it, I needed to pay the $5... kinda like I'd signed up for free trial period or something like that.

Well I can no longer create a scorecard without giving them $5, so what's the point?

I can still measure throws, create putting practice, accuracy practice, change my disc collection...stuff that should be Pro features... :thmbdown:

 

[Dcinmd]

Now, if uDisc raises their price for PDGA members, then the PDGA has two things to consider....do they keep the agreement or do they change it? There is a chance the PDGA would raise our membership cost to cover any change with uDisc's pricing...but, what I think would happen is they would drop it from the membership 'package' and provide a discount code instead. That way, if you wanted uDisc Pro, you could still get it and get it at a reduced rate, but PDGA wouldn't be putting out more money for something that not every member wants or uses.

A current PDGA board members has stated that the agreement with Udisc is thru the end of the year. And they are currently negotiating going forward.

 

[VictorB]

Well I can no longer create a scorecard without giving them $5, so what's the point?

I can still measure throws, create putting practice, accuracy practice, change my disc collection...stuff that should be Pro features... :thmbdown:

you can keep score for free on your calculator app

 

[Ahildy13]

Well I can no longer create a scorecard without giving them $5, so what's the point?

I can still measure throws, create putting practice, accuracy practice, change my disc collection...stuff that should be Pro features... :thmbdown:

I'm not sure if I am remembering correctly, but I think the cap is on the number of saved scorecards. You should be able to go in and delete your older ones and be able to make new ones.

 

[foxdawg10]

Just got the email. Pro is tripling in price to $14.99.
Extra benefits are listed as live scoring for all in your party, and multiple course layouts.
Not sure that makes it 3 times as good....

My gut reaction is this is a money grab plain and simple.

Can you renew now at the $5 rate and extend your subscription out one year?

 

[dmoore1998]

Can you renew now at the $5 rate and extend your subscription out one year?

Yes!

 

[fishEH]

Interesting how defensive people get about a company they don't even know.
I like UDisc. I use it for scoring and for the maps, which are great.
I think we're all speculating when we talk about their finances. I hear a lot of people stating Udisc is not making a lot of money, as if they somehow know this as fact. I don't know that, but I did provide some numbers that anyone can do the math on.
For the record I like capitalism. Bravo to those that work hard and provide a product that fills a need and can make money in doing so.

I simply have a visceral reaction to blatant price gouging, which without any rational justification given, it is. Apparently my tolerance for such actions is significantly less than others.
I wonder at what point people will care? If they raise it to $25 next year? $35 the year after? Anyway, just my opinion.

 

[R-Ogre]

I need to try out the location scoring. Building off that data there's some cool possibilities both at an individual user level and an overall user group level. Like trying a new course you could pick out the landing zones without a local guide, or see your progress or lack thereof over time in driving distance. Also I'm looking forward to the ability to mix and match layouts.

 

[dmoore1998]

Interesting how defensive people get about a company they don't even know.
I like UDisc. I use it for scoring and for the maps, which are great.
I think we're all speculating when we talk about their finances. I hear a lot of people stating Udisc is not making a lot of money, as if they somehow know this as fact. I don't know that, but I did provide some numbers that anyone can do the math on.
For the record I like capitalism. Bravo to those that work hard and provide a product that fills a need and can make money in doing so.

I simply have a visceral reaction to blatant price gouging, which without any rational justification given, it is. Apparently my tolerance for such actions is significantly less than others.
I wonder at what point people will care? If they raise it to $25 next year? $35 the year after? Anyway, just my opinion.

Price gouging typically applies to economic scenarios where the supply or demand of a good is in a state of unnatural depletion or increase (i.e. bottled water right before a natural disaster). Raising pricing on a service which has no real limit (i.e. nobody is going to go without who was willing to pay) because you feel like you were charging less than market rate isn't considered price gouging.

The rational justification is simple: Company A is offering a product which is not a necessity (also important to price gouging), but which they believe is significantly underpriced. They raise the price.

If you are pro-capitalism, but anti price gouging...what would you suggest a for-profit company do if they realize their product is massively underpriced? Or do you have a different definition of price gouging that you're using than the standard economic definition?

 

[Jay Dub]

I'd raise the price until people stopped buying it. That would tell them where the price should be.

 

[Tripper]

The service offers me absolutely nothing I desire. Honestly, having any need for a phone on a disc golf course seems laughable.

Then how do you take pictures for the "post a cool / uncool photo" and "critters" threads? A phone can also be good if you have weather radar to know if "those clouds will go around us".

 

[R-Ogre]

I'd raise the price until people stopped buying it. That would tell them where the price should be.

Exactly. Same thing with the special release discs. We aren't selling insulin for diabetic kids here, let the free market do its thing.

 

[DiscFifty]

At 15.00 a year, there may be more wiggle room for discounts, so perhaps we'll see UDisc annual subscriptions show up in player packs soon.

 

[Central Scrutinizer]

I used to keep score even on casual rounds with pencil and paper on my nerdy spreadsheet printouts that had my hole-by-hole averages. I'd bring it home and enter everything by hand into my 486 computer. Somewhere in my basement is a floppy disk with over 250 rounds at Grand Woods from 1996-98. Do I have a way to get data off of a floppy disk right now? Of course not!

Back then there were a small handful of good courses I could reasonably play on the regular. Like six within a 90-minute drive from where I lived in East Lansing at best, and Michigan was considered a good Disc Golf state then. So I didn't have many spreadsheet course pages to keep track of. It was fun, and I was young and full of energy.

Now that there are more quality courses just near Kzoo than there used to be from Johnson Park in Grand Rapids to Addison Oaks near Detroit, I like having UDisc keep track of all my stats extremely easily at dozens of courses I hit every year. Even if it wasn't a part of the PDGA membership, I'd pony up for eighty cents a month for it for sure.

I do hate how anybody can change pars and hole distances. On almost every course I find a distance on there that's totally ridiculous. My best round ever, according to UDisc, is when I shot a score way way under par at Hudson Mills Monster's shorts...because some idiot changed every par to 4 on it that day. Maybe the extra money can help pay for somebody to monitor that.

But, yeah, it's a free country. I don't blame them one bit, and I love their product. If you have an issue with it, fine. You can continue to use your 1st amendment rights to criticize it here. You can choose to not patronize them and use another service, or even start your own and sell it for five bucks a year. Power to ya.

Even with a tripling of their cost, I certainly don't picture a 19th century Rockefeller-type guy behind the helm here. This just means they can fund an honest, legitimate business instead of having to do it on a card table in the spare bedroom.

We're talking about the price of a large crappy chain restaurant pizza per year. I'm totally cool with it. UDisc rocks!

 

[Zanguini]

I dont mind Udisc tripling their price...

I mind Jomez saying that their coverage is brought to you by patreons, and then monitizing it to the maximum amount on youtube along with the two imbedded commercials, and numerous popups.

 

[txmxer]

Interesting how defensive people get about a company they don't even know.
I like UDisc. I use it for scoring and for the maps, which are great.
I think we're all speculating when we talk about their finances. I hear a lot of people stating Udisc is not making a lot of money, as if they somehow know this as fact. I don't know that, but I did provide some numbers that anyone can do the math on.
For the record I like capitalism. Bravo to those that work hard and provide a product that fills a need and can make money in doing so.

I simply have a visceral reaction to blatant price gouging, which without any rational justification given, it is. Apparently my tolerance for such actions is significantly less than others.
I wonder at what point people will care? If they raise it to $25 next year? $35 the year after? Anyway, just my opinion.

I took issue with your posts because of the inherent contradiction.

"we are all speculating "

" blatant price gouging"

You economics don't consider the vast majority of subscriptions are via PDGA, which is likely discounted significantly.

 

[Emoney]

Im "pro" until january 29 2023....

So i guess i have time to think about that 15$ price tag. If its still built into the pdga membership...i will most likely just renew my pdga.

 

[foxdawg10]

Its still cheap for $15 a year BUT they could have slowly upped the price. They didnt really list a justification for the price hike..
It just read as "disc golf is popular, we want more money"

$15 a year is pretty cheap. The mistake they made was under pricing it to begin with. I don't use it but if I did I'd be willing to pay $15 a year.

 

[BillFleming]

I do hate how anybody can change pars and hole distances. !

They are VERY good at dealing with this. One of the courses I play the most has a par 3 hole that some people believe should be a par 4. While playing, my group noticed uDisc had it as a par 4. I went in and tried to change it, but it denied it. I got a nice email from them about why I couldn't change it (I forget the reason)....so I emailed them a picture of the tee sign showing it was a par 3. They thanked me and changed it back.

Some time passed and someone commented how they shot par on that hole and showed a 4 for it. Yep, the par had gotten changed again. I emailed uDisc a photo of the sign and said that we had gone through this before....would they please ensure the pars for the course wouldn't be changed unless the person wanting the change proved the par had actually been changed at the course. They replied that they updated the course information so that the pars could not be changed without proof.

Whenever I play other courses and uDisc and the par don't match, I just take a photo of the tee sign and send it to them.

 

[dmoore1998]

$15 a year is pretty cheap. The mistake they made was under pricing it to begin with. I don't use it but if I did I'd be willing to pay $15 a year.

Mistake? That's pretty much how all of these successful apps work. They charge nothing or minimal payment starting out. People don't care if it's not the most amazing thing because it's cheap. You develop a huge user base, then start moving the price towards the actual market. You want the big user base first...because for as much as people complain...most still pay the higher price because they realize it's still worth it if $5 was worth it.

I can't even count the number of people I know who got UDisc because someone had it and said "Eh, it's only $5, try it". That strategy works a lot less if it's "it's only $15, or $20, or $50".