"Fortune Favors the Buggy": How a bug saved Rogue Amoeba

Last week, Paul Kafasis wrote about how a small bug in Audio Hijack saved his company. They initially launched Audio Hijack (in 2002, shortly after I turned 4!) with a 15 day free trial. Sales were horrible. But when they released a small update a few months later, they accidentally set the free trial to just 15 minutes. Shockingly, their sales skyrocketed, saving the company in its early days.

This was a great story. While a 15 day free trial sounds like a much better deal for the user, they just forget they even installed the app before they decide to pay for it. With a 15 minute free trial, users buy the app while they're checking it out for the first time, making the business more sustainable and providing their users with a great service. Audio Hijack (and several other Rogue Amoeba products) is an app I hear about all the time on tech podcasts. It lets you "Hijack" the Mac's audio system for professional use, and it's best in class. While I don't have a personal use for it, I've always heard it's a great app, and it's good for all Mac users for their to be a healthy app ecosystem. It's such a shame that great apps like this will never exist in the Mac App Store, let alone on iPhone or iPad, thanks to Apple's irrational fear of their own developers.