Perhaps in conjunction with the introduction of a new Slingbox M2, we’re being told that Slingbox mobile clients for Android and iOS will soon be free -as opposed to the current $15 or original $30 SlingPlayer price points. Presumably the company can assume these costs in order to move more hardware and given the introduction of ad serving… well, all over the place. But here’s where it gets real interesting, as they look to the Amazon Kindle model: Echostar’s SlingMedia will provide an in-app purchase option to remove those ads. As to existing customers and the desktop or web clients, we’re just going to have to wait and see. But this is certainly an interesting twist for new customers looking to Sling for the most versatile TV everywhere solution.
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When the Slingplayer app for the Fire TV launched back in December, it was, to my knowledge, their only free app. I figured it was free because it was only compatible with 3 of their boxes, but maybe it was a trial run of this new pricing model.
All desktop access and native set-top apps have been free, starting with the Logitech Revue (RIP) and later WDTV Play then FireTV. Roku and Apple TV require mobile apps for beaming and control.
I believe all the DESKTOP apps and web client apps, as well as the ROKU apps were always free.. only the clear mobile client (and kindle fire for whatever that's worth) had the 15$ fee.
hopefully, those who already OWN the iphone/ipad/android clients won't be affected when upgrading to whatever new app updates come out I wouldn't mind a tad ad-pre-roll once in a while, but if it's anything like the desktop or web client versions - now THAT would be annoying.. add to that (no pun intended) that I only see spanish language ads? WHAT?
giving up the 15$, might increase buyers of of the hardware, but I just don't see it. I cannot imagine that their ad-model with ad buyers could possibly make up 15$ over the course of less than say 3-5 YEARS! Simply not enough volume of ads, or logins.. granted the user is probably a nice demo, so the CPM is higher but still - FB puts ads EVERYWHERE for a regular user and gets what 4$ a YEAR in the USA (much less elsewhere) It's got to be a loss leader to drive HW sales (where any new version of the SB's probably has some higher margin)