iLoungeiLounge
  • News
    • Apple
      • AirPods Pro
      • AirPlay
      • Apps
        • Apple Music
      • iCloud
      • iTunes
      • HealthKit
      • HomeKit
      • HomePod
      • iOS 13
      • Apple Pay
      • Apple TV
      • Siri
    • Rumors
    • Humor
    • Technology
      • CES
    • Daily Deals
    • Articles
    • Web Stories
  • iPhone
    • iPhone Accessories
  • iPad
  • iPod
    • iPod Accessories
  • Apple Watch
    • Apple Watch Accessories
  • Mac
    • MacBook Air
    • MacBook Pro
  • Reviews
    • App Reviews
  • How-to
    • Ask iLounge
Font ResizerAa
iLoungeiLounge
Font ResizerAa
Search
  • News
    • Apple
    • Rumors
    • Humor
    • Technology
    • Daily Deals
    • Articles
    • Web Stories
  • iPhone
    • iPhone Accessories
  • iPad
  • iPod
    • iPod Accessories
  • Apple Watch
    • Apple Watch Accessories
  • Mac
    • MacBook Air
    • MacBook Pro
  • Reviews
    • App Reviews
  • How-to
    • Ask iLounge
Follow US

News

News

On iPhone App And Accessory Bundles – Pricing, Distribution + Related Issues

Last updated: May 15, 2021 10:38 am UTC
By Jeremy Horwitz
On iPhone App And Accessory Bundles – Pricing, Distribution + Related Issues

It has a catchy name, a nice design, and the right price tag—free. But is Kensington’s new Rise & Shine Clock & Weather app going to succeed at its apparent task: helping the company to sell its new $40 Nightstand Charging Dock for iPhone? Or is it the other way around: are users supposed to learn about and purchase the Dock first, then show up to the App Store to collect their free clock app?

Advertisements

On iPhone App And Accessory Bundles – Pricing, Distribution + Related Issues

We learned about the Nightstand Charging Dock and this software prior to its official announcement today, and weren’t exactly sure what to make of this particular bundling idea. iPhone and iPod charging cables are free with their devices, of course, and most combination wall chargers and cables retail for $30 or less. Kensington’s twist adds a big plastic block to the end of the Dock Connector, enabling a connected iPod touch or iPhone to stand up on either its side or its bottom. This dock design displays the app for the user to see rather than laying the device flat on its back, and keeps the unit charged while the app runs, but apparently doesn’t do anything else.

Advertisements

 

On iPhone App And Accessory Bundles – Pricing, Distribution + Related Issues

So between the app and that plastic block addition, there’s supposed to be $10 of value that justifies the higher than typical purchase price of the charger. For sure, the app is nicely designed—much like most of the iPod and iPhone accessories Kensington has released over the past five or so years.

It flips between three types of clock displays, one mimicking an old-fashioned digital clock, another replicating a flip-based analog clock, and the third using a futuristic font and reflective design that’s similar to the company’s logo and packaging. Portrait and landscape modes are supported for each clock, and they all look nice.

Advertisements

 

On iPhone App And Accessory Bundles – Pricing, Distribution + Related Issues

At the bottom of each screen is simplified weather and date information, which can be clicked on to open a five-day forecast complete with iconography; a separate settings screen lets the user pick colors and make other adjustments that are in some cases clock-dependent. You can dim the screen by merely running your finger over the display, a cute trick that none of the hardware-based iPod or iPhone alarm clocks released to date makes so simple. It’s suddenly becoming easier to picture the iPod touch and iPhone as replacements for the clocks in speaker systems, though the question of whether users want to keep their devices’ screens on full-time or depend upon having their devices handy at all times for clock purposes is open for some debate. Probably a lot of debate.

Advertisements

 

On iPhone App And Accessory Bundles – Pricing, Distribution + Related Issues

A couple of other technical points are also interesting here.

First, the app still requires alarms to be set using the iPhone OS’s standalone Clock application. More importantly, it doesn’t require the Rise & Shine accessory in order to run—no different than any of the other hundred or more clock applications previously released in the App Store. It’s similar in this regard to Griffin’s recently-released iFM Radio Browser, which is also offered as a free download to accompany an accessory (Navigate) that’s neither strictly needed nor ideally designed to interface with the app. In both cases, the companies appear to have come up with the software and accessories at the same time, but due to the App Store’s vending model, they’ve charged higher than normal prices for the accessories and given away the software for free. This appears to be a simple way to have Apple take a 0% cut of the software rather than taking fees for both the software and the licensed accessory.

Advertisements

 

On iPhone App And Accessory Bundles – Pricing, Distribution + Related Issues

Will the “free app, expensive accessory” business model work going forward? Our suspicion is “probably not” in most cases, given both the low perceived value of iPhone OS apps at this stage, and the real challenge of convincing a user to make a subsequent hardware purchase after they’ve gotten an app for free, rather than having the hardware and software physically bundled together. The other option, having the software continue to be free, yet work only if it communicates with specific lock-out chips in the accessories, is surely in the midst of being tested right now—we’d expect Tom Tom and other companies to try this in the near future.

Advertisements

Latest News
The 13-inch M4 MacBook Air 256GB is $150 Off
The 13-inch M4 MacBook Air 256GB is $150 Off
1 Min Read
New Dynamic Island to Have ‘Significant’ Upgrades
New Dynamic Island to Have ‘Significant’ Upgrades
1 Min Read
Samsung Might Not Include a ‘Plus’ Phone Model Next Year
Samsung Might Not Include a ‘Plus’ Phone Model Next Year
1 Min Read
The 128GB iPad Mini 7 Wi-Fi is $120 Off
The 128GB iPad Mini 7 Wi-Fi is $120 Off
1 Min Read
New Apple TV+ ‘Chief of War’ Trailer Released
New Apple TV+ ‘Chief of War’ Trailer Released
1 Min Read
New ‘Improved’ Vision Pro to Launch This Year
New ‘Improved’ Vision Pro to Launch This Year
1 Min Read
‘The Morning Show’ Season 4 Premieres on September
‘The Morning Show’ Season 4 Premieres on September
1 Min Read
The AirPods Pro 2 is $100 Off
The AirPods Pro 2 is $100 Off
1 Min Read
OLED MacBook Pro to be Delayed
OLED MacBook Pro to be Delayed
1 Min Read
‘Trash Can’ Mac Pro Moves to the Apple Vintage List
‘Trash Can’ Mac Pro Moves to the Apple Vintage List
1 Min Read
Next Apple Studio Display Slated for 2026
Next Apple Studio Display Slated for 2026
1 Min Read
The 11-inch M3 iPad Air WiFi 128GB is $120 Off
The 11-inch M3 iPad Air WiFi 128GB is $120 Off
1 Min Read

iLounge logo

iLounge is an independent resource for all things iPod, iPhone, iPad, and beyond. iPod, iPhone, iPad, iTunes, Apple TV, and the Apple logo are trademarks of Apple Inc.

This website is not affiliated with Apple Inc.
iLounge © 2001 - 2025. All Rights Reserved.
  • Contact Us
  • Submit News
  • About Us
  • Forums
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms Of Use
Welcome Back!

Sign in to your account

Lost your password?