Have a Stylish Thanksgiving for just 99¢!

Handelabra is happy to announce that StyleAssist is on sale through the end of November for just 99¢ (or your regional equivalent).We generally don't do sales but we've just been so overcome by the spirit of giving going into this holiday season that we just couldn't resist.  Starting right now, through Wednesday, December 1st, you can get the full version of StyleAssist for just 99¢!  That's a 66% discount off the usual price!  If you've been waiting for the right time to download the most comprehensive hairstyle storing and sharing app available, now is that time.

Happy Thanksgiving from Handelabra Studio!

StyleAssist 1.2 with Twitter now available

We're happy to announce that StyleAssist 1.2 has been approved and is now available on the app store.  There are two major new features in this version of StyleAssist:

  1. Tweet styles to your followers. We've partnered with TwitrPix to give you the ability to easily post your style photos in a tweet.  Just tap the Twitter icon, select the photo to upload, enter your tweet and you're all done.
  2. Grid view for styles. As you start to build your style journal and style file, you're going to have more and more styles to scroll through.  We've added a new grid view to make it even easier to see what styles you have stored.  Now you can view 2 styles at a time with all your sharing options just a tap away or up to 9 styles at a time for faster browsing.

In addition to these two big features we've also added the ability to move styles between your journal and the style file (just in case you save one in the wrong place) and the ability to copy any photo you take with StyleAssist.  These great new features join Facebook posting, bump-to-share, and the rest of what you love about StyleAssist.

We hope you like it!

StyleAssist is international

StyleAssist has been available on the App Store for about a month now and it is to our delight that StyleAssist is popular all over the world!  Aside from the United States and Canada (Handelabra's home countries) we've sold copies in:

  • Great Britain
  • Germany
  • Poland
  • Australia
  • New Zealand

Thanks go out to our international customers for helping to spread the StyleAssist love!

StyleAssist 1.1 with Facebook now Available

Facebook ScreenLate last night, we received word that StyleAssist 1.1 had been approved and is now available on the app store. StyleAssist 1.1 brings super easy Facebook integration and a streamlined bump experience.Facebook integration:

With the new "share on Facebook" feature, you can share one or all of your style photos right on your facebook wall.  Just tap the Facebook icon, select the photos you want to share and enter a caption if you want.  If you like StyleAssist on facebook, you'll also have the option to post a short message to our wall, letting us know you've posted a style.

Streamlined bump experience:

We've made sharing styles with bump even easier.  Now, when you bump to share, you'll get a progress bar showing how long the transfer will take.  And it even uses your own color.  Neato!

So that's StyleAssist v1.1, take a look at it on the App Store.  We hope you like it!

StyleAssist now $2.99 - for better or worse

app price iconAs StyleAssist approached release, we were tasked with the unenviable job of trying to find the right price point.  We live in a strange economy on the app store.  The vast majority of apps are sold for under five dollars, but there are success stories at $20, $50 and $100 price points.  So how does one determine what to charge for software in the app world?The democratization of software development has brought with it an era of 250,000+ apps available and SEVERE price competition.  Looking for an app to manage your to-dos?  What do you want to pay?  There are innumerable free options on the low end, probably more than 50 in the ¢99 - $4.99 range in the middle and then options like Things at $9.99 (or $19.99 for iPad).

But the most important question anyone should ask when clicking the "Buy App" button is not "is this the cheapest" or even "is this the best app for what I want to do".  The question to ask is - do I want this company to be around next year?  While there may currently be almost 300,000 apps available, how many of those are still supported?  How many are still in active development?  How many of the companies that made them are even still in the business?  While the era of the app has brought with it the era of "functionality nuggets", it will hopefully not also herald the end of software development as a viable business strategy.  "Vote with your wallet" isn't just a platitude.

We released StyleAssist at $4.99 and the thud heard in the app store would be legendary, if it weren't so typical.  In the grand scheme of things, how much is $5 really?  Especially when one considers that upgrades are free for life!  I had a meeting this week to discuss the future of StyleAssist and the two cups of coffee sitting on the table cost more than a single copy of the app.  I pointed this out when my colleague mentioned the difficulty of convincing someone that $4.99 wasn't too high a price.

But since the inception of the app store, there has been a consistent drive to the bottom.  As a result, the app buyers of the world have been conditioned to expect free or ¢99 apps that can do anything they want.  When we arrived at $4.99, we were trying to balance the desire for sales against wanting to fund the next round of development for StyleAssist.  It looks like we missed the mark a bit.  So we've done what lots of app developers do in this situation, we've dropped the price.

This is not a sale or a promotion.  We've decided that we overshot our value proposition and have adjusted our expectations accordingly.  The most exciting thing about being in the mobile software space is being a part of a new and developing industry.  And it's a constant learning experience.  The hope now is that we don't learn ourselves out of business.

StyleAssist is now available on the App Store!

StyleAssistHandelabra Studio LLC is announcing the release of StyleAssist 1.0 for iPhone.  As of August 3rd, 2010, StyleAssist is available on the app store for $4.99.StyleAssist™ is the iPhone app from Handelabra Studio™ that is used for storing, tracking and sharing your hairstyles.  You use iPhone’s built in camera to document every hairstyle you ever get, building up a searchable history of your looks over time in your personal Style Journal.

You can also share every Style you create with bump™ built in.

$4.99

StyleAssist on the App Store