Why Luxury Apps Don't Exist?

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CHAPTERS
0:00 Why There's No Luxury Apps?
1:33 Craftsmanship
3:29 Exclusivity
5:42 Incogni (Ad)
6:42 Price and Economics
8:27 Superhuman
10:37 Why not?

[@enricotartarotti]

The first 100 people to use code ENRICO at the link below will get 60% off of Incogni: incogni.com/enrico

[@pwinsider007]

Slack is luxury app of whatsapp

[@chrisstroesser6563]

I am interested in developing a luxury app for my clients. I provided Houma automation systems for high-end luxury homes and if you have any information about this that could help in my development that would be amazing I like your videos and you explain things very well.

[@LemmySilverlance]

Anything made by Adobe is a luxury to me.

[@enricotartarotti]

Lol

[@GerardMenvussa]

A luxury by price, yes.

[@winstonzheng8882]

I just pirate them lol

[@generatoralignmentdevalue]

This is more akin to industrial equipment than luxury cars. I can't afford graphics software the way I can't afford my own forklift.

[@nobodyknows3260]

I was just about to comment this. 😅

[@GiovanniFoglietta]

Even more mind boggling to me is that me and the richest man in the world have the SAME SMARTPHONE. An object we both spend a lot of time on...crazy that there's not a "Bugatti-equivalent" in smartphones or laptops.

[@enricotartarotti]

Turns out there are, but they are normal iPhones or Android phones with gold/diamond cases😂 caviar.global/ this company makes most of them

[@GiovanniFoglietta]

“15% discount if you buy with crypto” (read on the site). Nothing shouts non-real-luxury louder than that 😂😂😂😂

[@TacklingIgnorance]

There's a phone company called vertu that do several thousand dollar phones as well

[@oneoranota]

Blackberry used to be the phone of the rich. Then Apple started selling iPhones. The new phone of the rich. But somehow the poors decided it was ok to dump two weeks of salary into their phone. Remember when a phone costed 30$ ?

[@asdkant]

The amount of money required to make an appreciably better chip for the phone is in the "small nation's economy" range, so that's a bit too much even for a luxury brand. You could argue that foldables are a bit in the luxury category, but that won't last much given technological progression. I think the luxury niche could be something like longer-lasting support, doubling RAM/flash amounts of top-end models, removing tracking, and paid support contracts for the device itself with more reactivity to customer requests. But then again, that last one is not selling JUST the phone, it's selling a service, which is the same situation as with the Superhuman email client (which we could argue is a bit of an industrial tool instead of a luxury product)

[@plusplusgames]

I think its mainly because physical products have to be made every time, while software only has to be made once. So normal physical products are often made by machines or lots of people in a factory, while luxury physical products are made individually or by a team by hand over a long period of time with effort. While software is made individually or by a team by hand over a long period of time with effort which practically makes all software luxury.

[@helpmeget100subs]

I see it as that these all are luxury apps. And we pay for them. It’s just with our information and data.

[@arctic_line]

I've said for a long time software is a fundamentally different kind of labor than manufacturing (mass production or artisanal), and much closer to research and engineering. A possible exception to this would be network engineers, but even that doesn't feel quite right.

[@olivernordin]

People only buy luxury products if they can show them to other people

[@cripplegangceo]

well said 👏

[@hotlinefrenzy]

totally agree, software isn't commonly a purchasable product someone could flex about.. well unless being a spacecraft company founder 😅

[@MustangDesudiroz]

disgaree, if it looks good to me thats the case at most i buy it to look for myself

[@lolnyanterts]

@@MustangDesudiroz if it looks good to me I’m gonna either pirate it or buy a replica

[@MustangDesudiroz]

@@lolnyanterts same i have a replica gold rolex (pagani disgn) and fake diamodn bracelet. idaf what others think

[@disruptceo]

NFT projects in 2021 were the closest thing to luxury software with status symbolism in the mainstream

[@ernststravoblofeld]

That's celebrity rich, not really rich. Seriously rich people don't buy NFTs, and consider crypto a game.

[@Fourtune1]

@@ernststravoblofeldwhen they do it’s just okay money. They aren’t shilling stupid monkey photos on Twitter

[@mstang574]

As an engineer, there are definitely some software out there that are very well built and expensive. I wouldn't call it luxury, but there are definitely companies that wish they could afford the premium software. Could be a stretch, but luxury-like I guess

[@CallousCoder]

I agree. But it’s weird that these days the open source software tends to be better in quality and features. And it’s often free. When I was still doing VFX I kicked out Maya for blender I was bound to my Nuke license because Nuke is the ultimate compositor. And you don’t mind paying for something that’s great and comes with awesome support and makes you money. And my own software I want to have thoroughly tested. I’m from the old stamp: “don’t release anything that you know still has bugs”. Just fix those bugs before releasing…

[@aiaioioi]

i think these days photoshop and ae could be considered somewhat of a luxury, they're really expensive for barely any improvement complared to lower price/free software

[@deality]

​@@aiaioioi not expensive

[@MrKrewie]

​@@CallousCoder you have more people that could potentially contribute to the project and perhaps reviewed by others so not so crazy at all, closed software usually hides a mess of s codebase

[@CallousCoder]

@@MrKrewie I know and I agree. But it's weird in the proverbial way that something that is free is better than the commercial counterpart. It's not how economics tend to work ;) I've been an OSS since 1995 so I know the advantages well of OSS.

[@smol_wolf]

I think that luxury apps do exist in some sense - they are just the regular apps we use everyday. Their design is carefully crafted to make the user experience smooth and visually pleasing, and this is because a big company behind the app has people and resources to dedicate to that fine-tuning. We can often see the difference when switching to an alternative app with the same function developed by a small independent developer, often the first thing we see is the not-so-perfect app design.

[@sasukeuchiha998]

luxury is when you pay for your checkmark.

[@sangwoohan1177]

What about the Bloomberg terminal? I'm pretty sure some APIs are pretty expensive to access.

[@enricotartarotti]

Yeah I see your point, but I wouldn't consider that luxury, it's more of a specialized professional tool

[@amitthehuman]

I don't have the same fondness for luxury that you clearly have. To me, the fact that we all have extremely well designed apps for free is so much better than whatever a luxury app looks like. When I saw those expensive features on the mail client I thought: "Google could implement this". Not that it matters because soon we could all just ask AI to read and write our emails

[@andrewjgrimm]

Apple is somewhat luxury. Also, Ferrari does computers. Yes, I guess they include hardware rather than only software.

[@Bhethar]

When I was in uni in Milan, at the beginning of the app craze, some of my rich colleagues had this app called “a small world” which was supposed to be a super exclusive rich people social network app. Me and some other guys got offered to join since it was invite only, but we all declined because we felt we would have been out of place considering we were not Arab oil tycoon rich. Another odd one was a company that marketed itself as the first luxury software developer but only made a pack of luxury ringtones and that was it. I was actually thinking of luxury when you mentioned email. I pay for my email provider because it’s more private and offer extras like cloud, vpn etc and for me that’s a little luxury. I could keep using gmail but by paying I am having the luxury of keeping my personal data and use apps no one else seems to use.

[@deality]

They're are private chats and groups for rich rich men but no apps for them

[@samsawesomeminecraft]

This reminds me of the difference between products like TrueNAS and TrueNAS Core, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, and other premium versions of free software. In the premium experience of using free software, you're paying for a host and for significantly better tech support.

[@ottoendres9840]

I think one of the main reasons is that other people can't see that you are using a luxury software. For example, if you're a millionaire who has a very valuable business, you don't want to be seen in a 2007 Opel Corsa, you want to be seen in a 2023 Ferrari SF90 Stradale, or you don't want people to see that you're wearing a 10 euro watch from Amazon, but a 1000 euro watch from a luxury brand. And it's not just that you don't want to be seen wearing cheap stuff like that, it's that you can show them off. When you say, "Look, that's my new Opel Corsa from 2007," that sounds a bit silly if you're rich, and the same goes for software. If you say, "Look, this is my new luxury browser," no one will care because it's "just" a browser.

[@oneoranota]

Yeah, being rich is kind of a lifestyle in itself. I've been living in medium to bad neighborhoods for the last 30 years, so you would not catch me in a car worth more than 30 000 bucks. But if I moved to a luxury house in a luxury town ? Pretty sure I would go for an upgrade.

[@baraodascolinas979]

Digital stuff is just boring really, the staring at a screen I mean. The pleasant things are physical objects and experiences.

[@BlackBird-Startup-Stories]

You could say that Apple is a luxury brand as well. In any major city, Apple Stores are always next to Prada, LV, Gucci stores

[@thearturro]

Agreed, while I really enjoyed using Samsung Galaxies, iPhones just always feel more premium

[@aqua-bery]

Isn't it obvious? What could they even do to make it luxury? Make it look nice? Make it function? That's meant to be standard. Edit: Bad software is just bad. A non luxury car is standard but a shitty app is just gonna fail.

[@Joebidenaligator]

Your production quality is mad! Keep it up!

[@IDOLIKIofficial]

There's actually a lot of luxury apps but it is unavailable for the 'normal' end-users. I actually work on an app that costs more than $200/month (paid in crypto) and it is used for messaging focused on complete privacy and secured from the government. (since we allow only invitees to come aboard)

[@ninjanerdstudent6937]

Ubuntu, Firefox, VLC, and OBS are all luxury apps that just work on just about any hardware you slap it on.

[@Hollowdude15]

I never thought about a luxury app before and didn't even no it existed and great video man :]

[@Theboredsheep]

Maybe it's because I am passionnate about software, studying design to maybe one day make it my job, but there are a lot of luxury apps, the best example of one would be Scrievener 3 (which in it's core is a just a writing app, but it adds so many other utilities for specific working styles that it becomes nearly the only options ofr some novelists), the market for "premium" apps on macos is actually quite big :D

[@ladida9084]

Oooh are there any other apps you can think off? This is actually a topic I'm super interested in

[@oneshoalice]

huh? how is Scrievener 3 a luxury app?

[@Happy_Shopper]

Production quality is insane on your videos

[@massa_art]

Hey man this was a great video thanks! 🙌 It's great to see your channel get the attention it deserves, and it's hard to find constructive feedback to help you continue to improve! I'd say the only things I've noticed are (1) the reflection on the glasses makes it hard to connect (2) you look at your left at the end of some sentences, I guess you have your script there. Both easily fixable. Keep rocking 🤟

[@nickefm308]

There are no luxury books, music, movies etc. Only fully physical objects can be luxury. There were luxury books back in middle ages, when reproducing a book in itself was a tedious process, and there were few copies of them. When printing was invented, even if you could still create some book with diamonds etc., content of the books was never luxurious anymore, no writer ever would sell one copy of book for thousands of dollars. A painter can sell a painting for a lot on the other hand, because he/she is creating a unique piece of art, other copies are not truly exact copies of what he painted. $30/month is not really expensive to be called 'luxury', and yes, they are selling mostly a service. So no place for luxury apps indeed, that would be as insane as recording a song and trying to sell it through streaming services for $1000 per copy.

[@Legend57.]

Luxury apps sounds like a HUUUUGE security threat even to the average... Anonymity is security and security to rich people is one of the most important things. Having an app spesifically for rich or well off people sounds like a way to paint a bulls eye on your back.

[@vzuzukin]

Excellent video and exquisite aesthetic of production. This is intellectually high quality

[@matyasbures8248]

Awesome breakdown! Do you think it's a good strategy though? To build luxury software? Might be good for branding but as you pointed out at some point you would just make more money by selling it to the general public

[@ishmaelliwanda8921]

Amazing video! There's a really good podcast episode by David Rosenthal and Ben Gilbert on LVMH (Acquired Podcast). They do a really good job at synthesising the economics of luxury with a real life example of someone (Bernard Arnault) building a luxury empire. One bit of feedback, if I may: I think the conclusion of the video could have been more refined. You very quickly use the cruise control example but then in like 30 seconds end the video. I think another one or two examples of innovation 'trickling down' from the luxury sector would have been useful, and allowed for a smoother transition at the end. Otherwise, keep up the great work!

[@astrailiaous_Sempticreed]

"Luxury" apps, are just apps built in-house for company purposes. Like proto Skype or driver software for a specific computer.

[@LcSlimline]

Actually i found out the guy from stranger things met his wife on a dating app only for celebs, they screen each user and its a hefty fee but in return you guarantee matches with other celebs.

[@RemotHuman]

Adobe software like photoshop and premiere pro is luxury software vs using free open source versions. Also there's apps that are a few bucks that you could have got free alternative's to that are less polished. Also iPhone is a luxury item and I would say a big part of that is the software. But all of these things could be bought by middle class people not only really rich people like luxury cars. There's also that invite only dating app for famous people, "Raya" I think

[@elladumpsterfire]

it makes so much sense that a product manager would make this video ;~)

[@collinsa8909]

Funny

[@danbuzaneli]

As a car enthusiast I respectfully turned off the moment you said a Pagani just gets you from A to B like any other car

[@lolnyanterts]

Does it not? Does it get you to the moon?

[@generatoralignmentdevalue]

These are all interesting points, but you've overthought it. Luxury products are there to be seen with. This is what distinguishes them from regular good quality products, which way more people can afford. Someone may have a luxury smartphone or high-end PC, because they can be seen using it. But on that device? Nobody is watching what software they open their emails in, or play their videos with. If anything, that would be a privacy/security issue if it were seen.

[@drewski2001]

Microsoft sells a pro version of all their operating systems. Most AAA video games are three times the price any knockoff, and there's a one hundred dollar version of the game.

[@SEAN-qx9hi]

I am a swift developer so Apple Programming language... its absolutely possible to make Luxury apps

[@vishwastanwar4764]

All through the video I was thinking, well, Superhuman is a luxury app... And then you did mention in the end...

[@bastiaan7777777]

Tip: Pls lower the background music volume a bit, and your glasses get those with anti reflected coating, so wee can see your eyes 😎🤓

[@TimberWulfIsHere]

I think its pretty simple. Whats the difference between a basic 1 and 0 vs a luxury one? Neither. No such category exists

[@CityLifeinAmerica]

I guess to me luxury apps are linked to a physical product. For example the car apps require you to own the car itself.

[@JohnDBlue]

Another "luxufy email" for the rich is paying someone else to handle your email, right?

[@StefanBacon]

Marginal cost per user is basically 0 after high dev costs. It would usually be financially stupid to put in the effort and withhold it behind an inaccessible price.

[@urmum8540]

For luxury software to work it would have to be through the form of services or Saas (like the email client you mentioned) a luxury piece of software with a one time purchase fee can simply be pirated getting rid of all its exclusivity and attractiveness to potential buyers unlike the real world.

[@lolnyanterts]

This is a different kind of luxuries. Proprietary software is a luxury for the developers and worker of that company. We as the users are the product, so the luxury is in controlling the software. Open source is the true liberation and freedom for the people.

[@Lilliathi]

Anything that can be downloaded off the internet or copied from system to system is not exclusive. There's no luxury games, music, or movies either, for that same reason. That e-mail thing you mentioned doesn't sell an app, it sells a service. Service can be luxury.

[@devaraft]

Honestly I though that would be a dumb idea but I really hope a premium social media would be a thing so that they'll not keep stripping the current user of any feature like rn

[@blana_de_urs]

There are bro, you just don’t know them, for example XO which is an Uber app for private jets, do your homework better there are lots of apps for the 1% we the normal people don’t bother to use an app to consume their products when the cheapest thing on that app starts from 30k

[@Navoii.]

I'm a part of an invite only London taxi service, with S classes and some of the greatest chauffeurs, in their own words. I was surprised that I got in, because I'm nowhere near London, and I haven't been outside my home country ever since I got it. Still, that makes it feel much more exclusive However, it is free. To make it more exclusive, I'm not telling you which it is lmao Great video

[@libertarianspirit]

It might not be obvious for western world, but Apple products and their OS considered luxury and status symbol in poorer countries.

[@collinsa8909]

Word

[@etiennelamole9565]

Technology trickling down is actually already taking place with software, but at a much faster scale. Just think of portrait mode, ray tracing, generative AI…

[@TheThreatenedSwan]

The whole point of luxury is that you are more likely to buy and spend money on them as your income goes up. Basic food goods aren't really luxuries and neither are apps. No app itself would be luxury though there are many luxury services.

[@nowayicommented1314]

Well luxury has always something to do with exclusiveness. In apps I’d say a luxury would be if you are the only one or one of few people with access. These apps won’t even be on the App Store.

[@meif6302]

I Think another aspect of luxury is differenciating yourself from everyone else, which in many cases means showing off. A car, a yacht, a nice suit or a pair of expensive shoes are seen by others. Some may only be recognized by people that are rich themselves, but really those are gonna be the people you want to impress most anyway. With software that doesn’t work. Either you want something that is accessible to everyone, not just fellow wealthy people, like whatsapp, instagram,… that works because everyonevhas it, as was mentioned in the video. Or your software is something just for you, something that’s not used to interact. Therefore it wouldn’t be shown to anyone and you couldn’t show off/differenciate yourself. No one is gonna see that you use the superfancy notes app, for example. That’s I think why there isn’t many things like „superhuman“. The only piece of software that would combine well crafted, expensive and show-offable would in my eyes be a social media platform for wealthy people.

[@internetdoggo4839]

They already exist, and they're called Open Source apps. Unlike proprietary apps, they don't include a dozen analytics libraries, and most of them have no ads. Compared to their proprietary alternatives, they're better in every way, and they're free. You could say that they're premium. Also, product improvement comes from competition, not from exclusivity.

[@ravitejaknts]

Then it is oppsite of luxury. They are open for everyone and they are also easy to replicate with the same quality. Open source is more like product from non-profit business rather than luxury.

[@drjjloveman]

There kind of is. In a way. Like the free version and the paid version. This could be considered luxury apps

[@thefocuschic3234]

I honestly was kinda low-key missing your content.

[@enricotartarotti]

Me too

[@moimoi6374]

I think TempleOS can be considered luxury in the same way a cathedral is luxury

[@enricotartarotti]

Nice analogy!

[@Lord_zeel]

In the world of software, the price is always relative to how many users would be interested in buying it. There exists some truly absurdly expensive software, but it's so pricy because it's only useful to a small number of people. And this is entirely because software is 99% fixed costs, so the only reason to charge a ton for it is because it was expensive to make and not a lot of people need it. But if you have a big potential audiance, pricing people out is just leaving money on the table. Price rarely has anything to do with quality either. Some of that high end stuff SUCKS but there's basically no alternative to it. In fact, inexpensive mass-appeal software is often better because there's more competition.

[@dhrumil5977]

3:50 ahhhh the way he spoke farrraaraeeee

[@drdoofinsmeriz778]

This guy makes me think, he's going to make me someone who I'd be proud off.

[@TheRyanandRachael]

Scottrade had offices in most cities, I don't know if whoever bought them out kept them open. I think apps like Robin Hood with free no comission trade's killed the full service stock trading apps.

[@cydosnaxx1045]

"Software and Apps can be dublicated infinitly" as worth of the algorithm luxury productivity

[@virtual2288]

Haven't watched but i bet the entirety of apple is "luxury" branded because it's overly expensive for a feeling of "quality" no better than android.

[@accountid9681]

ummmmm, as someone who uses autodesk apps, I can assure you that there is absolutely luxury software.

[@johnmorgangriffith921]

They're a bad sailor if the yacht is flexing on piers 0:16

[@Andrewdeitsch]

I just came here to say this thumbnail was great

[@yogpanjarale]

Discord nitro is definitely luxury as it does not add value but it is just fancy

[@SethuSenthil]

As a app developer I would be down to make luxury apps, if u a billionaire lmk 😂

[@TheBaxes]

I think that a luxury app would just be something custom made to solve a specific problem that a rich guy has

[@yebzy]

The piracy barrier is almost zero Ctrl+C Ctrl+V

[@william.darrigo]

This is exactly why NFTs became ridiculously expensive

[@raghunandanbs2005]

Bro your voice is soothing , i literally slept watching your video

[@collinsa8909]

You got bored

[@chantc777]

The main reason why is because that's not the way to make money on the internet for software and there doesn't need to be any luxury apps

[@productopster]

Oracle instead of Notion for personal use would be a true luxury.

[@randomland9088]

The end of collectors value is coming to an end.

[@bonquaviusdingle5720]

They kinda do have premium apps like paid games etc but those mostly died out

[@helpmeget100subs]

Cuz pay to win has rose and digital data collecting has become an industry

[@jervi_sir]

there was an instagram like luxury app, u cant post unless u pay 1k$ monthly, otherwise u can just see posts

[@collinsa8909]

Really? What's d name

[@user-mp1ce6su5q]

Ehm... Have you ever played video games? Microtransactions, DLC, lootboxes...

[@Eichro]

there's unison audio selling luxury chords...

[@animealpha4795]

2 words : Parasocial Relationships It’s very very easy for affluent people to create parasocial relationships both irl and online. And beneficial for boosting the ego of the rich and beneficial for social media apps to keep normal people stuck in their unreal obsession thus making more money. As for non social media apps, they wouldn’t benefit from luxury apps cz it’s all about the money. Their no craftsmanship of historical significance associated with apps. So it’s just features that any coder can replicate and they’ll just end up making less money anyway.

[@ingikjartansson]

And we don’t really have luxury cola, everyone drinks Coke or Pepsi

[@lolnyanterts]

Id also say private trackers can be consideed luxury.

[@edhahaz]

I would love to see more expensive shit. I need to consoom. Also loled at $30/mo being luxury

[@davidvalencia129]

2:10 Well I want to see a car that cost a 100 times less do a 6:30 lap time in the ring (Nurburgring)

[@axa993]

Great video, remove the ticking sound between the subtitle transitions and have a wonderful day

[@mhlengidlamini994]

Tinder has a $500 monthly subscription.

[@Anonymous-qb4vc]

There was some social app only for rich people

[@888records]

We don’t need luxury social media because they can flex on the normal apps

[@Madoxbeatbox]

I wish Premiere would be more of a luxury Software.

[@faeancestor]

why they dont ? why they do not ? why they do not exist ? anyone know ?

[@robertmaxey5406]

My guess is Apple will not let you get away with such crap. I do not see a thousand dollar app in the App Store. No way.

[@imprincesswolfy2565]

They’re called closed source, paid programs

[@LennyQUMFIF]

Like a 70$ game?

[@Hollowdude15]

Wow

[@kneelesh48]

$30/month is not crazy. Google Workspace Enterprise costs $25/month so your company is paying Google $25/month for email.

[@bartosztomasz]

There’s no luxury software because subscription models exist and they’re much more profitable

[@Factopia-vl7de]

I was watching this and i grabed my mouse, my finger slipped and i liked this video

[@collinsa8909]

A luxurious mistake

[@adrees]

ChatGPT and other Ai tools will surely be the Lux apps with pay walls. And so will cybernetic enhancements.

[@YodahDreamChaser]

the camera app on the iPhone vs on the androids 😊

[@mRahman92]

How about an app that was once a luxury, but over the years and updates and changes, it has become a Mickey-Mouse McDonald's apps 😅

[@thejaideeparora]

Dude you made a good video but I got the feeling that you just stretched it past 10 mins, for obvious reasons. This could have easily been a sub 5 mins video. Good production quality though.