Update: Updated with cost information.
Active’s ubiquitous Meet Mobile mobile swimming results application is about to undergo a major face-lift, that the company says will vastly improve the user experience, but those changes will come with a price.
In an email this week, the app’s developers announced that the service would move to a subscription model, requiring users to pay a monthly or yearly fee, through an in-app purchase, to continue accessing live meet results.
When this upgrade goes live, fans may realize that they no longer have access to meet results on older versions of Meet Mobile. If that happens, they simply need to upgrade their application and choose from a monthly or yearly subscription plan to reactivate results.
A follow-up email from Hy-Tek/Active says that the subscription will run $1.99/month or $5.99/year. With limited competition in the marketplace, and continued frustration with web-based live results, many users will find themselves forced to pay the fee, or else being left unable to follow results for both local and major national meets.
To this point, the Meet Mobile service has been largely free – with the only charge currently being if the meet host wishes to publish heat sheets to the app. Under the current model, heat sheets can start as low as $1.99 per user, and the host takes 40% of the revenue while Meet Mobile takes 60%.
For Active’s part, the new charges will come with new features According to the email, that includes a complete visual overhaul, along with the following specific features:
- Searching meets by swimmer name or by GPS location
- Following swimmers across a season instead of by event
- Sharing the meet experience on social media
The email also didn’t include information about when the upgrade would go live.
The full text of the email announcement is below:
Dear XXXX,
As we continue our investment in the swimming market following the release of ACTIVE Hy-Tek’s Swim Manager, we’d like to announce that Meet Mobile is about to get a much needed upgrade. Meet Mobile works with Meet Manager to provide your participants and their fans event information and real-time meet results.
The update is going to feature a complete visual redesign and dramatic improvements to functionality like:
- Searching meets by swimmer name or by GPS location
- Following swimmers across a season instead of by event
- Sharing the meet experience on social media
When this upgrade goes live, fans may realize that they no longer have access to meet results on older versions of Meet Mobile. If that happens, they simply need to upgrade their application and choose from a monthly or yearly subscription plan to reactivate results.
Reactivation is all done inside the application, so you don’t have to do anything. Just encourage users to upgrade; Meet Mobile will take care of the rest through an in-app purchase.
If you have additional questions about the Meet Mobile upgrade, feel free to email support at[email protected].
Best Regards,
The ACTIVE Hy-Tek Team
The Venue and Organization running the meet should get the majority of the proceeds. A majority of the apps success comes from the handwork of the Meet Managers. Without them you wouldn’t see any results anywhere.
As a software developer, I understand the need to monetize the hard labor that goes into maintaining software. However, Active Network / Hy-Tek ltd is doing it in a very mischievous way.
Perhaps more troubling, is the potential consequence of allowing a company like Active Network — whose recent actions appear very unilateral and greedy — to centralize and monopolize results data. It threatens the market share of other great results organizations that have always put its customers first; For example, Athletic.net’s loyal customers… Read more »
Wow, having a look at the first meet of the year and thought I would check my meet mobile subscription status and see that they have essentially doubled it to $11.99 from current $6.99…nothing like progress. So clubs don’t get the little bump from selling heat sheets and meet mobile rolls in ‘paper.’ Nice
As my team’s Computer Operator, I can say that we quit posting live results to Meet Mobile last year and are in the process of migrating to TouchPad for the upcoming season. We host 3 large meets in addition to several dual meets every year. With the new version of Meet Manager just released, I won’t be surprised if other teams don’t follow this pattern as well rather than buy another version of Meet Manager.
I have no problem paying for the swim meet app BUT since I paid for it it hasn’t worked on my phone. You were quick to take the money but not so quick at helping a bunch of us to get back on the site
I purchased the app with much regret. The upgrade just doesn’t do nearly what the original app did. You cannot get future meets, hard to find past meets, the filter is garbage, and there are no phone numbers to contact someone for help. They never should have upgraded the app as to me, the upgrade is worthless. I would not hesitate to keep the original but I will eventually cancel the new one unless someone from meetmobile contacts me with the many problems.
My 13 year old daughter already paid for this herself with christmas money. To her its an affordable fee for what she considers an important service.
Braden-
There are plenty of mobile apps that make money from ads. Although the higher engagement apps do the best with ads. I would say with a mid engagement app like Meet Mobile, they should have had a low app price (like 99cents)with advertising to gain a bigger base. There are lots of formulas for making money from mobile apps and that seems like the best fit. But no matter what, quality matters to gain loyalty and referrals.
I’m not thrilled with having to pay but would be okay with paying if the app worked right. Which I can’t get to work right now and I am hearing about so many issues of delayed updates or not working at all. At least let the paid version be the same quality – not worse.