Been wondering and have spoken to a number of app developers from BT and it has become apparent that these developers are hesitant about creating plugins for BT because they don't want to be spending time creating a plugin that may also be in development by another developer. An example of this was this thread:http://www.buzztouch.com/forum/thread.php?tid=676639D473A8658DC976B06&fid=BC70C36A743CD4FAD95D17F&sortColumn=FT.id&sortUpDown=DESC&currentPage=2 If many of the developers do not want to spend time creating a plugin in fear of another developer creating something similar, then where does this leave the market? Will we have the quality plugins we believe the plugin market would generate? or will the market full into a steady decline? which I hope not. I know this was a topic mentioned in previous posts before the plugin market was launched and it was a gray area, but it doesn't appear to be gray anymore. What is the solution?

The very nature of a free market (as us greedy Americans know too much about, lol), is that in the end, the best products, sold at the best prices, will dominate the market. So the question each developer needs to ask themselves (and it should be a familiar question, since we are all mobile developers trying to make our mark on a similar, but much larger, market) is: "Can I make something that is useful enough for people to purchase and use. And is it better (or different) than my competition?" Like I said before, we are all in the early stages of this, and no one wants to think about competition. But its inevitable. I can guarantee you there is already competition between us buzztouchers (buzztouchians?) in the app markets that we might not even know about. But because this new plugin market is so close to home, its more "in our face". The bottom line is, if a Plugin developer has an idea and doesn't follow through with it because of fear of competition, then they can guarantee zero sales. And if that's the case, someone else may move forward with the same idea and it may be successful (regardless of if its better or worse than the original idea). Look at the App market in its early stages. Anyone that could make ANY app (fart button, etc) made some money. Now those early apps (if not improved upon and maintained) are forgotten about and have been replaced by better apps. The same will happen in the plugin market. Where I think I may differ in opinions than your question is, I think that the whole process will drive plugin developers to make things better, with more features, more stable, etc. Its going to drive us all to do better, and I think the result will be the realization of the Plugin Market as David had (and still does) invision it.

I totally agree with @stobe. The great thing about the free market system is you can have tons of similar, but different products, and all of them can be successful depending on price and features. Cell phones, tablets and laptops are all great examples of that! I'm working on multiple plugins that are probably being worked on by others as well. I can always adjust price point or features to make them successful! And that's exactly what I plan to do! Mark

All great points and to be fair that is my view also, I think competition is healthy but unfortunately I am unable to contribute as I haven't the skills to build plugins. Question to you guys, if you were working on a plugin, then found out that someone else was creating something similar or indeed the plugin reaches the market before your plugin, would you still carry on with the plugin?

I think the answer to your question is, it depends. Depends on the features and price point of the other plugin. It's possible I might abandon mine if they've done theirs as well or better than mine. But, if it's overpriced, or not as feature rich as mine, I might continue on.

Great question. For me it depends on two things... 1. Does that plugin serve MY purpose. For me, most of the plugins I'm working on are to satisfy something that I, myself need. If someone "beats me to market" with a plugin that does everything I need, then I'd have to weigh the cost versus my time to complete. 2. Similar to #1, if the plugin I was working on did things different, or better than the one that comes out first, I would certainly continue in my efforts.

My approach to plugin development has been to address needs that I see in the market. There are some feature requests people tend to ask for a lot, and I figure those are ripe for a plugin.

My biggest hesitation to putting some more plug-ins on the market is not seeing it duplicated - it's SUPPORT. BT and David are awesome, but keeping up with iOS/Android upgrades and then making sure your code still works for folks the way THEY want to use it - not the way YOU designed it - that's a bigger concern IMO than a copycat. I've seen posts here where people buy a new plug-in, sell the 'project' to a client and then run into issues with the code. It's a sticky situation. Say an audio plug-in for instance. I've got a working model, but there are a handful of 'mods' that have to be done with it before it works properly, for instance: Background Audio and Streaming. Background audio requires some modification to the appdelegate. Streaming requires a webview and works different than locally accessed audio. Very difficult to address those concerns (and cross platform) with solid code that works on all devices and OS's AND is something that can be configured completely in the CP and by a non-coder. Plug-ins need to be designed, tested and sold to work in certain enviroment and in a particular way. It's difficult to support the same code to work for everyone the way they want it to work in their app. That's reason enough to have multiple plug-ins that do the same thing - but work in different enviroments.....

Just seen this earlier thread: http://www.buzztouch.com/forum/thread.php?tid=7D88796E7EA5247D7D48613&currentPage=7

From a none developer point of view, its clear for me, I would buy many plugins that are the same if I thought that each time I made a purchase of the same plugin that I'm purchasing a better plugin. It doesn't concern me as much as I'm eager to spend spend spend as the cost isn't to much, but I'm not a developer so I guess I don't really understand an hesitation. I hope many developers are not put off and as a designer I'm willing to help anyone with design for their plugin to help improve the product.