Obscura 2 — A very special offer

Today is a big day for Obscura. As part of a promotion in the Apple Store retail app, we’re making Obscura free to new customers for a limited time.

Here’s what that means:

Obscura is not a free app.

Obscura is still a paid up front app, and we have no plans to change that. The promotion will run for about two months, and during that time, Obscura will still be available for purchase. Think of it as Apple offering out promo codes rather than as a sale.

The promotion is only available in certain regions.

Naturally this is out of our hands. I don’t have a full list, but it should be available in the region’s that have Apple Online Stores.

We don’t get paid for this

There’s no money changing hands between us and Apple. The hope is that people enjoy the app enough to want to support it by purchasing filters (we also added a tip jar if you want to show even more support).

We’re doing this to promote Obscura.

Marketing an app is always tough, advertising is expensive, and it’s hard to track its effectiveness without being creepy. Apple provided us with an opportunity to put Obscura in front of a huge number of people in a way we never could by ourselves. We’re hoping that this helps us reach a critical mass that allows Obscura to continue growing naturally. (Don’t forget to share photos with #ObscuraCamera!)

We know this may upset some existing users

It’s always tough to change a product’s pricing, as one group will naturally feel like they’ve got the worse end of a deal. Believe me when I say we didn’t make the decision lightly. But at the end of the day, what’s good for the business is good for all users.

We’re thrilled to share our work with even more people around the world, and I’m looking forward to seeing the incredible photographs that come out of this.

Ben