Most iPhone users have spent over $200 and around $100/month for a telephone. Why can’t you sell a high tech piece of software to someone with a $1,500/year gadget habit?

My guess: They’re too distracted by all the cheap/free gadgets they can get. If what they want is the gadget, and not productivity, that may be very hard to break through.

At the same time, there are app users like me who are more than willing to shell out for a quality piece of software. I use Jaadu VNC almost every day, and was happy to pay $25 for trouble free VNC, even though there were cheap remote control and free VNC clients available. Likewise, I paid plenty for OmniFocus on the iPhone, and for the desktop as well. I get more than $100 worth of productivity from it.

In both cases, I had a recommendation from a trusted source. OmniFocus was built by one of my favorite software houses, and was recommended by many people I’d met while exploring Kinkless GTD. Jaadu was recommended by my geek-buddy, Aaron.

Again, it’s marketing outside of the app store. What does it take for your app to get that precious recommendation?