Greetings Readers!

Moments ago, I just got an email from the raved about service Jott.  In the email, it stated that Jott Basic and other free services such as its much acclaimed speech-to-text will no longer be free starting February 2, 2009.   This also includes Jott Notepad for the iPhone.

I had had a Jott account for sometime but have only used the service once.  I never think about it when I need to take a note, I just type out a note in my Blackberry.  I know a number of people that use it and love it since its a free service.  Unfortunately the free service is about to die.

According to Jott, the reason for the change is because of the economy.  The poor economic climate has caused them to focus 100% on profitibablity which means ending the free service that they made themselves known with.  They say that they had planned on doing a ad supported version but it is not viable right now and that it would ruin the user experience.  I tend to agree with them on everything.  Providing the service that they do is hard to keep free in these times and for a service such as Jott, I think it is worth the money if you use the service.  I also am not a fan of the ad supported model.   I follow the idea of Ken Rutkowski in that start-ups should have 5 ways of making money and the primary way should never be advertising.

While it is sad to see the free service go, the Pro subscription is only $3.95/mo so it is still a very affordable service if you use it often.  For those that want to upgrade, they put details in their announcement as well as some codes for 10% off an annual subscription.  If you haven’t tried it, I recommend checking out the service while it is still free to find out if the pro account will benefit you.