Live data from Hacker News

Update – We’re unable to offer upgrade pricing for Mac App Store purchases

omnigroup.com

11–20 of 73 posts

Re: Update – We’re unable to offer upgrade pricing for Mac App Store purchases

#11
The problem is Apple doesn't currently care about paid upgrades. They don't sell software that way (witness the new Logic).

Developers need to do things to ensure the loyalty of old customers while pricing their software so they can make a living. So the starting price + upgrade pricing model works great. Customer feel like they got a bargain for being loyal and the developer gets to eat.

Apple doesn't need to do that. So they won't build it for developers. Given the iCloud API thing, I would imagine this is going to continue to get more restrictive.

Re: Update – We’re unable to offer upgrade pricing for Mac App Store purchases

#12
post #10

Why not offer rebates to users of the old version instead?

It's likely that Apple would veto that as well.

How much control do they really have over your business? If amazon can redirect its customers to its site to work around this level of control, why can't they do the same and give licensed users apple gift cards to cover the upgrade vs full price difference?

Re: Update – We’re unable to offer upgrade pricing for Mac App Store purchases

#13
post #2

"We are not allowed to distribute updates through other channels to apps which were purchased from the App Store." The solution is simple. All Mac developers should stop selling through the App Store, regain control of the distribution channel, and leave the Mac App Store barren of quality applications. Until Mac developers have leverage, Apple will continue taking their 30% cut and enforcing rules which suit them an…

... or switch back to Linux, and just download everything you need, without encumbrances like this. I recently switched back on all of my OSX and Windows machine, and it feels great. Only through years of contributions to open source projects, and hanging my head in shame can I ever be redeemed. Oh, and Steam is only going to get better!

Re: Update – We’re unable to offer upgrade pricing for Mac App Store purchases

#14
> We are not allowed to distribute updates through other channels to apps which were purchased from the App Store.

> Update: Unfortunately, we’ve had to remove OmniKeyMaster from our website and can no longer offer upgrade pricing to App Store customers.

So, what happened here? Did Apple threaten to close Omni's app store account? Because:

The Omni Key Master is an app that is not distributed through the app store. Also when a user buys an upgrage he will only receive updates through Omni's website and not the app store. So the upgraded apps should be out of Apple's reach.

So what happened here? Did Apple legal write a strongly worded email to Omni?

Re: Update – We’re unable to offer upgrade pricing for Mac App Store purchases

#16
post #2

"We are not allowed to distribute updates through other channels to apps which were purchased from the App Store." The solution is simple. All Mac developers should stop selling through the App Store, regain control of the distribution channel, and leave the Mac App Store barren of quality applications. Until Mac developers have leverage, Apple will continue taking their 30% cut and enforcing rules which suit them an…

You don't have to wait for Mavericks, it has already happened. Apps that are sold through the App Store can not make use of the the media keys on Apple keyboards, which is why VLC can use them and other apps can't.

Edit: other than iTunes

Re: Update – We’re unable to offer upgrade pricing for Mac App Store purchases

#17
post #2

"We are not allowed to distribute updates through other channels to apps which were purchased from the App Store." The solution is simple. All Mac developers should stop selling through the App Store, regain control of the distribution channel, and leave the Mac App Store barren of quality applications. Until Mac developers have leverage, Apple will continue taking their 30% cut and enforcing rules which suit them an…

... or switch back to Linux, and just download everything you need, without encumbrances like this. I recently switched back on all of my OSX and Windows machine, and it feels great. Only through years of contributions to open source projects, and hanging my head in shame can I ever be redeemed. Oh, and Steam is only going to get better!

I still haven't found a linux distro that doesn't eventually resort to me fudging with xrandr for a week trying to get multiple monitors working correctly. Granted, this was 3 years ago. Have any linux distros solved the problem of configuring multiple monitors using a gui yet?

Re: Update – We’re unable to offer upgrade pricing for Mac App Store purchases

#18
post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

... or switch back to Linux, and just download everything you need, without encumbrances like this. I recently switched back on all of my OSX and Windows machine, and it feels great. Only through years of contributions to open source projects, and hanging my head in shame can I ever be redeemed. Oh, and Steam is only going to get better!

I still haven't found a linux distro that doesn't eventually resort to me fudging with xrandr for a week trying to get multiple monitors working correctly. Granted, this was 3 years ago. Have any linux distros solved the problem of configuring multiple monitors using a gui yet?

>Granted, this was 3 years ago.

Choked on the water I was drinking. Is this a serious poast?

Re: Update – We’re unable to offer upgrade pricing for Mac App Store purchases

#19
It'd be ugly and put other burdens on the pricing strategy and support permutations, but perhaps app-makers so trapped could approximate their desired result via:

(1) offer a reduced-functionality "version N" to everyone, but for the desired 'upgrade' price. (Essentially, this might only have the features of the prior N-1 version.)

(2) offer an in-app purchase unlocking full/pro features, priced at the delta between their desired "full Version N price" and what was already paid

(3) give owners of the previous "N-1 Version" a code that gives them the in-app purchase benefits for free

Maybe Apple would still object... but since the entire process happens inside Apple's system, paying Apple's commissions, advancing the use of Apple's in-app purchase mechanisms, maybe they'd be OK with it.

Re: Update – We’re unable to offer upgrade pricing for Mac App Store purchases

#20
post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

... or switch back to Linux, and just download everything you need, without encumbrances like this. I recently switched back on all of my OSX and Windows machine, and it feels great. Only through years of contributions to open source projects, and hanging my head in shame can I ever be redeemed. Oh, and Steam is only going to get better!

I still haven't found a linux distro that doesn't eventually resort to me fudging with xrandr for a week trying to get multiple monitors working correctly. Granted, this was 3 years ago. Have any linux distros solved the problem of configuring multiple monitors using a gui yet?

> Have any linux distros solved the problem of configuring multiple monitors using a gui yet?

For two monitors on one video card, things are pretty okay on Ubuntu and derivatives. More than that, especially 3+ with non-uniform geometries, and you will have fun. If you have multiple video cards, you will have even more fun.

Post reply on HN