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

omnigroup.com

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

#41

Post by zedpm »

yapcguy wrote: 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…

Yep. My business recently ported (well, _I_ ported) our main product from Windows to OSX. After reading up a bit on the App Store and the Apple developer ecosystem, we decided to completely avoid all of it and distribute our software on our own. Having a third party dictate major business decisions in this manner is absurd and ought to be avoided when possible. It's not clear what we'll do if Apple takes steps to force developers to join up and use the App Store (which isn't outside the realm of possibility).

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

#42

Post by rurounijones »

eropple wrote: post #30
rurounijones wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have two nVidia cards in SLI powering 3 monitors. Setup was pretty simple using the binary nVidia drivers on Kubuntu, 0 config file wrangling. Now, having those three monitors in non-uniform geometries is something I wouldn't even consider tackling [EDIT] Kubuntu 12.04 All monitors in a single X Session and automatic application window sizing works as you would expect in KDE (i.e. Maximising a window maximises to t…

Can you get them all in the same X session? I've never tried SLI, I generally just upgrade to a beefier main card and use a second card to drive extra monitors. I have an HD6970 and an HD6450 on 4 monitors that work great under OS X (Hackintosh'd) and Windows and things go extremely sideways under Ubuntu.

Ah well, Radeon with Crossfire under Linux is... yea, good luck. All I can say is nvidia in SLi works fine.

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

#43

Post by yapcguy »

zedpm wrote: post #41
yapcguy wrote: 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…

Yep. My business recently ported (well, _I_ ported) our main product from Windows to OSX. After reading up a bit on the App Store and the Apple developer ecosystem, we decided to completely avoid all of it and distribute our software on our own. Having a third party dictate major business decisions in this manner is absurd and ought to be avoided when possible. It's not clear what we'll do if Apple takes steps to for…

Good decision.

It's quite a pathetic situation when Mac developers have to resort to filing bug reports, yes bug reports, to try and address the issue of upgrade pricing.

https://twitter.com/danielpunkass/status/375377881012396032

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

#44

Post by ser0 »

hayksaakian wrote: post #9

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

When the publisher rebates, they are losing out on the Apple cut/tax. So if they rebate 50% of a $100 item, Apple still takes $30 on the full sale price. This means that the rebate needs to be reduced to 35% for those that buy on the App Store, which still creates two classes of repeat customers.

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

#45

Post by Steko »

yapcguy wrote: 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…

Your solution is bonkers and has zero chance of happening.

You know what Valve charges to put you on the Steam store? 30% or more. You know why some people do it? Because they make more money doing it. You know why some people don't? Because they make more money not doing it.

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

#46

Post by kcase »

Not being able to offer the same discounted upgrade pricing to all our customers no matter where they purchased is obviously disappointing for us. But it just means we're back to the same state of affairs as I outlined in my original blog post from the launch of the Mac App Store:

http://www.omnigroup.com/blog/entry/mac_app_store_or_omnis_o...

As I said in that original post:

"The Mac App Store is the most convenient way to buy our software, letting you purchase, download, and install our apps with just one step, and easily update our apps at the same time as you update other apps you've purchased from the the store.

"But to be clear, the Mac App Store is not the only way to buy our software: we'll continue to offer direct sales and updates through our own website as well. Through our website, we can offer much more flexible terms and options: trial and beta downloads, upgrade pricing, and discounts for volume, bundle, and educational purchases.

"No matter which way you buy our software, you'll be getting the same product: all of our Mac App Store apps are exactly the same as the apps we sell through our website (except for a few minor changes made to work with the store). We'll also keep future updates to our apps in sync—apps you've purchased directly through us will continue to update themselves as they always have, while App Store updates will appear on the App Store (after a slight delay due to the App Store's review process). And either way, you'll have the same great support from our team here at Omni."

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

#47

Post by timeuser »

gojomo wrote: post #39
timeuser wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As I said in my other response it seems likely Apple won't allow these upgrade schemes any more than they are allowing Omni to do upgrades around the App Store. Why would they block what Omni was doing entirely outside of the App Store and allow apps distributed through the App Store to accomplish something similar?

Because outside the App Store, Apple doesn't get their cut, and external payments or software-deliveries don't bind people to the habit of App Store purchases and in-app purchases. With this pseudo-upgrade process, even as convoluted as it is, it all remains inside Apple's system. I suppose the key question is: does Apple allow promotions that give some people the same effect as in-app purchases, while others still h…

Perhaps. It's an interesting theory. I've seen it claimed in the past that Apple has given explicit permission to activate in app purchasable features through other means such as contacting a developer's server with an unlock code. I'm still leery of going through the effort to build and support a kludgy solution like that and still have the risk of Apple not approving of it.

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

#48

Post by peterkelly »

routelastresort wrote: post #13
yapcguy wrote: 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 used Linux as my main OS for 7 years before switching to a mac. I just got fed up with all the hardware compatibility problems and stuff that didn't work without spending hours messing around with library dependencies etc. I'm not going back in a hurry.

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

#49

Post by peterkelly »

protomyth wrote: post #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 tha…

> The problem is Apple doesn't currently care about paid upgrades

Given that they would make 30% of the upgrade price, I'm surprised they're not actively encouraging this.

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

#50

Post by Alphasite_ »

peterkelly wrote: post #49
protomyth wrote: post #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 tha…

> The problem is Apple doesn't currently care about paid upgrades Given that they would make 30% of the upgrade price, I'm surprised they're not actively encouraging this.

You seem to be under the mistaken impression that apple cares about the money, at the scale the MAS operates at, its nothing to write home about. So i doubt very much that they plan on changing anything at the current time.
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