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The Mac App Store Needs Paid Upgrades

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Re: The Mac App Store Needs Paid Upgrades

#31

Post by ryannielsen »

deedubaya wrote: post #6

As a developer with Apps in the MAS, I can see where this makes sense from the developer's perspective. But I think it is a mater of laziness on the dev's part. Let me explain: From a users perspective, this would suck. It is an antiquated system. "I have to pay for an upgrade just so it works on the new OS?" Think of how many times you've had to do this in the past, and how you felt. Apple will act in the best inter…

As a developer with apps in the MAS, this sounds like a sales, maintenance, and support nightmare.

How would you architect your app to have separate, modular features?

How would I reliably test all combinations of all features?

How do I properly advertise app functionality without deceiving users?

How do I properly support users when they have issues? (Depending on what they've purchased, they could have a very unique set of features and UI enabled.)

You're taking a hammer and using it to tighten a screw. Instead, Apple should be offering the proper tools we need to offer reasonable app upgrade paths.

Re: The Mac App Store Needs Paid Upgrades

#32

Post by msbarnett »

ryannielsen wrote: post #31
deedubaya wrote: post #6

As a developer with Apps in the MAS, I can see where this makes sense from the developer's perspective. But I think it is a mater of laziness on the dev's part. Let me explain: From a users perspective, this would suck. It is an antiquated system. "I have to pay for an upgrade just so it works on the new OS?" Think of how many times you've had to do this in the past, and how you felt. Apple will act in the best inter…

As a developer with apps in the MAS, this sounds like a sales, maintenance, and support nightmare. How would you architect your app to have separate, modular features? How would I reliably test all combinations of all features? How do I properly advertise app functionality without deceiving users? How do I properly support users when they have issues? (Depending on what they've purchased, they could have a very uniqu…

It wouldn't, necessarily, have to be excessively modular.

Say, one in-app purchase, the "2012 Feature Pack", or some such.

That said, I'm not convinced its a better idea than just creating a new FooBar2 app in the store and pushing an update to FooBar1 advertising the launch sale of the new version.

Re: The Mac App Store Needs Paid Upgrades

#34

Post by smackfu »

deedubaya wrote: post #6

As a developer with Apps in the MAS, I can see where this makes sense from the developer's perspective. But I think it is a mater of laziness on the dev's part. Let me explain: From a users perspective, this would suck. It is an antiquated system. "I have to pay for an upgrade just so it works on the new OS?" Think of how many times you've had to do this in the past, and how you felt. Apple will act in the best inter…

Don't IAPs reset after you reinstall, and you need to "purchase" each one separately, and then the purchase is free if you already bought it but there is no prior indication of that?

If so, that is pretty crummy for your best customers.

Re: The Mac App Store Needs Paid Upgrades

#35

Post by msbarnett »

kennywinker wrote: post #24
twiceaday wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Shucks. They will just have to sell another version of the App (Angry Birds, Angry Birds Seasons, Angry Birds Rio) for full price.

Did you miss the headline? _Mac_ App Store. Full price upgrades works for Angry Birds, but anything less episodic or standalone and you have problems. See Tweetie 2, for an example. This issue is going to be rampant in the Mac App Store very very soon. It's been out for what, a year now? Time for a round of big updates... now you have two copies of all your apps.

> See Tweetie 2, for an example

What's the example, exactly? Genuinely curious. I upgraded to Tweetie 2 as soon as it came out. My impression was that it was very successful right up until Twitter bought Atebits.

Re: The Mac App Store Needs Paid Upgrades

#36

Post by mmuro »

kennywinker wrote: post #24
twiceaday wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Shucks. They will just have to sell another version of the App (Angry Birds, Angry Birds Seasons, Angry Birds Rio) for full price.

Did you miss the headline? _Mac_ App Store. Full price upgrades works for Angry Birds, but anything less episodic or standalone and you have problems. See Tweetie 2, for an example. This issue is going to be rampant in the Mac App Store very very soon. It's been out for what, a year now? Time for a round of big updates... now you have two copies of all your apps.

You may not be aware but these are available on the Mac App Store.

Re: The Mac App Store Needs Paid Upgrades

#37

Post by ghaff »

mikebracco wrote: post #8

I feel like the solution isn't paid upgrades but instead monthly/yearly subscription for access in the Mac App Store. The 'appification' of the web is eliminating the idea of major release "versions" of software...it's just an app in consumers' minds and it will always be the same product (with gradual improvement of course). As a result, just charge users for ongoing access to your app and keep them paying by provid…

As with other ideas mentioned, depends on the app. In general, I think people have a limited appetite for subscriptions because every subscription is a "money leak" to be monitored and managed. There is something of a trend in that direction but I'm skeptical that it becomes the standard way to pay for software.

Re: The Mac App Store Needs Paid Upgrades

#38

Post by deedubaya »

smackfu wrote: post #34
deedubaya wrote: post #6

As a developer with Apps in the MAS, I can see where this makes sense from the developer's perspective. But I think it is a mater of laziness on the dev's part. Let me explain: From a users perspective, this would suck. It is an antiquated system. "I have to pay for an upgrade just so it works on the new OS?" Think of how many times you've had to do this in the past, and how you felt. Apple will act in the best inter…

Don't IAPs reset after you reinstall, and you need to "purchase" each one separately, and then the purchase is free if you already bought it but there is no prior indication of that? If so, that is pretty crummy for your best customers.

The ability to restore previous purchases to an app is built into In-app purchases, the developer just has to implement it.

Re: The Mac App Store Needs Paid Upgrades

#39

Post by tedunangst »

kennywinker wrote: post #27
TetOn wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nothing in Apple's recent history suggests this is true. Think of the recent kerfuffle over Final Cut; they had no intention of continuing to sell the older version even though the new one was feature incomplete. It is highly likely that, when it appears, Aperture4 will similarly just replace Aperture3 at approximately the same price point. You can choose to buy the new one or not, but there's no discounted upgrade p…

We have yet to see this problem. The switch to FCPX was the first version in the app store. There hasn't been a high priced Apple app that has received a major upgrade via the Mac App Store. You may be right that they are going to stay at low initial / full price upgrade... I see two issues with that (for Apple). One, if the upgrade is not major enough to convince people to shell out for it. This fragments their apps…

When Aperture was added to the App Store, it cost the same as the standalone upgrade version, lots less than the full version. That could be a signal that upgrade prices are the new full prices, but we're trying to extract a lot of data from only a few tea leaves.

Re: The Mac App Store Needs Paid Upgrades

#40

Post by r00fus »

seanalltogether wrote: post #7
kennywinker wrote: post #2

The consensus among all the devs I've talked to is that this feature will magically appear the next time Apple does a significant update to one of it's bigger ticket apps... Final Cut, Aperture, Logic, etc. I can't see any way they can get around this problem without adding paid updates. Until then 3rd party developers are high and dry.

Which honestly underscores one of my biggest complaints when working inside Apples ecosystem. I always get the feeling that they're building solutions for themselves first, and developers second, they don't take an agnostic approach to creating a platform. A good example of this is when you look at their UIKit and Appkit frameworks, all of the components were designed to the specific behavior that Apples engineers wa…

There is one very important stakeholder you are ignoring in your analysis - the end user. Apple creates stuff not for devs or themselves, but for the real customers - who are the users of their devices and comptuers.

In the case of paid upgrades, if it pains customers and leads to lower device sales, then Apple will come up with a solution to it. Developers (and Apple's internal team as well) come in at a distant second place.

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