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Coming changes to Apple's App Store

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Re: Coming changes to Apple's App Store

#41

Post by wlesieutre »

dapearce wrote: post #28
AlexandrB wrote: post #20

As someone who buys a lot of apps this is very disappointing. Things that would make me buy MORE apps (demos, upgrade pricing, better support) are still not in the app store, meanwhile the one pricing model I detest (subscriptions) is being added. I suspect I'll be buying far fewer apps if there's a mass movement from a purchase model to a subscription model among app developers. I'm perfectly happy to pay $20-30 for…

What about $0.99/mo, or even $0.49/mo? My initial reaction is the same as yours, but I could see myself agreeing to $0.99/mo for some of the apps I paid $2 or $3 for. Still relatively cheap for me but would dramatically increase income for the developer.

$0.49/month is $6/year. If I thought an app was worth $2, I'm absolutely not willing to pay that much for it.

If you're talking about an app that's a major part of your workflow for something, maybe this makes sense. But most of the apps that I've paid $2-$5 on are things that I'm only likely to fire up occasionally when I need them. Monthly fee to mark up photos or scan papers with the camera? I'll pass.

Re: Coming changes to Apple's App Store

#42

Post by mhurron »

chasing wrote: post #35
AlexandrB wrote: post #20

As someone who buys a lot of apps this is very disappointing. Things that would make me buy MORE apps (demos, upgrade pricing, better support) are still not in the app store, meanwhile the one pricing model I detest (subscriptions) is being added. I suspect I'll be buying far fewer apps if there's a mass movement from a purchase model to a subscription model among app developers. I'm perfectly happy to pay $20-30 for…

I think the mindset change that needs to happen is this: Apps are a service. I would actually prefer to pay developers of apps that are truly useful to me a monthly amount so I know they can continue to update and improve the app. If an app saves me $1000/yr in headache, I'd prefer to spend $30/yr on a subscription rather than lose the app entirely because the developers can't keep the lights on.

> Apps are a service.

We used to call that webpages.

Re: Coming changes to Apple's App Store

#43

Post by sagivo »

the +15% more after a year is a joke. like this article mentioned - the majority of the apps are games, games after a year are usually forgotten and they make most of the revenue on their first year on the market.

about subscriptions - i don't see any reason a developer would share the subscriptions revenue with apple while they sale it for free and make in-app subscriptions.

Re: Coming changes to Apple's App Store

#44

Post by ssharp »

wlesieutre wrote: post #41
dapearce wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What about $0.99/mo, or even $0.49/mo? My initial reaction is the same as yours, but I could see myself agreeing to $0.99/mo for some of the apps I paid $2 or $3 for. Still relatively cheap for me but would dramatically increase income for the developer.

$0.49/month is $6/year. If I thought an app was worth $2, I'm absolutely not willing to pay that much for it. If you're talking about an app that's a major part of your workflow for something, maybe this makes sense. But most of the apps that I've paid $2-$5 on are things that I'm only likely to fire up occasionally when I need them. Monthly fee to mark up photos or scan papers with the camera? I'll pass.

If the subscription price is $0.49, then you're effectively able to demo the product for one month and only risk $0.49. I'd hope "delete app" = automatic unsubscribe, which would make this type of trial pretty simple.

Re: Coming changes to Apple's App Store

#45

Post by mrdrozdov »

AlexandrB wrote: post #20

As someone who buys a lot of apps this is very disappointing. Things that would make me buy MORE apps (demos, upgrade pricing, better support) are still not in the app store, meanwhile the one pricing model I detest (subscriptions) is being added. I suspect I'll be buying far fewer apps if there's a mass movement from a purchase model to a subscription model among app developers. I'm perfectly happy to pay $20-30 for…

Apps have existed with subscriptions long before now. I suspect you will still be able to buy a flashlight app for a fixed price, but maybe you'll subscribe to Hulu through Apple rather than Hulu's backend.

Re: Coming changes to Apple's App Store

#47

Post by exstudent2 »

ingsoc79 wrote: post #32
jaxondu wrote: post #4

Interestingly Sketch app announced today they're changing to a subscription model soon. Sketch app abandoned Apple store last December. Looks like Sketch will be back to Mac App Store this fall. It is sad that Apple only took action now, after years of requests and complains by indie developers. Now that app boom is over, I doubt this App Store changes will have any impact.

A subscription model would definitely benefit specific types of apps (we make games and are excited at this possibility). The easy money's already been made in the App Store; with a million+ apps it's a visibility issue. No amount of changes to the App Store will remove the problem of there being a dozen apps that already solve the problem that your app solves. That said, a subscription model with a reduced cut could…

> That said, a subscription model with a reduced cut could improve monetization prospects for a lot of developers, indie especially.

Only if users except the model. I for one, will be removing any of my apps that move to a subscription model. I have no interest in renting the software on my phone.

Re: Coming changes to Apple's App Store

#48

Post by wlesieutre »

jaxondu wrote: post #4

Interestingly Sketch app announced today they're changing to a subscription model soon. Sketch app abandoned Apple store last December. Looks like Sketch will be back to Mac App Store this fall. It is sad that Apple only took action now, after years of requests and complains by indie developers. Now that app boom is over, I doubt this App Store changes will have any impact.

Oh damn it. Sketch 3 owner, this is news to me. As a hobbyist, their subscription price will almost certainly not be worth it.

The reason I quit Adobe and bought Sketch was to support software that I could actually buy. Not this "Good deal for professionals, even cheaper for students, fuck anybody who just wants to use a decent art program every couple of months" model.

I'll see what I can track down on details, but I'm preemptively very disappointed about this.

EDIT: Sketch is _NOT_ switching to a subscription model. Sketch is breaking from the "paid major, free minor" upgrade schedule, and going to "rolling releases, $99 buys the app and a year of upgrades."

Personally I think that's a fair system. It frees them from having to plan new features around the major/minor release schedule, but you can still buy the software and just keep using it.

My biggest concern is going to be OS compatibility. With OS X on a yearly upgrade treadmill, if there are any compatibility issues (and there almost always are), then the Sketch upgrade is effectively not optional. That's not so different from how it is now, except there have only been two major upgrades since the original release (September 2010), so you'll be buying OS compatibility fixes more than twice as often. So I still don't love it.

https://blog.sketchapp.com/versioning-licensing-and-sketch-4...

Re: Coming changes to Apple's App Store

#49

Post by oddevan »

rosalinekarr wrote: post #15

> For the first year of a subscription Apple will maintain its 70 / 30 revenue share; after one year, the new 85 percent / 15 percent revenue share will kick in (applied per subscriber). This is the exact opposite of what Apple should do. App startups in their first year need all the revenue they can get. After the first year, most of those companies have either reached profitability or gone out of business. This pol…

I think Apple is attempting to reward services and startups that are focused on long-term value for their users. If I create a subscription app, I want to get to that 85/15 split. So that means I need to build my business such that I'm around in a year to collect on that split and I'm providing a good enough service after a year that people stay subscribed.

In other words, I think Apple is intentionally discouraging companies that are so focused on the short game they may not be around in a year.

Re: Coming changes to Apple's App Store

#50

Post by glhaynes »

mhurron wrote: post #42
chasing wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the mindset change that needs to happen is this: Apps are a service. I would actually prefer to pay developers of apps that are truly useful to me a monthly amount so I know they can continue to update and improve the app. If an app saves me $1000/yr in headache, I'd prefer to spend $30/yr on a subscription rather than lose the app entirely because the developers can't keep the lights on.

> Apps are a service. We used to call that webpages.

Throughout the history of computing, a ton of software has been licensed under a service/subscription model. There's nothing special about the web in this respect.
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