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Coming changes to Apple's App Store

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Re: Coming changes to Apple's App Store

#71

Post by AlexandrB »

mrdrozdov wrote: post #45
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.

The problem is that Apple is now encouraging subscription pricing by dropping their cut to 15% in the second year. This is going to incentivize more apps to go to a subscription model if they can.

Re: Coming changes to Apple's App Store

#72

Post by mhurron »

glhaynes wrote: post #50
mhurron wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

Throughout the history of the iPhone, iOS apps have been replacing activities that were done on webpages.

Re: Coming changes to Apple's App Store

#75

Post by salmonet »

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've been very pleased with the subscription experience on the App Store.

The reason I usually hate subscriptions is that they are a headache remember, changing credit cards requires me to remember and update subscriptions in many different places, and providers make it hard to cancel. My experience with subscriptions on iOS has been very positive. It's easy to pay for and easy to cancel.

Personally, I would rather pay a small amount per month while being able to cancel at any time than pay a larger amount up front for something I've never tried. If the app is compelling enough to keep using, I'm happy to keep paying.

Re: Coming changes to Apple's App Store

#76

Post by zippergz »

AlexandrB wrote: post #71
mrdrozdov wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

The problem is that Apple is now encouraging subscription pricing by dropping their cut to 15% in the second year. This is going to incentivize more apps to go to a subscription model if they can.

The good part of this is that it should strongly incentivize developers to make sure their subscribers are happy. Otherwise they won't make it to the second year.

Re: Coming changes to Apple's App Store

#78

Post by wlesieutre »

protomyth wrote: post #70
wlesieutre wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> Sketch is _NOT_ switching to a subscription model. It looks quite a bit like a subscription model to the average person. $99/year is a pretty big jump in price, but I guess they've gotten a chunk of pro market people. The whole bit about being unfair to late adopters is a bit of bunk.

> It looks quite a bit like a subscription model to the average person

Not really? My problem with subscription software is that you lose access to it if you stop paying. I used Photoshop 7 for a looooong time because we didn't need any of the new features. You can't do that with Photoshop CC. Because it's a subscription.

If anything, maybe you could call it an "update subscription," but if the software works without an active subscription, then it's not a subscription. That would be like Comcast saying "If you cancel your cable subscription, you can still turn on your TV and watch reruns of whatever aired when you were a customer."

> $99/year is a pretty big jump in price

For that much money, you could use Adobe Illustrator every January, May, and September!

Re: Coming changes to Apple's App Store

#79

Post by post_break »

salmonet wrote: post #75
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've been very pleased with the subscription experience on the App Store. The reason I usually hate subscriptions is that they are a headache remember, changing credit cards requires me to remember and update subscriptions in many different places, and providers make it hard to cancel. My experience with subscriptions on iOS has been very positive. It's easy to pay for and easy to cancel. Personally, I would rather p…

A simple trial period like Androids 2 hour window would avoid all of this subscription nonsense for your last point.

Re: Coming changes to Apple's App Store

#80

Post by bad_user »

salmonet wrote: post #75
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've been very pleased with the subscription experience on the App Store. The reason I usually hate subscriptions is that they are a headache remember, changing credit cards requires me to remember and update subscriptions in many different places, and providers make it hard to cancel. My experience with subscriptions on iOS has been very positive. It's easy to pay for and easy to cancel. Personally, I would rather p…

Out of curiosity, how much money do you spend monthly on software subscriptions?
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