Paid apps are moving to the subscription. The greed of the creators or the only way to save the project life?
You — a practical man. Tools for life and work choose meticulously, and instead of free stuff from the App Store prefer thoughtful, stylish app. The paid app.
Year-second runs like big Ben, yet e-mail does not come (for example new and real) letter:
“Today we are changing the payment model Ulysses. Everything stays the same, same functions, same platform, we just go to the subscription. $ 4.99 per month or 39.99 a year.”
The creators don’t drive your editor with the new road. Last November, the subscription was transferred users of Facetune (app for retouching selfies). In VSCO has offered a tariff plan X: pay once a month and get a full collection of presets for the company.
A sad trend: a couple of years, Apple Music, Amediateka, Netflix, Office 365, editors of images and fee calculators will eat a third of revenue.
Of course, the developers have families and cats. They do the job and should get paid for it, to develop projects. Seems logical. Or not?
Problem #1 is to convince the customer to subscribe
The benefit of subscription to e-library or streaming service is obvious. Small fee = so much music, books or movies that even the cat with nine lives not enough time to listen, to see and to deduct even half.
To pay for the basic tool every month — is another matter, especially if you already paid for.
Yes, the subscription will almost guarantee that the developer will not abandon the brainchild (at least yet). But here appears another difficulty:
Problem #2 — not everyone needs new features
Sometimes it is enough to just solve problems.
Of subscribers is funding something that’s not even using it. Of course, in addition to the features in the updates fix bugs, but it’s flaws and bugs to the developer. Is it humane to ask for them regular compensation?
The decision to develop the service, not the app
First, there is always the possibility that the niche will fill the Apple/Google/Microsoft with a free alternative to the app with a subscription.
Second, even if that happens, the project will still survive (Spotify paid subscribers is increasing faster than the Apple Music). But we hear about Facetune or Ulysses in two years? Hmm.
Thirdly, it is possible to find other ways to get the money. Even a paid upgrade every few years, as practiced by the makers of Twitter client Tweetbot, honest. Like the innovation — pay for the new version. No? Remain on old.
What to do?
Carefully and meticulously choose which services to pay. Let wins the competition and not unscrupulous trends. Otherwise we get a world where nothing is his and everything in life greatnot loans for water, food and widgets with the weather forecast.
