I’m one of those that despise subscriptions in apps, even though Apple tries to push them whenever they can. What I was not expecting is that from their winners’ list, I guess only (ironically) the app Too Good To Go, doesn’t feature that garbage business model.
Feel free to give your bets for next year. I’ll bet on AI subscription based apps 😎
I’m pretty sure almost all the apps in the App Store are subscription based at this point.
Yes, and no. There are still a lot of good apps without that business model, but it’s hard to find them and they are not well known.
But this is the path that Apple wanted. 🤷♂️
I never understand this “no subscription”-argument.
You’ve posted a few times here on this and your need to blame someone instead of basic economics is baffling. The “big bad” isn’t the developer or the app store, it’s the ever-increasing cost of materials, labour, education - basically the cost of doing business.
I guess the developer is then supposed to just built the app and sell it for a fixed price, then support it forever with updates and fixes for new OS revisions, faster or multiple platforms…all for free. If they charged a flat-rate for the development and then years to come-service, people would then balk about the high price.
It’s like having a donut store and then having a customer come in and complain that the donuts don’t cost what they did years ago. Labor, flour, sugar, dairy, eggs, oil, mortgage, electricity… are you arguing they should eat the increasing costs so you can get your donut cheap?
Know what the solution is? You have a computer. Don’t like the price - go build it yourself.
Edit: wow, so many people here clearly don’t develop for a living. Buh-bye, children - I give up trying to explain anything to you. You lot belong in /c/technology, where ignorance and Apple hate go hand in hand.
An apologist I see.
No, devs don’t deserve an ongoing revenue stream unless they also incurr ongoing costs from providing their product (operating backend servers, etc).
Wow. So “apologist” means defending further development.
I take it you downvoters never coded in your lives. Or maybe you just pirate and sideload. Either way, enjoy the future.
Thank god I’m retiring from development soon. Fuck all of this.
Just because people don’t agree with you, it means they never coded? GTFO, I’ve written system integrations by myself using Java (so I know a bit how it works), does that makes my opinion worthy?
It’s because developers like you, the software world got into shit. Good bye! You won’t be missed!
Java? Yeah been a while for you, hasn’t it?
“Just because people don’t agree” - I love that. You disagree and you’re fair, but I disagree and I’m hostile. This whole conversation went to shit early because different opinions aren’t respected.
Welcome to the new hive mind. It’s like Reddit 2.0.
Basic Economy?
Wake up Jim!!! You have heard that story so many times that I guess by now, you believe the bullshit you wrote.
That basic economy only makes sense if we are dealing with applications that required a server or continuous maintenance (you know, the real service-apps).
And don’t use the expected updates argument, because no one demands or feels entitled to constant and lifetime updates. I still use apps built years ago that still work. And guess what, they work. Yeah, hard to believe right?
The old business model worked for years and a lot of apps are still around, they didn’t went bankrupt. But it’s okay to believe that this business model would be unsustainable without this, they need people like you to feed the machine 😅
This is not my experience. Most apps I paid once for several years ago are either no longer around or now broken.
That’s because you probably:
I also use Apple devices, but I tend to avoid upgrading the system, unless it’s security patches, since Apple likes to break things without caring for repercussions.
You know that a lot of software made for Windows XP still works in that garbage Win 11 system, out-of-the-box?
Which is bullshit as I have to develop for both platforms, but believe what you want. I give up dealing with users like you. You’re on your own, buddy.
Just because you develop for both platforms using the latest API’s and shiny new IDE’s doesn’t it make it true (even though your ego thinks so).
I can show you Nero 7 (Google it if you don’t know what it is, smartass) running in Win 11 Pro. Also I have old Epson printer which the software (I’m not talking about drivers) never got updated and I still use in Win 10.
So, believe whatever the fuck you want. Just don’t call it bullshit because you don’t know any better. And don’t worry, I’ve dealt with shitty developers like you who think they know it all.
👋
I cannot wait to get out of IT. I’ve been coding since the early 90s, but every new fucking generation thinks they’re the shit, has opinions their experience can’t back up and decides they’re the only true way.
Typical - can’t respect any other experience in coding other than your own, or any other opinion on how an application should be coded.
I maintain my earlier opinion - you’re such hot shit; go make your own apps and let other devs do what they want. You’re not their audience, so why the fuck do you have to shit on anything when you can’t put up your own work??
This was true a decade ago but now most apps interface with some external server, even if it’s not hosted by the developer. The rest of the world keeps changing even if you don’t; API versions increase with breaking changes or a service your app relies on gets shutdown, and now your app is broken. Not upgrading is a boring solution anyway. Keeping up-to-date with new features is what makes computers fun.
There are a lot of abusive predatory subscription apps on the App Store that give subscriptions a bad name but what you’re saying is true. The time and effort to make a good quality app is very high and people expect continuous development, compatibility with the latest OS updates, and adoption of new features. It is simply not sustainable for a developer to be left with years of maintenance after selling an app for a few dollars one time. This is compounded as most app sales happen in the first few weeks of an apps release and then drop off to close to zero for the rest of the apps life.
Many of my favourite apps that only charged a few dollars for life access have been abandoned. I would have much preferred to pay a few dollars once per year and still have those great apps. Unfortunately, it seems few apps take this approach, usually subscriptions are unjustifiably high, sometimes obscenely, for the value the app delivers.
I’m my personal experience, I have to disagree. Keeping an app up to date with the os is not as ridiculous amount of time to need ongoing subscriptions at these prices as long as new users are still coming in. Even server resources don’t cost enough to justify $2/mo minimum from each user for most of these apps just serving a tiny amount of data like leaderboard or new puzzles. The problem is the stores take such huge cut every month so you can’t charge only what you really need. They don’t want to do micro transactions
First off, thank you for speaking to me as a person and not in tirade-mode. I think, though, this also partially encapsulates the issue and arguments past.
Whether the stores themselves are complicit in this or not ignores a basic consideration - you can have free apps and there’s no charge to the developer (outside of possibly the developer license). I personally think the Subscription problem is more about the greed of some devs than micro transactions.
There’s a time and place for subscription. That’s the one point missed in this argument, which tends to be absolutist against any kind of renumeration outside of the initial spend by the consumer.
Not every app deserves a subscription, and 90% of the apps in any app store probably have no reason to exist – so many copies of apps, rehashes, one-tweak-wonders, etc. A smart consumer shouldn’t give these the time of day, but that they exist in the volumes they do suggests there are plenty of unwise consumers out there.
There are, though, likely thousands of apps or games that deserve to exist, and often expand on their utility in each release and offer features not normally on the base OS.
For instance, something like Infuse - it’s a godsend for anyone who doesn’t want a media server but does have a hard disk they can plug into their home base station. They also let you use formats that aren’t otherwise available on any of the OSs, license Dolby to the platform, adds spacial audio, helps with organization and grouping and is a knock-out player.
I personally love its constant development and don’t mind updating my license yearly. I could stop and still have the use of the version I paid up to, but man alive - do some people complain about paying for it. But that’s their choice, right? Use the simple version for free, or use another app like Plex or VLC - what’ the problem? Still - you can barely have a conversation about it without a big thread battle about “subscriptions”…
My ultimate point is we, the consumer, have to be better at our part of the process.
There are good apps where a subscription makes sense. There are others where you should turn your back immediately, to the app and likely the developer - there are some stupidly greedy apps out there. But also there are other apps where they are free or a fixed price…they probably live in obscurity.
Instead of arguing about whether there should ever be a subscription basis to an app, why not just try something else, or recommend a better, cheaper app? I’m tired and salty from the binary nature of this argument - there are so many other options, and yet so much time and energy wasted on a pointless battle.
I agree with you and one thing that really infuriates me is how stupid the Play store and Apple store have become (obviously for their own short term interest). By not enabling filtering by permissions and price model, data privacy, other concerns, they just repulse anyone with half a brain and make everyone’s experience so much shittier. What should feel premium feels like a cheap scam.