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 😎
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.