As an app developer, it’s difficult. It’s a ton of time and effort to develop and maintain apps. User expectations are sky high. The associated tooling and server costs to provide high level experiences can get very costly.
Subscriptions give us an ability to get a more stable revenue stream. This helps us to not need to focus so much on constantly acquiring new customers but actually create a great experience for our users. Same thing with ads, they are annoying but without making some revenue we would just be bleeding money. We could skip the ads and just harvest and sell you data. Remember, almost every app makes money off of you it’s just a question of how.
The problem is how often they are abused. Pay to win games are terrible for everybody. Making anything a real grind to get without paying sucks too. Freemium is a nice model but again, sometimes it’s done poorly. It’s a balance of trying to pick what features to gate behind the paywall so as to encourage purchases but not degrade the experience for others.
In one of my apps, it’s entirely ad free and all basic functionality is usable without paying. I don’t have a server for it and everything is local, so the costs are lower. I don’t really collect much data on users so as to not be invasive. The subscription unlocks themes, a stats page, and states it’s also to support the dev team. Personally, I think that’s reasonable.
My other app has higher costs (server) and the subscription is more and there are ads. One banner ad, one full screen. Full screen only appears after checking in, and isn’t too disruptive (imo). Most users could close the app after that and not care too much. That subscription removes ads, and adds some goodies like premium themes, app icons, and user tags.
At the end of the day it’s hundreds of hours of effort to create and support these apps, in addition to the monetary cost (you need a developer account with Apple, $120 CAD a year). I believe I should be compensated for all the work, just like anyone else. I’m not a fan of harvesting and selling data so I prefer the subscription model. I remember reading about the best option back in the day. One time purchases are brutal for devs because there is often a peak early on in the apps life. They then have a bunch of users, but not much income. So it’s hard to support the app and they often had to continually pump out new ones.
I’ve tried to create a fair system where the premium portions are mostly nice to haves and aesthetics, not core functionality. It’s difficult to get right and ultimately there will be users who hate it but I can’t please everyone unfortunately.
I’m counting down the days. Apple has until March. I can’t believe they’re leaving it to this late. They’ve had years to roll this out and they’re waiting until the last minute. They better have a BULLET PROOF rollout or the EU can and probably will fine them $33B for non-compliance. “Whoopsie we have bugs” won’t cut it after this many years of notice. They’re playing with fire.
While I think there needs to be alternatives I suspect a lot of people will be disappointed as many developers don’t alter pricing at all and we are going to see some really scummy behavior by some going forward.
I am a very infrequent user of the app store as is and we have always had freedom on the Mac platform and that just meant mostly other stores with their own embedded fee structure along with having to guess if a site and developer were trustworthy.
So we may just end up in a situation where we have a few large trusted app stores and still have to pay them all.
There may be small variations in pricing, but the reality is more likely developers and app companies will keep pricing the same and pocket the App Store “fees”.
I’m not expecting much of a change to pricing, and I’m fine with that. It’s all the apps Apple has been blocking for all these years that I’m interested in. Particularly Firefox with its own engine, Google Assistant as the default voice assistant on iOS, and Steam as an actual distribution and installation method where we can buy iOS apps on Steam and play them on our phones.
This is a very lofty ideal. Especially something like Google assistant as a system default. That would require significant system-level changes that gave an application/service low-level access to your device. I just don’t see that happening.
Changing voice assistants is explicitly required in the DMA. There’s a lot in there in addition to sideloading. That’s why I’m surprised they’re leaving it to the last minute. It’s a huge change.
I mean I get that apple charge a percent for the app, they are hosting it. But why should I have to pay them extra for content I consume directly via the app?
That old model just wasn’t sustainable. Developers needed to constantly sell copies to new customers just to keep the lights on. It worked for small-time, one-off apps like a pdf reader but for games, particularly with multiplayer or online features they have to pay employees salaries and server costs too.
At some point the customer base was maxed out and sales slowed.
I went back in my app list to the beginning when the App Store launched and so many of the companies that made those early apps are just gone now. Blaming Apple as being greedy is reductive and overly simplistic.
I genuinely don’t see what’s wrong with that tbh. The updates don’t pay for themselves. It’s kind of ridiculous people expect lifetime development for a single $5 fee or something
I hardly ever. My app discovery is primarily outside of the App Store. Like you said, subscriptions have been over-exploitative and browsing the store is not what I find to be a pleasant experience.
Who still uses the App Store?
Everything is subscription based, it’s a hellscape of apps.
As an app developer, it’s difficult. It’s a ton of time and effort to develop and maintain apps. User expectations are sky high. The associated tooling and server costs to provide high level experiences can get very costly.
Subscriptions give us an ability to get a more stable revenue stream. This helps us to not need to focus so much on constantly acquiring new customers but actually create a great experience for our users. Same thing with ads, they are annoying but without making some revenue we would just be bleeding money. We could skip the ads and just harvest and sell you data. Remember, almost every app makes money off of you it’s just a question of how.
The problem is how often they are abused. Pay to win games are terrible for everybody. Making anything a real grind to get without paying sucks too. Freemium is a nice model but again, sometimes it’s done poorly. It’s a balance of trying to pick what features to gate behind the paywall so as to encourage purchases but not degrade the experience for others.
In one of my apps, it’s entirely ad free and all basic functionality is usable without paying. I don’t have a server for it and everything is local, so the costs are lower. I don’t really collect much data on users so as to not be invasive. The subscription unlocks themes, a stats page, and states it’s also to support the dev team. Personally, I think that’s reasonable.
My other app has higher costs (server) and the subscription is more and there are ads. One banner ad, one full screen. Full screen only appears after checking in, and isn’t too disruptive (imo). Most users could close the app after that and not care too much. That subscription removes ads, and adds some goodies like premium themes, app icons, and user tags.
At the end of the day it’s hundreds of hours of effort to create and support these apps, in addition to the monetary cost (you need a developer account with Apple, $120 CAD a year). I believe I should be compensated for all the work, just like anyone else. I’m not a fan of harvesting and selling data so I prefer the subscription model. I remember reading about the best option back in the day. One time purchases are brutal for devs because there is often a peak early on in the apps life. They then have a bunch of users, but not much income. So it’s hard to support the app and they often had to continually pump out new ones.
I’ve tried to create a fair system where the premium portions are mostly nice to haves and aesthetics, not core functionality. It’s difficult to get right and ultimately there will be users who hate it but I can’t please everyone unfortunately.
Wait, there are alternatives to the App Store?
There will be in the EU but not yet
There’s already trollstore/ side loading up to 3 apps for a one week signing window.
The former requires you to not update your iOS (works up to 17.0 rn) and the later is a pain in the butt to keep re-signing
I’m counting down the days. Apple has until March. I can’t believe they’re leaving it to this late. They’ve had years to roll this out and they’re waiting until the last minute. They better have a BULLET PROOF rollout or the EU can and probably will fine them $33B for non-compliance. “Whoopsie we have bugs” won’t cut it after this many years of notice. They’re playing with fire.
While I think there needs to be alternatives I suspect a lot of people will be disappointed as many developers don’t alter pricing at all and we are going to see some really scummy behavior by some going forward.
I am a very infrequent user of the app store as is and we have always had freedom on the Mac platform and that just meant mostly other stores with their own embedded fee structure along with having to guess if a site and developer were trustworthy.
So we may just end up in a situation where we have a few large trusted app stores and still have to pay them all.
There may be small variations in pricing, but the reality is more likely developers and app companies will keep pricing the same and pocket the App Store “fees”.
I’m not expecting much of a change to pricing, and I’m fine with that. It’s all the apps Apple has been blocking for all these years that I’m interested in. Particularly Firefox with its own engine, Google Assistant as the default voice assistant on iOS, and Steam as an actual distribution and installation method where we can buy iOS apps on Steam and play them on our phones.
This is a very lofty ideal. Especially something like Google assistant as a system default. That would require significant system-level changes that gave an application/service low-level access to your device. I just don’t see that happening.
Changing voice assistants is explicitly required in the DMA. There’s a lot in there in addition to sideloading. That’s why I’m surprised they’re leaving it to the last minute. It’s a huge change.
How to summarize the app store in one sentence: pdf reader app with 60euro yearly subscription
And whose fault is that? Greedy apple wanting to take a cut.
Confused the hell out of me as to why I couldn’t see kindle versions in the amazon iOS app
They take the same % as Steam does on PC
I mean I get that apple charge a percent for the app, they are hosting it. But why should I have to pay them extra for content I consume directly via the app?
That old model just wasn’t sustainable. Developers needed to constantly sell copies to new customers just to keep the lights on. It worked for small-time, one-off apps like a pdf reader but for games, particularly with multiplayer or online features they have to pay employees salaries and server costs too.
At some point the customer base was maxed out and sales slowed.
I went back in my app list to the beginning when the App Store launched and so many of the companies that made those early apps are just gone now. Blaming Apple as being greedy is reductive and overly simplistic.
I genuinely don’t see what’s wrong with that tbh. The updates don’t pay for themselves. It’s kind of ridiculous people expect lifetime development for a single $5 fee or something
A fuckin makup app being the best iPad app sums up the platform to be honest.
*subscription make-up app.
Why? Because it doesn’t appeal to your personal taste?
Oh grandmaster Feahnor, where do you legally get your native apps from?
r/iOSgaming may help you out. Lots of good games and suggestions and many aren’t subscription/PTW. You will need to pay up front though.
(Far to many people complain about subscriptions but then also complain that the app isn’t free or has ads.)
Productivity apps are definitely a hell scape of overpriced subscriptions though. I will not argue that.
I hardly ever. My app discovery is primarily outside of the App Store. Like you said, subscriptions have been over-exploitative and browsing the store is not what I find to be a pleasant experience.
Even when I know what I want I cringe with the 90% scammy apps in the search results.