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News from the Subscription front
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Posted by Paul Korm
Aug 16, 2018 at 10:13 AM
A couple of recent articles highlighting Apple’s role in fostering and benefiting from the app subscription business.
Tim Cook at Apple’s 3Q18 earnings call:
https://sixcolors.com/post/2018/07/this-is-tim-apple-financial-call-with-analysts-transcribed-live/
“Paid subscriptions from Apple and third parties have now surpassed 300 million, an increase of more than 60 percent in the past year alone. Revenue from subscriptions accounts for a significant and increasing percentage of our overall services business. What’s more, the number of apps offering subscriptions also continue to grow. There are almost 30,000 available in the App Store today.”
That is 300mm subscriptions, not dollars. The revenue is probably around $6 billion USD. Apple counts a subscription to HBO or a magazine the same as a subscription to Drafts or another app—so the data are not easy to parse.
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Business Insider report on Apple’s meeting with developers to encourage them to use the subscription model
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On the app side, apart from enriching Apple and perhaps raising the standard of living for some developers, I think the benefit of subscriptions for consumers is debatable. Of the subscriptions I have, I think only one, SetApp, is worth the freight—and that only because it lets me avoid paying an even higher total for a slew of individual subscriptions. Otherwise, I can’t think of a single developer who delivers a steady increase in features in return for the subscription fee.
Posted by MadaboutDana
Aug 16, 2018 at 12:43 PM
I agree with this. Also, it’s a bit like the “endless growth” fallacy. Clearly Ulysses (just to pick one example) does most of the things its developers and its target audience want it to do. Where’s the incentive to keep adding features? Would it, in actual fact, benefit from a steady accumulation of new features, or would they simply turn it into another Microsoft Word (eventually) - the perfect example of an aggregated product?
At the same time, subscribers tend to feel cheated if all they get are maintenance updates, even if said updates speed up performance, deal with bugs etc. “Under the bonnet” improvements are not very exciting.
Developers are also in a quandary. Say the guys behind Ulysses (okay, Ulysses GmbH) want to create a new product - maybe a sister product that will make the lives of some writers even better, but is best kept apart from Ulysses (so not added as a new feature) because otherwise the added functionality will turn Ulysses into something completely different from what it is currently. Ulysses GmbH will have to do some seriously potent marketing to persuade existing subscribers to pony up for yet another subscription.
And while the new product may attract a bunch of new users who are happy to subscribe to that product - will they also be happy to subscribe to Ulysses if, as may sooner or later happen, they realise that actually, this new product would work even better in conjunction with Ulysses?
Or does Ulysses GmbH offer a brand-new kind of subscription covering both products as a package? And if so, how do they transfer existing users to that package?
The subscription approach leaves a lot of questions hanging. And now that it’s been running for a couple of years, these questions are beginning to look quite important. It would be interesting to do a survey of popular subscription apps (Bear, Ulysses, KeepIt, Outlinely, etc.) to see what the developers think of these issues.
Posted by nathanb
Aug 16, 2018 at 06:22 PM
I don’t mind the subscription option as long as the cost is in-line. I tend to think about 2 years of subscription should be about the same as a license that I’d end up having to pay for the ‘upgrade’ every 2-3 years for. If I stick with an app for many years I suppose I’d end up paying more out of pocket than if it was a one-time license but the flip side is that the entry price to ‘try’ the full version is much lower. I figure if I’m paying a subscription for a long enough time to where I’m ‘losing money’ compared to buying a license then that’s still ok because I’m likely getting a huge value from that software.
For example I’ve been paying I think $20 or so per year for LastPass and would pay a lot more for the value I get out of it.
A troubling development is that many subscription apps are chasing ‘business teams’ so they can charge much higher ‘per user’ rates. That has priced me out of the market for a handful of apps that might be really good for personal use like Airtable and Smartsheet. Notion.so thankfully introduced a $4/month ‘individual use’ plan which I think is reasonable.
Posted by Paul Korm
Aug 16, 2018 at 06:49 PM
Airtable still has a pretty good free level
I’ve used this level for several years without trouble. Not all the bells & whistles, but good nevertheless.
Posted by Paul Korm
Aug 16, 2018 at 06:54 PM
Airtable still has a pretty good free level
I’ve used this level for several years without trouble. Not all the bells & whistles, but good nevertheless.