I think of Excel as a different beast, given how embedded it is in Microsoft’s corporate offering. Not to mention that Office365 (or whatever it’s called now - I’m sorry, but I don’t keep up with MS any more) is a subscription service.
Microsoft in effect “paid” to keep their offerings available on the Macintosh. (PC folks thought that was a bad idea at the time but I’ll bet MS did quite well by their investment.)
When Microsoft saved Apple Inc. from bankruptcy | The Business Anecdote
In August 1997, Microsoft purchased $150 million of non-voting Apple stock. Additionally, Microsoft agreed to continue developing software such as Microsoft Office for the Mac platform for at least 5 years. Microsoft’s infusion of cash helped stabilize Apple’s finances.
That’s a key point. The former hold the use of your data hostage while the latter offer clear value to entice you into paying voluntarily.
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I’ve already seen instability in IThoughts on Mac and iPad. I’ve been using it for over a decade so it pains me to switch but my mind maps are too important to me to risk crashes. I’m using MindNode until I find something better.
It is and it isn’t. You can get Excel for $160 as a one time purchase, compared to something like $100 a couple of decades ago.
But the thing with Office 365 is that the full version of Office - which you get with Office 365 - used to cost something like $400. $70 a year for a “personal” license (i.e. no bundled email service) is a heck of a deal, as long as you’re not one of those people who used to buy Office and then not update for a decade at a time. 
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Especially with all the OneDrive storage they throw in. With all the included apps, it delivers a lot of value for the money compared to most app subscriptions.
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This looks like it has potential. A key use for me is to be able to produce slides/handouts/reports directly from the Mindmapping software, which iThoughtsX does well. It seems that SimpleMind also has this feature.
€27.49 looks like great value as a one-off cost.
If you’re able to export as Markdown then maybe my md2pptx open source project is for you. (Depends on heading structure, actually.)
md2pptx takes a subset of Markdown and turns it into .pptx, using the python-pptx package.
I’m about to outline a new conference presentation and I’ll use MindNode for that and then export to Markdown - before working on the result using BBEdit.
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When a client came to you to update a project you worked on, did you do that for free? Did you waive your fee if the client advised this was a slow month so he wanted you to work for free this time?
Not a good analogy:
- Freelance project management operates on a business model very different from software (or any other product) development. Firstly, there’s no end product that can be sold multiple times, so there’s no opportunity to amortise development cost against multiple sales - only time and contingency (does the project meet its goals or not).
- I didn’t and don’t argue against subscriptions. I said they were an issue for me and I prefer to avoid them. Having to continue to pay subscriptions for software (or services, for that matter) in a volatile business was (is, for many people) a problem. It turns what ought to be a variable cost (pay for things as you use them) into a fixed cost (pay whether you use them or not. It’s perfectly normal for a business (even a tiny one like mine) to want to try and match the profile of its outgoings to that of its income.
- I have paid, and continue to pay for updates to the likes of Curio and Tinderbox as I need them.
contingent on my getting the client what they needed. - And as I said, highly successful products like those I named in my post have flourished without the need to enforce a continuous payment model. They may offer subs as an option, but that’s giving customers a choice, which is a Good Thing.
- And finally, because clients paid for my time, if they were “having a slow month”, they didn’t ask me to work at all, never mind for free.
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I think what gets forgotten in the subscription model is that for years typical software prices were akin to those of Devonthink ($99 to $499) or Tinderbox ($289 to buy, $98 to update). That all changed when the App Store appeared and suddenly $5.99 was a typical software price and anything over $19.99 seemed notably expensive.
Be careful what you wish for.
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I still hanker for the old model of an upfront purchase and an annual support fee, for which you got software updates and someone to contact if you had problems. If you didn’t want to pay for support you paid an upgrade to get new versions. It worked for developers and it worked for users. The only reason I don’t think it’s still common is that the App Store doesn’t support it.
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I use iThoughtsX for years on iPad. So far it is stable for me.
As I have multiple mind maps on iPad i wanted to switch to Mac as well, but can’t get a license now. Do you know where / how to get one? I read that even old ones can be used as the programmer went out of business and made it okay by statement.
I don’t think that’s forgotten (not by me, at any rate). You’re absolutely right that single-figure pricing generated a kind of entitled resentment at anyone charging a proper commercial price. But nonetheless, the quality devs, like Omni and Cultured Code continued to flourish with much higher prices.
I’d also comment that while the initial buy-in prices for the likes of DT and TB are high (noting that both offer significant discounts 2-3 times a year), some yearly subscriptions aren’t far off,
That said, my core pint is less about the actual amount, but more about the effects of the payment model
Ok I think we’re definitely off-topic now.
RIP, iThoughts 