Yes, microwaving one’s coffee is heresy! 
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Ironically I don’t have an issue with subscriptions, but have ended up on mail/calendar/reminders/notes after living elsewhere forever. I just enjoy using them at this point and they do what I want…… I used to be a huge todoist/Evernote user.
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All analogies break down eventually, kind of like all cars. 
But in the case of your not-so-hypothetical apathetic developer, you - the user - would generally still be able to run the game on the old iOS. It would be your choice whether or not breaking that software was a more important consideration than getting “the new shiny” for your iOS.
The vast, vast majority of the time, the app wouldn’t just suddenly stop working with no changes to the OS or the app itself. And the game dev wouldn’t take the time to update your old app in such a way that intentionally breaks it for you in order to get you to download “$SomePopularGame 2: Return of the $MainBadGuy”.
Graeme, I am with your wife! I just love Procreate. They just came up with an upgrade coincidentally. I got the notice yesterday. It is quite user friendly and intuitive. Talk about inexpensive! Unfortunately they do not have it on the Mac so I’ve been trudging along with Photoshop Elements which I like ok (but it is not Procreate).
My impression is that Procreate has a huge following so maybe they can be well-sustained just as they are.
If you could do me a lil favor, please, I would really appreciate it because I cannot figure it out. At the bottom of a layout page, there is a bar of various actions. It covers up part of my screen and interferes with me accessing my artwork down there. Would you be so kind as to ask her if she knows how either how to minimize it or how to move it over for a while.
Does she do any digital scrapbooking? I know of a wonderful website. TY.
Hah, I almost posted about YNAB yesterday; I was too busy grousing about paying $45 more per year to worry about $15 for Notability. It’s admittedly still in line with competitors, but the change may push us to move on to a service that better fits our current financial goals, just as we did when we started using YNAB 5 several years ago.
As for Notability, I’m not opposed to subscriptions on principle but I do think Notability’s gone wrong in the communication and credit offer here and alienated more users than necessary. And the new, more service/community-oriented features aren’t anything I’m looking for. Since I already own GoodNotes I’ll probably just bounce over there when writing on iPad.
I never said you can’t complain. It’s a free country… until they make that subscription too.
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Anyone who was able to charge a subscription for complaints will become rich very fast. 
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Comparing a multi thousand dollar car with an app which probably cost less than $10 is a really poor analogy.
(1) I was building on someone else’s analogy, and (2) the point was about the removal of basic functionality, already paid for, being removed.
While I agree that cars and apps are quite different things, I think the general point about functionality essential to the nature of the thing holds.
My issue isn’t the cost. For new users, I don’t think it’s at all unreasonable. Even for existing users, had they locked new features behind the subscription, that would have been okay. I even think a flat-out upgrade as a new purchase would have been perfectly justifiable.
But, “Hey, our app is now free! Those basic features you already paid for are going away in a year unless you subscribe, though” — that doesn’t sit well.
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It’s surrealist pricing. It’s so free that it actually costs money. 
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I have never used this app as my pen on my iPad does not get used a lot, but everything going sub should at least make apple rethink upgrade pricing. I know devs have brought this up before as a reason they have to go this route.
As an aside…… stop comparing what people on spend to coffee or anything else. I would give up an app before my coffee! (This is really just a way to say stop telling others how to spend their money, not really about coffee)
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so they in effect gave you a 12 month subscription for free.
As a business owner (not a developer), I fully understand the need for continuous income to keep the show running. I am out there every day ensuring my business runs well. Overheads build and bills and salaries need to be paid.
People have come to expect software and content are “free”, not realising the people behind the code and text are real people, living real lives, spending real money to sustain their families and livelihoods. Just because you don’t see the work performed and the products are intangible doesn’t mean no value was created.
When you build an app, eventually, sales will taper off as there will be newer, sexier and alternative solutions people will try. Hence you need to continue to innovate and develop to keep people buying, but more importantly using and rooting for your app in the long term.
You also pay maintenance (ie software updates) for your house. Same for your car and you likely buy a new updated model (ie a new version) every three years or so. If you don’t buy a car, you lease or rent (ie subscription).
As much as I hate a bucket full of subscriptions to manage, I understand the business need for developers to decide to go for it to allow for continuous development and support. The hard part is the switch to a subscription model as it for sure will upset (unreasonable) expectations.
As the app user base grows, the support needs to ramp up, development continues, bugs need fixing and the number of expectations that need to be managed rises too. All of that costs real money, some of which - in a purchase model - was earned months or years ago. People don’t stay at work because they got paid last year. Your next car is not free because you bought the previous one…
If you’d factor the future cost of development and support into the app price, no app can be sold under $40, whereas the AppStore click and buy prices are around $0.99, $1.99 and $3.99, hoping to achieve high download volumes with a low buy threshold. Very few paid-for apps stay in the top 10 of each category for long, unlike the free app charts which seem fairly stable.
The math simply doesn’t work if you are in there for the long haul as a developer. Family sharing dilutes the picture even further. If you only sell apps, you better sell a lot very fast and than the actual app and move on.
So my way to look at subscriptions is VALUE based. If an app brings me joy, is in regular/daily use and helps me get things done easier or automated… I happily pay for the subscription. For anything else, there are enough alternatives for almost everything in the AppStore to satisfy my need, albeit with some limitations. In most cases, the data can move.
In short, the App needs to EARN itself a place on my home screen or favourites widget
The ones I currently pay subscriptions for are the ones that beat Apple at its game: Fantastical, DayOne, 1Password, Overcast, Airmail, Camo, Carrot Weather, Deliveries, Drafts, LiquidText, and OmniFocus.
All these drive VALUE for me on a daily basis.
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At our family dinner table, we’ve banned all discussions concerning religion, politics and subscriptions.
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that’s why you hang out in forums?
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So I take it everyone in your family now knows a lot about weather? 
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Nicely said! You ALMOST make me want to purchase more subscriptions to support the developers! But, I still want to minimize those whenever possible but as I said in my prior post, descriptions are perfectly understandable and justifiable but you stated the case far more eloquently.
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Nah. Death and taxes.
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No idea what they did to me… all of a sudden it just quit working.