Sort of. They took away basic functionality (iCloud syncing and unhindered editing) that I’d already paid for. Now they’re trying to sell that functionality back to me, with the first year thrown in for free as an enticement to subscribe.
I’m all for supporting developers, and I get why the subscription model makes sense in many instances, for developers and customers alike. There are several subscriptions that I happily pay for — and that cost considerably more than what’s being asked for Notability. As I’ve noted before, it’s not the price that’s the issue.
But yes, I think there are better ways to handle this transition where existing customers are concerned, and I think they’re frittering away some good will right now. PDFExpert did a better job of it. MindNode did a better job of it. (And neither of those went the Agenda route, which is a different but, I think, very workable model.)
I hope it doesn’t end up being a bad business move for them, because Notability’s a great app.
Edited to add: In my earlier post, I said “I even think a flat-out upgrade as a new purchase would have been perfectly justifiable.” I should have clarified that I think it would be just fine for an upgraded version to require a subscription.
I believe the Agenda pricing to be as close to ideal as we’re likely to get. It is indicative of a respect for the consumer that I find to be very encouraging,
At present, I have a new laptop and I am buying software accordingly. When I have the money, I’ll be more than happy to support Agenda. It is a wonderful app. It is creative and the UI is stunning. The developers are committed.
I certainly do not begrudge developers a good wage. But there are a wealth of opportunists out there. For example, there has to be big corporations with their grubby paws out there.
Frankly, I don’t see the market sustaining the excessive implementation of subscriptions. However, my crystal ball is in the shop.
I lost track of how many dev companies have exchanged hands with Kaleidoscope. I skipped the new version as the built-in comparison utility thru XCode is working fine for me.
This is my justification when subscribing to apps. I have Ulysses which still brings great value annually.
Coincidentally, if you own Yoink (which is a one-time paid app) and you have a subscription on Setapp, install the Setapp version as it gives Mathias (the developer) more money. He’s one of the good guys and I often correspond with him regarding new features and bugs with his app, ScreenFloat and Yoink. He has yet asked for money for his apps since the first version (I think about 7 years ago).
I actually agree with Simon’s entire post regarding dev incentives and revenue, with a key caveat:
That’s all fine as long as it’s decided ahead of time.
If they change the terms after purchase, in violation of Apple’s guidelines, that’s not cool. Otherwise the argument is effectively something along the lines of “well sure, we promised X - but you can’t honestly expect us to deliver on that because of (list of reasons that were known ahead of time)”
I do web design. If I sell somebody a complete web site design for $50, that’s an idiotic decision. But in that scenario, I owe them a complete web site design for $50 - no matter how dumb it was for me to make that offer in the first place. I don’t owe them any future updates for that, but I also don’t get the right to go take their existing site down after a year because I think I made a bad initial deal. And the customer who took me up on my poorly-thought-out offer doesn’t have “unreasonable expectations” because they expect me to honor my initial offer.
I do this with Bartender and a couple other apps for the same reason. The only, albeit slight, annoyance I have going this route with utility apps set to run at login is they seem to defer startup until after Setapp finishes it’s own startup/login steps. Maybe once I upgrade to Apple Silicon machines, they will be so fast that this won’t be noticeable.
Programmers and technicians, etc aren’t famous for also having great business and management skills. But they are good at troubleshooting. Looks like the notability team found the problem and corrected it.
Yeah, I don’t question that they looked at their revenue model and had some “solving” to do. But they seem to have hit on a solution that’s made users cranky, and (IMHO) justifiably so because it violates Apple’s guidelines for converting from “pay once” to subscription revenue.
In other words, the user expectations that were violated aren’t subjective things - they’re spelled out in the App Store rules.
They could’ve released a new, subscription-based app - instead of breaking the existing one - and I think the lion’s share of the complaints would disappear.
Where do they come up with a euphemism like “freemium”? Makes one feel like a bit of a chump for paying (more). Then you get little for free although you’ve already paid. Lastly , they take you to the cleaners.
That is the thing. You support the developers and then they want to take you to the cleaners?
Since you asked: The term freemium is attributed to Jarid Lukin of Alacra, a provider of corporate information and workflow tools, who coined it in 2006. The practice, however, dates from the 1980s.
I wonder what it’s like to grow up in a world with Google? Do universities even have libraries these days?
I would assume they do have them, Wayne. Imagine the headlines. “Harvard, Yale, Close Their Library Doors.”
Our town has one in which incidentally the librarians do not select the ebooks, some corporation does!
The way I understand Notability is you can get it free!!!! (OMG) although you have paid for it. Free for a year!
And since it is free, I'd like to get reimbursed!
Yes, SetApp is a subscription and is it ever awesome. I think there are about 68 apps (It says something about 220 but my math can’t be that far off) of a wide variety. Just about every type of app and utilities you can imagine and they are of a high quality. I also have it for iOS. I LOVE IT!
I have an almost insatiable yearning to test out various apps and SetApp allows me to do so.
It has Mars Edit, Ulysses, Due, Ad Guard, Clean My Mac, NotePlan, Houdah, Pagico. You seem familiar with it. If not, by all means check it out. Ah, you recalled I have it, right?
I do have a few subscriptions but not many. I signed up for explitive deleted Macafee purely by accident; I was dozing off. HA!
Well, GoodNotes is being discounted. Its regular price is €8.99 over here. That price has been lowered to €3.99. It might be similar in other markets. Notability might have to do something with it… Or not…
But beware, I would not be surprised if there will be a “GoodNotes went subscription” topic in this community within the next two years, because honestly that is where almost every app will end up that is being sold via the AppStore for a bargain like GoodNotes or Notability before that. I do not blame Apple for everything but they have a huge part in this move. It is hard for developers not to go down this route.
Regarding Notability’s move to a subscription model: I agree that the way how they did it was just bad, but then again: as long as Apple does not provide developers with a way to change an app to a subscription model without having them to abandon customers that already have paid for the app before, I am not so sure if the developer is the right addressee for the anger and the frustration some users are articulating. Have a look at Fantastical: IMHO they did everything they could to make the move to a subscription model less painful for their customers while at the same time continuing their app using the existing SKU and consumer base (way better than Notability has done it). And still, Flexibits (Fantastical) has been attacked regardless. Today, they have created a customer base that is willing to pay a premium for their calendar app. I am one of them. It is worth it to me.
There has been a nice blog post (from a developer) about this matter explaining the issue, but I cannot remember where I read that (months ago). It definitely is buried in one of the “x went subscription” topics in this community.
Not as good alternatives that shed some light onto why the “app culture” is changing:
P.S. I am no Notability user (I bought it years ago, but I never really used it). I use GoodNotes occasionally. If GoodNotes ever will change to a subscription model, I am not sure if I will stick to it. That is because I am only a light notes user and Apple Notes has a lot to offer. But no matter what: if there is a market for an app (subscription or not), an app will be successful. If there is no market, the app will fail. It is that easy. I do not think that the outrage in all those communities all over the internet will change anything about that. And I do not believe that this outrage and frustration really represents the user base some apps have that continue to be successful after having switched to a subscription.If so, all those apps would have failed after their move to subscriptions. The opposite seems to be true for many of them.
