I’ll layer that analogy a little bit. You also had support costs built into the original Ford purchase. But now, without warning, there’s a premium support line and a regular support line, and you have to wait a bit if you’re not willing to pay into the premium bit.
But more importantly: someone else walks in behind you and buys the Tesla outright and they seem happy with the monthly premium fee. A few months later, while you’re still at the service desk complaining about subscription software, that customer walks in—turns out they decided to stop paying the monthly fee so the car stopped working. (It still looks pretty in their driveway, though.)
The ire here is warranted, though. This switch represents three out of the four sins of subscription:
- No warning on the change.
- Massive price increase vs. buying the new app every couple of years.
- Loss of access to features if you stop paying.
- Loss of access to features you previously had.(Fantastical’s upgrade model meant that this doesn’t apply in this situation.)
The latter two are the most malicious. It is astounding that you could pay in $150 CDN over three years and, if you decide to stop, you now have a $0 app, not a $150 app.
It should be restated: this is a systemic issue, facilitated by Apple’s lacking app store policies.
Both Apple and subscription-sin developers are to blame in these circumstances, though, because we’ve seen it done right.
First, there’s an alternative! Agenda’s model is essentially subscription, but it eliminates sin 3 by giving users permanent access to features they’ve paid for.
Second, the first two sins can be easily alleviated. Give users lots of warning (the opposite of Flexibits’ blaring in-app promotion at launch), and charge fees per-feature or use a tiered system.
This thread of complaints is worth something. We’ve been frustrated by subscriptions previously, but people could usually argue that the subscription was for a service. Now we’ve seen a subscription mind mapping app and a subscription calendar app. The costs to use these apps just went up considerably, and there’s no longer such thing as a “lifelong user” unless you’re being extorted. Users who loved and supported these apps for years can no longer afford them. Sure, the subscription might be worth the value to some people, but to focus on that is to miss the other changes that hurt users.
I might subscribe to Fantastical! That doesn’t mean I can’t be abhorred at the proliferation of this business model.
And to that end, @macsparky, I have all the love for you and all the other tech influencers. I’m not mad that you’ve chosen to subscribe. But I am disappointed that you et al. put so little pressure on developers to find better ways of doing this.
(And yes, I read @ismh86’s Relay.fm policy citation a while back. I believe it that no one is paid to say these things. It seems apparent that, instead, this lack of pressure comes in the form of an implicit bias for these developers who so regularly sponsor your shows. There’s a reason we haven’t seen an “Alternatives to Squarespace” episode! 
)