4 ms·
Applications like Pixelmator are likely depending on the growing userbase of the Apple ecosystem for their own growth. Should they ever see that growth stall o
by blihp 7y ago
Applications like Pixelmator are likely depending on the growing userbase of the Apple ecosystem for their own growth. Should they ever see that growth stall out, expect them to move to subscriptions as well. Also, they have 'disabled' their (pre-app store) apps at least once in the past: I got the original Pixelmator as part of one of the old 'good forever' Humble Bundles and it stopped functioning when they (i.e. Pixelmator) turned off their old license validation server.
That's not to pick on them exclusively: everyone who wants to make a living writing software needs a recurring revenue stream. Even open source developers are starting to get tired of leeches (though it's more on the corporate side in that situation. But barring corporate sponsorship, the revenue is going to have to come from somewhere...)
- Razengan 7y ago> * Applications like Pixelmator are likely depending on the growing userbase of the Apple ecosystem for their own growth.* What about Affinity? > expect them to move to subscriptions as well. > everyone who wants to make a living writing software needs a recurring revenue stream. Why is preying on your current users and pulling a bait-and-switch on them the only option? If the continued development of a pay-once/optional-yearly-upgrade product really is unsustainable for you, branch out into more products. Or review your expenses. You don't have to live in San Francisco or replace all your computers with the latest Mac Pro. It's like, "Oh no our single product cannot sustain our extravagances/desired lifestyle, so let's flay our existing flock some more instead of attracting new customers or creating new/better products." That only delays your demise, because the users will definitely review their expenses.
- jakobegger 7y ago> everyone who wants to make a living writing software needs a recurring revenue stream You can have a recurring revenue stream with pay once software. Every day, hundreds of thousands of new people are born who don't have a license yet! It's really easy to make the same amount of money with pay once licenses compared to subscriptions: just take the average number of months that someone uses your app, multiply with monthly price, make that the "pay once" price, done! Now you have the same revenue but don't need to charge for subscriptions, and you get all the money up front!
- blihp 7y agoEvery year the percentage of users willing to pay anything for standalone/prepaid software drops. And the price those left are willing to pay drops as well. The reality is that for the most part the prepaid consumer software market is dead and has been for at least several years.
- jen20 7y agoThat is absolutely not the definition of recurring revenue.
- jakobegger 7y agoWhy not? The developer gets money every month. How is that not "recurring"? I sell a software product (pay once with upgrades every few years), and every month people show up and buy licenses. My monthly revenue is pretty stable, and I definitely consider it "recurring revenue".
- jen20 7y agoRecurring revenue by definition is not one-off payments for something.