You're overthinking this. "Lifetime" is just a new word for: no monthly costs, buy once, use forever (= as long as your device and OS supports this software), j

You're overthinking this. "Lifetime" is just a new word for: no monthly costs, buy once, use forever (= as long as your device and OS supports this software), just like it was for almost all software from 1990-2010. But since everything is now a subscription, we need a new term that signals "one-off payment". The confusing part is whether or not the devs must provide a lifetime of updates, which is unlikely, but also an unreasonable expectation. Hence, lifetime means: buy once, use as long as you have a device that supports the software, get all updates for free, as long as the developers keep providing updates. Could stop tomorrow, could stop in 10 years, when they announce a new app. Depends on the developer.