3 ms·

You can pay for the lifetime license, and it will do exactly that.

Terretta 3y ago
This is a great writeup. Enjoyed even the transparency on pricing thinking, but one price that doesn't seem to have been experimented with is allowing a one time purchase that is not an in-app purchase. In-app purchases make your app unavailable to company employees where the company manages the Apple device using MDM and purchases software using e.g. Apple Business Manager or the older volume purchasing. The $99 option should also exist as a standalone retail version so a company can buy the app for employees. For small app makers: you might be surprised that a company-managed Mac with a company managed AppleID cannot use in-app purchases. Apple has no way for a company to do IAP for an employee, and in fact the employee cannot do it themselves either. For such users, you must either (a) allow retail app purchase, or (b) have an out-of-band subscription purchase and management, like Microsoft M365 or Adobe Creative Suite. Whether you do it out of band or as a one time retail purchase, if you do track logins, you should support the simple "Login with" or "Continue with" buttons for Microsoft to hit the 85% of small businesses with identities on that platform, but also Apple and Google. These buttons are easier to add than devs might think. You don't need "SSO" to let most companies log in with company IDs.
- papereditor 3y ago
  Thank you for the suggestion! I've always avoided non-App Store distribution to keep things simpler. It's a nightmare to manage many different licensing schemes. Now I don't have to have any backend. Everything is done via the built-in, robust App Store mechanism that just works. I hope Apple will figure something out in the future. And I think they will since they want to increase their "Services" revenue as hardware sales decline. Making stuff easier for business customers seems like a low-hanging fruit.
  - Terretta 3y ago
    App store, just charge your lifetime price, instead of free with IAP. So you'd have 2 apps listed: - Paper (Lifetime) ... $99 - Paper ... Get Companies can buy employees the first one because it has a price. > Everything is done via the built-in, robust App Store mechanism that just works. Good call, and so true.
    - papereditor 3y ago
      > So you'd have 2 apps listed Hm. I feel like having 2 apps could confuse some users. But maybe it's worth it. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
      - Terretta 3y ago
        It's not confusing. They show up next to each other when you search. One is "free" showing "GET" and offering usually ad supported + IAP. The other is paid, with a special logo, saying life time purchase, no ads, or etc. You can link to each other and talk about the other. This has been going on a long time, once upon a time it was used for Free with Ads versus Paid: https://www.kodeco.com/2404-how-to-create-both-a-paid-and-lite-version-of-an-iphone-app https://www.kodeco.com/2404-how-to-create-both-a-paid-and-li... See also this discussion, mentioning family sharing though instead of mentioning corporate purchasing: https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/243954/which-purchasing-option-is-best-freeiap-or-paid https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/243954/which-purch... I'm not at work so I can't readily pull up a list of the apps we can and do buy employees thanks to having a paid version available, but there are quite a few, and they win out over more popular apps that have only IAP. I searched for "Pro" and found a sort-of example: - Korg Module (Get+IAP): https://apps.apple.com/us/app/korg-module/id1048875111 https://apps.apple.com/us/app/korg-module/id1048875111 - Korg Module Pro ($39+IAP): https://apps.apple.com/us/app/korg-module-pro/id932191687 https://apps.apple.com/us/app/korg-module-pro/id932191687 (These are not productivity apps for employees like companies are looking for, just an example done at both price points.) Anyway, if you had a $99 paid version, our company would buy copies for employees.
        papereditor 3y ago

This is a great writeup. Enjoyed even the transparency on pricing thinking, but one price that doesn't seem to have been experimented with is allowing a one time purchase that is not an in-app purchase. In-app purchases make your app unavailable to company employees where the company manages the Apple device using MDM and purchases software using e.g. Apple Business Manager or the older volume purchasing. The $99 option should also exist as a standalone retail version so a company can buy the app for employees. For small app makers: you might be surprised that a company-managed Mac with a company managed AppleID cannot use in-app purchases. Apple has no way for a company to do IAP for an employee, and in fact the employee cannot do it themselves either. For such users, you must either (a) allow retail app purchase, or (b) have an out-of-band subscription purchase and management, like Microsoft M365 or Adobe Creative Suite. Whether you do it out of band or as a one time retail purchase, if you do track logins, you should support the simple "Login with" or "Continue with" buttons for Microsoft to hit the 85% of small businesses with identities on that platform, but also Apple and Google. These buttons are easier to add than devs might think. You don't need "SSO" to let most companies log in with company IDs.

papereditor 3y ago
Thank you for the suggestion! I've always avoided non-App Store distribution to keep things simpler. It's a nightmare to manage many different licensing schemes. Now I don't have to have any backend. Everything is done via the built-in, robust App Store mechanism that just works. I hope Apple will figure something out in the future. And I think they will since they want to increase their "Services" revenue as hardware sales decline. Making stuff easier for business customers seems like a low-hanging fruit.
- Terretta 3y ago
  App store, just charge your lifetime price, instead of free with IAP. So you'd have 2 apps listed: - Paper (Lifetime) ... $99 - Paper ... Get Companies can buy employees the first one because it has a price. > Everything is done via the built-in, robust App Store mechanism that just works. Good call, and so true.
  - papereditor 3y ago
    > So you'd have 2 apps listed Hm. I feel like having 2 apps could confuse some users. But maybe it's worth it. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
    - Terretta 3y ago
      It's not confusing. They show up next to each other when you search. One is "free" showing "GET" and offering usually ad supported + IAP. The other is paid, with a special logo, saying life time purchase, no ads, or etc. You can link to each other and talk about the other. This has been going on a long time, once upon a time it was used for Free with Ads versus Paid: https://www.kodeco.com/2404-how-to-create-both-a-paid-and-lite-version-of-an-iphone-app https://www.kodeco.com/2404-how-to-create-both-a-paid-and-li... See also this discussion, mentioning family sharing though instead of mentioning corporate purchasing: https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/243954/which-purchasing-option-is-best-freeiap-or-paid https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/243954/which-purch... I'm not at work so I can't readily pull up a list of the apps we can and do buy employees thanks to having a paid version available, but there are quite a few, and they win out over more popular apps that have only IAP. I searched for "Pro" and found a sort-of example: - Korg Module (Get+IAP): https://apps.apple.com/us/app/korg-module/id1048875111 https://apps.apple.com/us/app/korg-module/id1048875111 - Korg Module Pro ($39+IAP): https://apps.apple.com/us/app/korg-module-pro/id932191687 https://apps.apple.com/us/app/korg-module-pro/id932191687 (These are not productivity apps for employees like companies are looking for, just an example done at both price points.) Anyway, if you had a $99 paid version, our company would buy copies for employees.
      - papereditor 3y ago