As a developer I am a little bit tired on reading lies regarding the subscription, so let's debunk some myths.
First myth is that the subscription is needed to make the app sustainable. The truth is that app depends on the average revenue per user and its costs. None of this has any direct connection with the subscription model. The truth is that the subscription is most frequently used just as an excuse to hike up the prices enormously as such price hike no one sane would accept in the paid app model.
If we use the example of VDR that has gone from 30$ to 60$/year, that is quite a price hike. Blind people are likely to use it for over 50 years so it costs now at least 3,000$ or at least 100x more.
Second myth is that the money from subscription is invested mostly in the app development. The truth is that literally all indie developer subscription apps have just one business model - paying huge amounts of money for ads to attract users and earn more from subscribed users than what the ads cost.
VDR already buys Apple's ads on the App Store and it is likely that it will invest in other channels like YouTube, Twitter and Instagram.
Getting users this way is expensive - it costs at least 50$ per US user to make an acquisition (for the app that has an expensive subscription, it should be a bit easier to convert users to the single payment app so I assume that their current costs were 15-20$ per user).
Here's the maths behind - Apple charges you 2$ for the US user to see your listing via the ad. You need to pass two conversions to get the user to subscribe - he may not download the app at all and he may not subscribe. For the free app you may get fairly high conversions in the first case (even above 50%), but to convert users into 60$/year subscribers isn't an easy task and 5% conversion rate would be a huge success. And just those numbers bring calculation that costs already more than 50$.
Next myth - the text-to-speech app needs to cost more than 30$ one time payment to be sustainable.
The truth is that this is silly. According to the VDR developer himself and some facts he has spent just a small fraction of his time in recent years in maintaining and updating the iOS app. He said that it took him almost three years to build the Mac app and that in those years he spent most of the time on building that app. While he hadn't posted regarding Android app, it is safe to assume something similar.
On the other hand SensorTower analytics tells that Apple received 50,000$ per month for his app. While Apple takes 15% from that it is still more than 40,000$ that his company received for just a side job that the app was to him at that time.
When the app cost 15$ he gave the interview to one blind blog where he said that his family lives quite well from the app, which doesn't sound like something that has sustainability problems.
I must say that that budget is something that a good US developer needs to earn to be interested in working intensively on the app. However if there is a text-to-speech app from the Indian developer (for example), the app should be quite sustainable at 5,000$ revenues. As such it isn't completely ruled out that someone can make a good text-to-speech app and keep it sustainable at just 3$ price (that would be extremely hard but still I can't completely rule out even that). So again what you paid at that price was not development but rather the US brand and developer's connection to the US community leaders that would promote him day and night.
Clearly the choice is on your side. If you buy the stories and nebulous sentences without any practical proof you may end up financing purchase of developer's Ferrari while you were thinking that he had a hard time to feed the family. Of course this is not just about one app, but about any app out there.
Comments
Intresting read
This was a interesting read for sure. I really dislike subcriptions. I always, if the option is available, go for lifetime, not subcription. What you forgot to mention I think, is that say, when a service, app etc, has both a subscription moddle as well as a lifetime purchace, your going to spend more in the long run by going for the subscription bullshit. I.e, take pcloud as an example. A lifetime purchase of 2tb plan is $350. Expensive, yes, but when you compare that with the subscription moddle, where it is $120 per year, in 4 years, you'll have payed more than the $350 you payed for the lifetime plan. That's the other problem I think, most people who go for subscriptions believe that they are paying less, when in fact this is not true. Short-term, yes. But long term, which is what matters... That's not the case. Another option, which I've seen many, many companies do, is to yes, have a subscription, but to also have a lifetime option along side, that way you get money from both ends, and those who don't like subscriptions have the option of going lifetime and arent forced to keep paying and waist potentially thousands of dollars throughout the years.
yup, already made up my mind
Subscription? Nope. *
* Except when I'm "forced", e.g. 1Password, Six Colors membership. But in general, no. It simply moves bargaining power away from the customer, and that's something that certain disingenuous developers never want to acknowledge or accept, which is sad. I know it's a competitive marketplace out there, and Apple have effectively driven prices into the gutter, but if you have something to sell, and it's worth paying the price for it, people are gonna buy, regardless the pricing model but certainly not requiring a sub.
Thanks for a good rant.
Sounds kinda far-fetched to me
Alright, I'll bite. Let's look at a few of these statements:
first quote:
The truth is that app depends on the average revenue per user and its costs. None of this has any direct connection with the subscription model.
Au contraire, mon kapitain. I'd say that an app , particularly for a minority, goes subscription-based wwhen the revenue per user dries up. Which is likely to happen relatively quickly if an app has a finite number of users, in this case mostly blind people, and the in-app purchases just aren't bringing in the dough. Costs of living go up, wages do not follow and people are getting laid off which means money coming in will either reduce in value, or reduce altogether. If you have a product that people keep on buying, a price hike of a singular purchase makes more sense. You still get money coming in, you're just equalizing for inflation.
However, if most of your users already have your app, doing that isn't going to do anything because you have far fewer potential new users to market the higher price to. Which means no revenue. Which means not making a profit. Which may very well mean you don't get to eat today if this app is your paycheck. The blind market is finite, even more so because a significant portion of it likes to either crack apps or want everything for free, in which case you have a very limited amount of potentially paying users on your hands, which means that if you want to keep making money off an app, you're going to have to figure out a way for those relatively few paying customers to keep paying. Enter the subscription model, which does exactly that.
Second quote:
If we use the example of VDR that has gone from 30$ to 60$/year, that is quite a price hike. Blind people are likely to use it for over 50 years so it costs now at least 3,000$ or at least 100x more.
Cute use of hyperbole here, but let's not be ridiculous please. No app is going to be used for 50 years. Heck, I'll be surprised if VDR is going to be around for another 5 years, let alone 50.
The attractive thing about subscriptions is that you can usually pay month to month. 60 bucks a year comes down to 5 bucks a month, which for some people might actually be a lot easier to do than an immediate 30 dollars, particularly if they intend to support the developer of an app that is giving them a lot of value. This way they can essentially donate the price of a pizza each month rather than having to pay 30 bucks which can be quite substantial for some.
Is it a price hike? Absolutely. Is it a lot for what the app actually does? Yeah, I'd say so. I'd say 45 a year would be a bit more reasonable provided that makes sense given what prices have been doing lately. But please lay off with the 3000 dollars, at this point you're just spreading FUD.
I don't love that phrases like " literally every indie developer" are paired with the authoritative statement of " I'm a developer, so I know what I'm talking about" here. You may very well be right that a lot of developers do this, and I honestly do not have the background, nor the inclination to go against any of the other statements you've made in this topic, but given the points I just brought up I'm also not all that inclined to take you at face value.
The VDR price hike feels a little scummy, sure. If your numbers check out, this person doesn't need the extra cash, sure. But on the other hand ... if he can make the cash, and he probably can, why wouldn't he? At this point this is just business, capitalism at its finest. VDR is a paid product, that people pay for, and it really doesn't matter much that it's an app for the blind, or an app for the aliens of Jumbotron Five for all I care. Small market, most copies sold that are going to be sold = welp, time to make the app subscription-only to keep the cash flowing in. All he has to do now is figure out how much he can take people for which will probably mean that we're going to see price hikes or price gouging depending on how many paying subscriptions he's getting. And that is, exactly, what companies like Aira are also trying to do. Get people hooked, then make them pay for the privilege to stay hooked. Economics 101. I think we all know that about three quarters of the people making noise about it going subscription-only will grumble for a while and resume to cough up their five bucks a month because they figure there's no other option. If you don't like the trend, stick to your guns and don't actually take the sub option. Won't lose them any money gien it's essentially just the same situation there was before the price hike, but it might send a message at least.
I'm a developer...
It is not that I am a developer, it is just that I don't believe in Santa.
If you think that you can charge for something 60$/year place it in the App Store and people will make queues for their credit card to be charged all by itself... I find Santa a bit more realistic.
re, vdr has been bought
What do you mean before voice dream reader has been bought? So this is in essence a last grab for money while it can still be grabbed? I mean, why then cell the app in the first place?
re, vdr has been bought
Igna, that comment is deleted. I have read it too and it has claimed that he has reliable information that VDR will be sold to a particular company that he has mentioned. It is hard to guess anything regarding that now…
RE: VDR Has Been Bought
Here is the post I was referring to in my deleted post. Copy this, it may be censored too!
Hi Leo, et al.
I just heard about this and here is the answer I sent to the BlindApples list.
I have a pretty good relationship with Winston Chen, the developer of the Voice Dream apps, so I wrote him directly and inquired.
He has given me permission to share the below information.
Note that no one yet knows the timing of the iOS/iPadOS subscription model.
Also, he is quite confident that the group he mentions below who acquired Voice Dream Reader will take good care of the app or he wouldn't have sold it to them.
On yet another note before I share what Winston said, I agree with him that the one-time charge model of app development is not sustainable if you need an app to grow and change with current technology. If only one programmer knows the code, and something happens to that developer, the app will die. This way, you end up with a team maintaining the app.
Here is what Winston said:
" Voice Dream Reader (both iOS and macOS versions), and the brand “Voice Dream”, were acquired by Applause Group.
The pricing decision was made by Applause - I was not aware of the amount and timing. But I totally support transitioning Voice Dream Reader to a subscription model. The one-time-price model is not sustainable. I planned to do it myself before the acquisition.
On a separate note, Scanner and Writer were not acquired, and they will remain my apps. they will be renamed to VDScan and VDWrite, and under a new company named Opus Noma.
There should’ve been communication about the acquisition but due to a legal issue, I have not been able to announce it.
More from me about this soon..."
An official statement will be coming soon. What soon means, I have no idea. Be patient.
And, at this time, VDScan and VDWrite will remain one-time purchases.
HTH,
Richard, USA.
https://groups.google.com/g/viphone/c/U7Ss8urHiXQ
awfully convenient
I also find it rather convenient that you choose today of all times to essentially throw a hissy fit about this topic given the app that is essentially your competitor rose up as an ideal scape goat. I mean ...seriously, all your rant is lacking is a " hey, my app doesn't do this, get that instead!" and on the whole it really doesn't paint you in a very favorable light. If you're convinced people won't queue up to buy VDR with the new pricing structure, I guess you might just get a bunch of new customers coming your way then, won't you?
I also find Applause Group of all companies an odd buyer for VDR ... APplause Group is a QA firm for as far as I know. What would a testing firm need with an iPhone app that read books? Ehh, what do I know, really ...
re: awfully convenient
As you probably know, my app for iOS is completely free for all people here. So I have 0$ whether every single user from this forum downloads my app or not. I do like them to know for the option as I believe that it can help some people and that was the purpose of my effort. But I couldn't care less if at the end no one downloads.
Certainly some people will queue up in front of my app. Well if that was the case for the Mac app which isn't completely free it would be quite strange that no one gets interested into something that is completely free.
RE: VDR Has Been Bought
As Scanner and Writer have already been moved to a new company this sounds plausible. But I guess it may not be completely correct, for example that company is called Arctic Dream Studios.
The next thing that makes it plausible is that they have almost completely left education and accessibility market with this. That was puzzling from the start, but just like this it makes sense.
History
While I appreciate the thoroughness of this thread, I am afraid I call it slightly into question. Every post I have seen from this user seems explicitly to target VDR and promote Speech Central in ways that I find rather unethical from an outside perspective, e.g. obviously biased comparisons , intentionally and aggressively poking holes in VDR's press releases with very pointed posts, etc. While everyone is entitled to the app choice and I am so very glad we have multiple options at varying price points, I have a natural distrust and distaste for anyone using these tactics and, when this and only this seems to be the pattern that I see, it makes me doubt facts as specific as these presented here. That said, I have no thoughts on the efficacy of subscriptions as a model--they have their drawbacks and their reasons, and I don't feel I know enough in either direction to be any judge.
Re: History
This is partially correct.
Aside from this I had only one more post that directly targeted Voice Dream Reader on this forum and it was when they have released their Mac app last year.
I had multiple posts regarding my app before and after that.
Further I have never said anything false. I can’t see how you can blame me if I say that Voice Dream Reader costs 60$/year and my app costs 9$ lifetime and that it is completely free for VoiceOver users. Or for making the fact sheet that compares over 100 features of those apps (and I was willing to add anything missing that anyone reported).
Regarding the data, I think that price data is obviously correct.
I can provide a proof for the price of click on Apple’s ads and everyone who has a developer account can check that.
For SensorTower I can’t provide a direct evidence as they don’t provide public links anymore with this data, but they did till last year and possibly someone has noted.
Comparison chart
RE: Comparison chart
Thanks for the feedback, I think that this was the first suggestion to improve the chart, so I appreciate it.
I'll add that.
In general specific file formats are not covered this way as there may be too many of them. For example only Speech Central supports .fb2 e-book format and it is not stated either. But as there is a section regarding accessibility it makes some sense to disclose DAISY capabilities.
On the other hand this isn't specific chart for accessibility audience, most people reading the chart won't be from this audience and they won't care about Dolphin EasyReader. If I made some day the version that is specific for accessibility then it will be there, but that might be a bit too much work, so I can't promise that at the moment.