Apps, subscriptions and sustainability - facts and myths

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.

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.

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.

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?

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

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 ...

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.

Your comparison chart doesn't explicitly mention whether the apps can read DAISY books. The fact that the specific file formats supported in each app also hides that Voice Dream also supports audio materials in the form of MP3 files and DAISY audio books. Your comparison chart would be more useful if it included Dolphin EasyReader, another highly popular app for reading books on iOS.