Yesterday the developers of Ulysses, this supposed amazing writing app took their app subscription. They pulled their "full price" app from the IOS and Mac App Store. They now want $39.99 (Can't round up to $40 or no one will buy it) a year to use their app. One price for all platforms. As a previous owner, I get a lifetime 1/2 price of $29.95 (wait, that is not 50% off) per year. I have written the developer, and they have not responded yet, is that their math is wrong. So I won't buy it if there price is wrong and there offer is a lie.
My comment, which I have made before, is that subscriptions make the price of an app infinite. I am simply renting an app, that when I stop paying it stops working. People can rent cars, homes and other things like TVs, and when they are done, they return them. But renting a program that does not have any ongoing service, just features, seems odd. Also, I know it is an impossible task for a company to go from a highly priced app to a subscription. Those, like me, who paid the $60 for Mac and IOS version of Ulysses feel screwed. My understanding was that the high price was to cover the cost of running a company, but they want more. Remember that Ulysses is a text editor. Some use it to write novels and important documents, I was using it to knock out blog posts, so I am moving on. I will actually try the built in Apple Notes and see if I can write blog posts on that. It is free.
Apps like Bear only have a subscription model ($14.95 a year) and it is less than $29.65 a year, or whatever they end up offering me. So from the beginning, people can choose to pay or not. For me, if the price is reasonable, I will pay for 1 year to try the app out, then find something else to try, unless it blows my socks off. For me, my subscriptions were getting way to expensive. Counting everything involved with my devices, I was paying $625 a year. That is insane, and I am cutting out subscriptions as fast as I can. I stopped Evernote, Apple Music, Ulysses, Bear, Microsoft Office, Adobe Creative and many others I do not remember. I have counted 7 companies that changed from full price to subscription who have gone out of business. I wish Ulysses well, I don't believe an infinite price for a piece of software is a good idea. How about "Rent to own?" That is what Pocket Informant is doing. I can pay the subscription of $38.95 a year, or pay it once and own everything buy syncing through their servers. I do think $38.95 a year is a bit high for a calendar app.
Companies can do whatever they want, and so can customers. Give me a price and I will decide if I want to pay it or not based on what I get. I stopped using Evernote because their feature set remained the same for the last several years. They modernized which made it impossible to find anything and they kept raising their prices. So I want to a "pay once" solution.
Companies are allowed to do whatever they want. If they do not please their customers, they go out of business. As with any company that radically changes pricing structure and screws customers, Ulysses is getting hundreds of 1 star reviews. We'll see if they survive that.
My comment, which I have made before, is that subscriptions make the price of an app infinite. I am simply renting an app, that when I stop paying it stops working. People can rent cars, homes and other things like TVs, and when they are done, they return them. But renting a program that does not have any ongoing service, just features, seems odd. Also, I know it is an impossible task for a company to go from a highly priced app to a subscription. Those, like me, who paid the $60 for Mac and IOS version of Ulysses feel screwed. My understanding was that the high price was to cover the cost of running a company, but they want more. Remember that Ulysses is a text editor. Some use it to write novels and important documents, I was using it to knock out blog posts, so I am moving on. I will actually try the built in Apple Notes and see if I can write blog posts on that. It is free.
Apps like Bear only have a subscription model ($14.95 a year) and it is less than $29.65 a year, or whatever they end up offering me. So from the beginning, people can choose to pay or not. For me, if the price is reasonable, I will pay for 1 year to try the app out, then find something else to try, unless it blows my socks off. For me, my subscriptions were getting way to expensive. Counting everything involved with my devices, I was paying $625 a year. That is insane, and I am cutting out subscriptions as fast as I can. I stopped Evernote, Apple Music, Ulysses, Bear, Microsoft Office, Adobe Creative and many others I do not remember. I have counted 7 companies that changed from full price to subscription who have gone out of business. I wish Ulysses well, I don't believe an infinite price for a piece of software is a good idea. How about "Rent to own?" That is what Pocket Informant is doing. I can pay the subscription of $38.95 a year, or pay it once and own everything buy syncing through their servers. I do think $38.95 a year is a bit high for a calendar app.
Companies can do whatever they want, and so can customers. Give me a price and I will decide if I want to pay it or not based on what I get. I stopped using Evernote because their feature set remained the same for the last several years. They modernized which made it impossible to find anything and they kept raising their prices. So I want to a "pay once" solution.
Companies are allowed to do whatever they want. If they do not please their customers, they go out of business. As with any company that radically changes pricing structure and screws customers, Ulysses is getting hundreds of 1 star reviews. We'll see if they survive that.
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