iOS7 was a major iOS upgrade no question…but since my apps are pretty basic and don’t make use of most of what a native app has access to, it really didn’t have an effect on me.
But if your app is super cool with lots of functions, it would indeed be a big deal for you. From what I’ve seen online, there are many changes that required a lot of work on the developers part, even if all you wanted to do was keep your app working if the user upgraded to 7. There were also many developers who took the update as a chance to completely rebuild their apps for iOS7. And this would lead to a hard choice for the developer…do you offer the update as a free update, or do you create an iOS7 only app?
Every user wants the latest and greatest features in their apps…but they may not be willing to pay for a brand new version of the app they have already paid for in their mind. To me, this is the biggest concern for devs, the possible negative backlash on doing this. Like I mentioned, it wasn’t an issue for me…but here are some of my thoughts on the matter anyway.
ProCamera7 is one app where the developer decided to create a brand new iOS7 only version, completely redesigned and taking advantage of what iOS7 has to offer.
Knowing that this might cause some upset customers, they wrote a very thorough explanation on their blog stating why they chose to do this and the advantages of doing so. Knowing of the potential backlash, they launched it at 99 cents instead of the full price previous versions were, along with an updated non-iOS7 version, which they also made FREE.
Despite all this…I’ve seen them taking flak for it…
Words like “rip-off” and “extortion” have been used to describe their decision.
There was a discussion on Mobitog.com (a great mobile photography community btw!) about this here.
I posted a reply to the thread, which nicely sums up my thoughts on this, but I am going to repost to expand on it.
As a user, I agree that I am not a fan of having to pay for an app again, but I also see the issue from a developer’s perspective…
You have to sell a lot of apps to make even your money back for the time you developed the app in the first place.
And with so many apps on the store today, marketing and spreading the word is a whole other ballgame….if you really want to make it, you have to invest money in advertizing…a LOT of money. Word of mouth is great, but you have to get in those top 10 lists to be seen…and it’s difficult unless you can make a big splash and keep up the momentum.
iOS7 is a major upgrade to the iOS…and as such, it has involved a lot of work for many developers to either take advantage of the new features, or at the very least, make sure their current features work properly…work that isn’t covered by the money that has already been brought in most likely, and probably won’t be offset by new downloads either. I’ve seen more than a few devs just kill an app and then launch the new one without the effort ProCamera has put in. Or they just not bother trying to fix any issues or bugs caused by an iOS upgrade and walk away. I’ve seen devs do an update to an app that takes away functionality and then adds it back as an in-app purchase(the dirtiest thing ever…)
Having developed my app (and not a complex one at all…i shudder to think at the work involved in that) I really feel the pricing for apps is out of whack compared to what goes into making one.
Sure, if you are angry birds and get millions of downloads, it doesn’t matter. But for the one man or tiny dev teams like me who want to make great apps for photographers (and being honest, make a bit of money too) it’s a hard go.
It’s coming up to a year since I first released my app, and I’m still working on updates and fixes, because I believe in it and want to make it better and better. But there may come a time where I have to stop if there isn’t new downloads or I find another way to bring in more money.
The trend for pricing seems to be moving to the basic free app with in-app purchases to add more functionality as a way to get more revenue from the apps. That seems to becoming the only way to “monetize” upgrades. Unlike Angry Birds, a lot of apps can’t just put out a new version with a theme “Angry Birds Seasons/Star Wars/Bad Piggies/etc” which are all the same app basically with some minor changes. Why aren’t people complaining about that?
Just as a comparison, no one batts an eye to pay a couple of hundred dollars to get the Photoshop CS4 upgrade from CS3…or buying Office 2012 to replace 2011…but people are balking at paying $5 for an app upgrade? That is like 2 cups of coffee (or one starbucks…) that gives you half an hour of pleasure at most…these are useful apps you are going to be enjoying for a long time.
Unfortunately, Apple does not have any way to offer paid upgrades, therefore users have come to expect perpetual free updates. As the creators of ProCamera mentioned in their blogpost, they have had over 30 updates to the app since it launched…that’s a lot of updates, and a lot of work to do those updates.
Another one taking a hit is the developer of Clear, a popular to-do list app.
They decided to take what was an iPhone only app and create a brand new universal version for iOS7, which they said was about 8 months of work on their blog. They ensured the original Clear for iPhone worked in iOS7, but removed it from the app store. when then launched the new app.
And got nuked for it. (Check out twitter.)
So, they decided to bring the old version back and updated and now they have both versions in the app store…the new universal one called “Clear+” and the original iPhone only verions “Clear”.
I can attest to the pain of having multiple versions in the store, so I wish them luck. Judging by the backlash, they will have to keep updating both. And I know they will have people who will download the iPhone only version and get mad when it doesn’t work full screen on iPad, then want a refund.
And as you see on Twitter, there are now people who are giving them flak for that decision who are angry that they paid for the iOS7 version only to have the original version back and updated.So what are your thoughts? Are you willing to pay for a new version of an app? Feel free to leave a comment and let me know.
Noel
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