Love the app but you lost me at “subscription”. I would totally pay for major upgrades when fixes are indeed needed, but not per month or year by default.
> I would totally pay for major upgrades when fixes are indeed needed, but not per month or year by default
That's one model I like too and unlike one time payment for lifetime support, it's sensible. However, there's no straightforward way to implement it. How do you do it? Ship all the versions every time and show the user the latest version they have a license for? Ship a "shell" which will download the latest binary the user is licensed for? Disable new features for users who purchased the app some time linger than the introduction of the feature?
I don't know, it adds a lot of complexity in the implementation, distribution, license management and working with Apple's rules.
IMHO it's much more sensible to have a low monthly fee and use it as long as you like it.
The best model I've seen for this is to simply charge for major version upgrades. It's totally at the developer's discretion what they put into any given major/minor/patch version so you can demarcate development in whatever way suits.
(1) If you purchased something just before the new version comes out, it feels like you got screwed over.
(2) It requires a lot of new features be released at once for the new major version. This is actually more difficult to develop for vs releasing one feature at a time.
(3) It makes planning and budgeting much more difficult, for users and for developers. If there is a bug (especially a compatibility bug for the latest annual version of iOS/macOS, or a security bug) affecting version N, version N-1, and version N-2, all will require bugfixes. This raises the cost of bugfixes. Not to mention potential bugs related to future physical AirPods products.
(4) It leads to bloat from gimmicky new features being added to attract new customers.
I'd much rather pay, say, $0.99 per month or $9.99 per year, and get regular compatibility and security updates, and know that this developer will not go out of business, compared to paying $50 for a product I might not actually use very long if it won't work on a new computer.
If you want good software that gets regular updates, bugfixes, and compatibility updates, it's best time to pay for it on a regular basis.
Honestly what new features would realistically be added? These are those kinda utility apps that the end user should forget even exists. You do an update if a major OS version breaks it. Should be very low maintenance.
20 bucks a year for something that toggle a mic input is very expensive.
>Honestly what new features would realistically be added?
The features currently on my todo list if people keep using the app:
1) Currently the profiles are for AirPods exclusively, add generic support for other Bluetooth headphones.
2) Add support for custom profiles. For example some people might have many microphones and prefer different setups.
3) Improve continuity support by detecting user leaving the computer. For example, the user might be on a call and get to the other room and in that case it would be appropriate to switch to AirPods mic.
I really feel this isn't the devs fault, it's a product of the accursed App Store payment model.
The issues I see:
* Devs can't make paid upgrades: to make a paid upgrade the options are a new app, except the security model for the apple app stores ties a lot of things to the app id, so a new app disconnects the user data from the old app. To keep the information tied together the "solution" is subscription or in app purchases (which also means you essentially have to have your app contain multiple versions embedded and you base what actually loads based on user purchases).
* Devs can't do free trials: again the option are subscription or in app purchases.
The alternatives are subscription or in app purchases, but there's no way for a user to distinguish an app that has those as a mechanism to support upgrades from a bait-and-switch app: As a result if an app is listed having either I generally don't consider installing it (esp. if it requires an initial payment) which is unfair to the reasonable devs but there are so many bait and switch apps nowadays (App Store review technically has a lot of value, but that this kind of BS is allowed remains a plague and substantially undercuts the benefits).
I do the same - if an app is "free" but has In-app purchases, I'll simply avoid it, even if I'd be willing to pay some price for it if it works. I don't have time to download every app, open it, and navigate to its pricing page to see how much it costs.
You should be able to see the name, description, and price of all the in-app purchases from the App Store.
I’m not sure about the Mac OS side, but at least on iOS there’s a specific entry in the information section for in-app purchases that can be expanded into exactly that pricing list.
But it's always listed as something like "Premium Features" or "Monthly Subscription." Those descriptions don't tell what I'm getting. So then it's usually download the app, try to figure out which are the premium features and which are baked into the app. It's a mess. And I get it, it's not really the dev's fault, but the system is completely broken.
