The Problem with Re-Buying Apps

Open letter to the Fantastical crew.

Dear Flexibits people,

I use Fantastical for both my Mac and iPhone and I’ve been loving it for a long time. I was excited to see a complete overhaul for the iPhone is on the way! Sadly I had to learn that I have to rebuy the app in order to get the update.

Guys, I understand that you are working hard and you are delivering kick-ass products. iOS users and me in particular value your work by spending literally billions on apps, other than Android users.

Yet, even though anyone would argue that 2,50 EUR for an upgrade is neglectable and fair, I still have a problem with the rebuy strategy. Imagine, you had to rebuy all of your 50+ apps you have on your iPhone once a year. Can you see where this is going?

How am I supposed to know that Fantastical 3 isn’t coming in another half a year so you are forcing me to spend another 2,50 EUR in order to stay up to date. If I knew beforehand, how much I’m going to have to pay in the future and how often, this will clearly change my purchase decision in the first place. So there is this feeling that you are not being sincere with me somehow.

There are other ways to generate recurring revenue streams that wouldn’t let your customers feel let down in the first place: Whatsapp changed it’s business model from pay-once use-forever-free to pay-none use-for-one-buck-a-year. If you get it on the app store now, you know it’ll cost you 1-buck a year forever till you unsubscribe. I’m also a Evernote Pro user happy to pay my 5 EUR a month for their great service. Here I know that its gonna cost me.

Now you are going to argue that the old version of the app is still valid to use like before, but that is pretty much missing the point. I wanna stay up to date with the latest shit. I am willing to pay for it. I just wanna know what its gonna cost me. Let me subscribe to Fantastical updates for 1-buck-a-year and I will do it. But then you have to deliver.

STEPHAN