If updating to the latest version of iOS breaks some of your apps forcing you to buy them again, people will avoid updating the OS.
They release a new major version every X years and stop supporting the old one. The old one will keep working until it doesn't. If you want the new one, you buy it and upgrade.
Airmail used to do this and I believe Tweetbot still does it.
Airmail messed it up and I stopped using it altogether after years. I talked to friends that I know used it and they also moved away from it when they messed it up.
It's similar to how Jet Brains does it.
They moved to a subscription model with Tweetbot 6. At least Tapbots is not being dicks:
- Twitter makes them pay for the API 2.0
- The Tweetbot subscription is shared across the family
The former means I get access to Twitter without ads, kind of like the oft asked "I'd pay to have no ads", and I get a usable UI in the package.
The latter is so rare I didn't know this was even possible until that last update.
If there's anything missing, they'll migrate. If not, they don't need it or don't care about it.
That's what I do every year when I have to renew my JetBrain products.
Do I need it? Will I actively use it? Is it just worth keeping the current version?
Someone else mentioned that they're being charged on the new API they're being forced to move to. Seems like it's needed.
However, I'm curious what other apps will do and if that will cover desktop and mobile apps.
We'll see.
Subscriptions make for more services revenue, and services is their growth driver now. That's all there is to it. If there was an option to stop paying and keep what you have they would make less money. Same reason you now get what are essentially ads in the Settings screen "reminding" you about AppleCare+, Apple Arcade etc. Services services services.
As a long time fan of Apple hardware and software it's pretty sad to see.
I've never really gotten into it but still paid once or twice because I loved the idea so much :-)
In other words I complicated it. It’s 15% for all in app purchase subscriptions after a year for all developers.
It's the fairest model there is: Developers get a recurring income stream so long as they maintain the software, while customers aren't forced to rent software ad infinitum.
I wish there were some way Epic V. Apple could force Apple to implement this. It would solve so many problems on the App Store.