Re:The Mac App Store Needs Paid Upgrades
by jobu on Tuesday March 27, 2012 @04:01PM
(#3763344)
The App Store also also needs automatic/forced free updates. It sucks releasing something with a bug, creating an update that fixes it within a month, and still having users complaining about the bug several months later.
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Re:The Mac App Store Needs Paid Upgrades
by konstruktor on Tuesday March 27, 2012 @04:43PM
(#3763486)
From the customer's perspective, it would kind of suck to buy an app because of a certain feature that, from your point of view, gets broken by an upgrade, and be forced to do that upgrade, because the developer fixed a bug or feature that is of no concern to you. Remember, the user is buying a license for the current version of a piece of software, not a SaaS subscription.
Example: I was searching for a tool for file deduplication. Looking at some older screenshots and the current trial of a certain tool, I realized that this was now less geared towards power users, with UI changes that made the tool look better for inspecting a few duplicated pictures but unsuitable for using lots (thousands) of files. Imagine being the user who bought the tool for more serious use, and is forced to "upgrade".
You could add a nag screen to your app that would show if you have a heartbeat API call that returns that the user is using an outdated version.
I do this. 90% of my users upgrade within 5 days of an update being released as a result.
"Hey! You're using an outdated version of [APPX]. Click okay to upgrade via the App Store, or Cancel to continue"