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Yes I want to pay and own a license for my software. I just don't want to pay a monthly rent for it.

Modern apps requires cloud infrastructure to operate and there are costs to that. You can’t expect perpetual support for a piece of software under $5. That being said, they should have grandfathered in users who already bought the app.
 
OK. You just lost me. How can push notifications not be an essential feature? I want developers to be paid fairly. And have forked over $s for upgrades and "tips" for the apps I find essential (and have several times been left in the lurch - but I believed). If Airmail said something like here is what you have now and can keep forever, and here is what we want to give you in the future but we need subscriptions to make our business work, I could go with that. While I know that it is not intended, and that I might be reacting emotionally, this still feels like extortion. But in this case Airmail has all the money I ever committed and I can easily move to another email platform. Synopsis: it is not the money, it is the respect (for me as a customer). (That said, I also find the subscription fee to be too high. I have Mail and Outlook by default - that you Apple and my job - so my willingness to spend is based on incremental benefits only.)
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OK. You just lost me. How can push notifications not be an essential feature? I want developers to be paid fairly. And have forked over $s for upgrades and "tips" for the apps I find essential (and have several times been left in the lurch - but I believed). If Airmail said something like here is what you have now and can keep forever, and here is what we want to give you in the future but we need subscriptions to make our business work, I could go with that. While I know that it is not intended, and that I might be reacting emotionally, this still feels like extortion. But in this case Airmail has all the money I ever committed and I can easily move to another email platform. Synopsis: it is not the money, it is the respect (for me as a customer). (That said, I also find the subscription fee to be too high. I have Mail and Outlook by default - that you Apple and my job - so my willingness to spend is based on incremental benefits only.)
**thank** not **that**
 
Airmail was always garbage to me both on iOS and macOS. Half baked at best. Spark and Edison and even Outlook just always blew it out of the water on iOS and Spark on macOS is unrivaled as far as I'm concerned. They will die out soon!

I hate subscription services for software. I just don't like it. I'm a pay once and done kind of guy. I don't have a problem with content subscription (Spotify, Apple Music, Netflix, Hulu, etc) because that's basically every movie/tv show/song.
 
I just got Canary for ios and osx today and am very impressed. I am happy to support a developer who provides a great product at a fair price and does not hold a subscribe gun to your head with the threat of disabling essential features.
 
This happens time and time again especially in the games category. I've had games go from paid to free to play (losing premium features), paid to ad supported. Devs wonder why we don't want to pay up front.
Yeah well, games are one thing but this is a core application. I originally settled on macOS Airmail because it had great features and because there was a matching iOS (and now iPadOS) app that would mirror my actions on the MBP and vice versa.
The way Bloop have gone about this is a PR nightmare. First no email notification, no concessions for long time paid for users and finally this insulting little green star at the bottom left of every window informing of your need to pay up for a feature which didn't work too well in the first place.
Personally I'm moving to macOS and iOS Spark. It's improved markedly since the last time I checked it and has all the features I need.
 
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Why would you buy this to begin with? I'm not familiar with the macOS app ecosystem, but are there no free, robust mail apps to use? (or apps in general?)
 
that is a terrible decision, make it a new app or whatever, but just changing the business model of the app I paid for is unacceptable.
Thanks Airmail, had a good time with you, but that's the end right here. I'm happy to see all the 1 star ratings in the app store.
 
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Here, fixed it:

"Airmail users awoke today to find out that the popular email app has switched to a rental model"

Let's start calling this what it is: software rental. The minute you stop paying, you're left empty-handed. You have to keep letting the developer put their hand in your wallet every single month, forever, as long as you want to use the software. The math often works out pretty horribly for the user.

The only app I know of that has a proper subscription model is Agenda. You pay for a year's worth of new feature updates up front. When the year is up, if you don't renew you keep the premium features you paid for and the app still functions. There may be others that work this way but I don't know of any myself. It's basically a variation on the traditional model of buying software, but you pay for updates up front. The point is, you're left with something you own at the end of the year.
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That doesn't mean they get a blank check.

Here's a thought: if the app you developed has plateaued in sales, write and sell another effing app.

That’s fine, if airmail users are OK with the current app they use and love being largely abandoned.
 
It's also a violation of Apple's guidelines to charge for push notifications.

"3.2.2 Unacceptable ... (ii) Monetizing built-in capabilities provided by the hardware or operating system, such as Push Notifications, the camera, or the gyroscope; or Apple services, such as Apple Music access or iCloud storage."

I wonder why this is allowed.

Apple weighs enforcing its rules against the 30% cut it gets for not. If this were a change that somehow reduced Apple's cut then it would have been addressed yesterday, but for now it's very low priority unless the media coverage gets high enough.
 
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Wow. A lot of hate for a $4.99 app. Airmail will struggle with what they just did but so much drama for a cheap app with so much more alternatives. First world problems.

I mean if I get bad coffee, I won’t be posting this negativity, just get the next coffee.
[doublepost=1563207381][/doublepost]I mean we all paid $1500 for a MacBook Pro with bad keyboards and it had less outrage than this.

Hahaha, really? Not on Macrumors. Not anywhere on the internet.

"First world problems" well maybe, but so is bad coffee. Thing is, this is more like getting bad service at a coffee shop or getting bad coffee and getting kicked out when you complain. Consumers have a right to complain about unfair/bad practices - case in point is that it seems Apple have tacitly admitted the Macbook keyboard design was faulty and will change it.
 
Hahaha, really? Not on Macrumors. Not anywhere on the internet.

"First world problems" well maybe, but so is bad coffee. Thing is, this is more like getting bad service at a coffee shop or getting bad coffee and getting kicked out when you complain. Consumers have a right to complain about unfair/bad practices - case in point is that it seems Apple have tacitly admitted the Macbook keyboard design was faulty and will change it.
What happened to airmail is more like: I bought a cappuccino and after a sip the coffee disappears with only milk remaining.
 
I use Outlook, have for a while. Completely free and has some great features. I've tried a few of the niche email clients, but when it comes down to it, Outlook "just works".
 
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Over the years I learned the hard way to use built in apps as much as possible. Works for me. App subscriptions are bad. I can understand some serious software if you depend on it to make a living, but when you start adding all the Twitters, email clients, translation apps etc., your budget blows up.
 
Developers need to eat. You can help feed them by paying for products and services.
So, you can feed them! Likewise I have to eat, and if I had to choose to eat or pay for my diary entry, my to-do list, to edit an image, and about 15 other things that went subscription, I'd have trouble eating just like the devs.

I have no problem paying subscriptions for SERVICES. Most subs are NOT services. Subs for a to-do list? Subs for a diary? Subs for email? Either write software that does something more substantial to charge for more, or price your software accordingly for sale. I refuse to go broke by a thousand subs. If I added up all software I dropped due to subs, It's something like $150/mo. Um, sanity check! That's not even looking at media streaming services, which can add another $100+ to your bill. I choose NO.

I just dropped DropBox after their latest price hike. I have always overpaid for DB because of the great service, but now it's too much to overpay for what I need.

So please give the dev $5 on my behalf. Thank you.
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Over the years I learned the hard way to use built in apps as much as possible. Works for me. App subscriptions are bad. I can understand some serious software if you depend on it to make a living, but when you start adding all the Twitters, email clients, translation apps etc., your budget blows up.

This. If my friends at Panic software subbed Coda (or the product that is replacing Coda) or Transmit, guess what, I'd have to pay. But yeah, I use that software so I can put money in *my* pocket, more so than the devs pocket. I'll still fight till the end, but I'd have to submit, or move to Windows... which I'm not ready to do that.

Hell, even MS lets you buy Office for a one-time fee and doesn't force you into a sub. And as much as I hate Adobe for starting all this sub business.. at least the software they are subbing actually has real value. An email client? A to-do list? A diary? WTF?!?
 
I just uninstalled Airmail everywhere and left a 1 star review in the app stores. Going vanilla with the apple apps for now, didn't use them in years.
Some things just work. I spent many years trying different mail programs. Some looked great, had no features. Some had features, looked awful. I kept on going back to little old Mail app, and I've been there for years now.

My paid app list has been much reduced over the years. I used to buy things just cause I *may* need them. That got expensive. I'm down to just these:

1Password (sub, sadly)
Affinity Designer
Affinity Photo
Amadeus Pro
Clean Text
Coda 2
Dyrii
Magnet
Office
Pixelmator Pro
Transmit
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Yes, pay for products and services! Which I did when I purchased the app..
LOL. NO, they want the "groundhog day" version of software purchasing. Buy app on Jan 1. Wake up on Feb 1, buy app again. Repeat until you forget to change the exp date on your payment method.
 
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