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Apple Announces 2023 App Store Award Winners
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Apple does do something for nothing; it reviews, distributes and supports free apps with no in-app purchase’s. That activity is subsidised by the apps that do pay a commission to Apple.
Considering Apple always promotes innovation at WWDC and parades a bunch of kids around on stage or in the audience like a trophy and calls them 'the future App developers' (because they are), they don't help young people around the world at all apart from drumming into them that it's all about subscriptions & revenue.
The fee makes no sense considering Apple more than make their money back from other peoples hard work.
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If these are the Award Winners, now I understand why we're living in a dark era. It seems like watching Hollywood movies where you can't make a film without stuffing it full of all the garbage that the current agendas dictate, and anyone who rebels faces censorship and ostracism. I'm extremely happy to avoid subscriptions or purchases of such apps, just like the plague.
Of course great respect, always, for the developers, they are just victims as all of us.
Of course great respect, always, for the developers, they are just victims as all of us.
Firstly, shouldn’t the best of 2023 be published after it’s finished? Developer content published in December has no chance of making it onto this list now.
Secondly, I agree with the sentiment that the App Store is riddled with subscriptions and ads. There was a time where exploring the App Store to see what cool apps were yet to be discovered, but now it’s just ‘oh, another subscription… next!’
Secondly, I agree with the sentiment that the App Store is riddled with subscriptions and ads. There was a time where exploring the App Store to see what cool apps were yet to be discovered, but now it’s just ‘oh, another subscription… next!’
If you are an actual non-profit organization, you might actually qualify to have the membership fee waived:
Gosh, there's a lot of cynicism in this thread.
I did a 230km trail in Scotland (in various chunks over several weeks) this summer using All Trails all the way - a really thoughtful and well-design app with lots of great features. It's a great way of discovering new routes, even in areas that I'm familiar with. Meanwhile Photomator is also terrific, and they always seem to be adding new features. I love being able to edit non-destructively and without leaving the Photos library, the ML Super Res feature is super impressive. Although not as technically ambitious, Too Good To Go is also great and has lots of regular options nearby where I live and work.
Just great apps that add something valuable to my life.
And yet, I feel like for years now every thread about apps on this forum is filled with kvetching about subscription models. I understand why people feel strongly about this, but gosh, it is repetitive.
I did a 230km trail in Scotland (in various chunks over several weeks) this summer using All Trails all the way - a really thoughtful and well-design app with lots of great features. It's a great way of discovering new routes, even in areas that I'm familiar with. Meanwhile Photomator is also terrific, and they always seem to be adding new features. I love being able to edit non-destructively and without leaving the Photos library, the ML Super Res feature is super impressive. Although not as technically ambitious, Too Good To Go is also great and has lots of regular options nearby where I live and work.
Just great apps that add something valuable to my life.
And yet, I feel like for years now every thread about apps on this forum is filled with kvetching about subscription models. I understand why people feel strongly about this, but gosh, it is repetitive.
Have you ever been on the App Store? When has the "dross" ever been filtered out?
We should all complain about subscription models until they go away
Sadly they won’t go away until they are less profitable than selling your app for a single upfront price.
Apple’s fiscal year 2023 ended in September. We are now already well into the Year of the Apple 2024, and new titles published now will qualify for the 2024 awards.
Glad you mentioned this, but unfortunately most open-source projects don’t count as nonprofit organizations. Still a great step forward though.If you are an actual non-profit organization, you might actually qualify to have the membership fee waived:
Agreed, and depending on the country it can be quite a hassle to get recognized as an NPO, even if you wanted to.
Wish I could Love, Like, and Sad a post all at the same time.
That is the same icon. I don’t remember the name but I remember what you’re talking about.
I guess it’s just the march of software development. The games and apps were simpler and cheaper. Some are still simple but no longer cheap.
It was a rude way to say it but he may still be right. If $99 per year is a huge barrier, for whatever reason, buying a Mac will be just as necessary and an even bigger barrier, at least at first.
Yes, we can thank the App Store for this. There are still good developers making good software at a reasonable price but it’s increasingly rare. Most of those developers were already around before the App Store.
It’s the reason Valve won’t make Half-Life 3. It’s simply nowhere near as profitable as the far easier job of just cranking out IAP for DOTA2.
Is it that developers really can’t make enough money to afford a good living without doing this? Or is it that the potential profits from doing it just make it look by comparison like it’s not possible?
For every DOTA2 there are a hundred Overwatch 2 that strangled their own game with greed.
I know my only examples were games but those are the most egregious and the same principle applies.
Apple doesn’t seem to care, in fact they embrace it. One more games example, try the games on Apple Arcade. The ones that aren’t just remakes of older games (and even some of those) are just gacha games with the actual money transaction removed. They’re still designed to keep you hooked and paying the subscription, little more.
Developers want to make more money than the sell once for a single price allows them to. It’s as simple as that.
Oh it’s based on financial year? It should state that in the title. Thanks for clarifying.
Well yes the principle is as simple as that, at first. But it’s like all these people complaining about late stage capitalism. If you take that idea to its extreme, where does that leave us? Just a bunch of garbage overtly designed to separate you from your money as efficiently as possible.
Some software developers want to make good software and want people to buy it because they like the software and it’s useful / fun to them. It can’t be only about the money. Not to sound like a hippy but we can see the results of this philosophy right before our eyes.
Okay, I'll bite! You're free to complain as you wish of course, but developers don't make business decisions based on people complaining on forums, but rather on what they think will pay their mortgages.
Most developers have figured out that one-time pricing simply isn't a sustainable business model.
Complicated apps tend to have recurring costs requiring ongoing investment simply to tread water. This could be paying for external data sources , moderation costs if an app has any kind of community or social features, or it could be development to keep pace with OS changes (which are sometimes weird, complicated, and not fully document) or incoming/outgoing API changes (for instance, if I an app shares things to Instagram, Facebook, etc). There's a lot of expensive maintenance work to be done (often invisible to the user).
Charging a one-off fee creates uncertainty for both the user and the developer. When I buy this $50 app, will it be updated for a 3 years? 10 years? 6 months? As a developer, when is a reasonable point for me to sunset an app without trashing my reputation? Or am I on the hook for life?
Personally, I prefer the clarity and control of subscription models. I subscribe to Photomator because it provides a useful service for me. At some point - because something better comes along or because the app gets worse, or because my needs change, I will no longer use it, and I'll unsubscribe. Simple. No hard feelings. I'd much rather be in that position rather than trying to guess whether a product's evolution and my needs will stay aligned in future.
I suspect a lot of criticism subscription models isn't really an ideological/principled objection to recurring costs, but simply that people don't want to pay. I imagine a lot of people don't want to go from a $20 a year to a $100 lifetime purchase - they want to pay $10 (or $3) for a fully featured app that is updated forever! I empathise - I don't like spending more money that I have to either! But you get what you pay for, and the decades-long history of software, paying peanuts for complex apps with long term support has never been sustainable.
Lastly, I would say, this is a market. If I'm way wrong about all this, and it really is possible to create good software for a much cheaper costs, there's no reason why all these 'greedy' developers couldn't be undercut by upstart competitors. Great! But I don't think that's happening any time soon.
Subscription models were driven by apple App Store policies to drive additional spending and App Store fees toward apple. It was not some invisible neutral market force but an idea from the top to extract even more value from those at the bottom.
I really hope society evolves away from this horrifically misguided market based thinking
No opinion really, can see both sides. I've paid quite a bit for Logos which is something I will (hopefully) use the rest of my life as a graduate student, youth pastor, and one day I hope sr pastor. Productivity wise, I have Things for all devices and is worth it after 18 months of being organized following a ’mini-crisis’ of almost a decade of full-time ministry daily disorganization and ’what was I supposed to not forget.’ For me, well worth the one time purchase of ~$80 for all devices since there were specific ways I need to remember weekly items and far off projects that Reminders just couldn't do.
For subscriptions, using Fantastical and Cardhop have been great. When someone asks to meet for lunch it is so easy to send them a link and say pick a date and I'll see you then. And after meetings, the timestamp feature in Cardhop allows me to quickly go to the contact, record the date and time, make a few notes, and remember next time what was going on in their life.
I pay for DayOne. Tried keeping a journal in Notes but using a dedicated journal app ’guilts’ me into making use of it. Have around 1,000 pages of written journal over the last few years but stopped so this has helped rekindle.
For consumption, Reeder was a onetime purchase and I love it so that I can read articles without going to website and getting sucked into minutes and hours of endless clicks and rabbit holes. Overcast is free but I pay the annual thing to support Marco since his app has been so reliable compared to Apple Podcast that for me will never stay in sync and randomly downloads hundreds of old episodes from years ago for no reason.
Ulysses is wonderful for what I have to put out weekly for lessons and also as a student. Would probably pay for a onetime price if they ever offered it like how Things has been so helpful for me.
So a mixture of both paid and subscription has helped me use the tools I have to get done what I need to do and want to do...
BUT, nothing, Nothing, NOTHING, N-O-T-H-I-N-G will ever match the feeling of me hopping in my truck as a 20 year old, driving over an hour to CompUSA, talking with the Apple employee in the back corner of the store (who I still talk with today), buying software and Mac OS X or iLife and iWork **IN A BOX** and driving home like a kid at Christmas just waiting to take the disc out and install it while watching the blue Aqua progress bar tell me how quickly it would be before I got to use my new software.
Those were the good ’ol days. At least then, with that much time, effort, and gas put into getting a new piece of software, you stuck with an app and its upgrades for several years instead of the cycle of finding the latest and greatest every other month.
For subscriptions, using Fantastical and Cardhop have been great. When someone asks to meet for lunch it is so easy to send them a link and say pick a date and I'll see you then. And after meetings, the timestamp feature in Cardhop allows me to quickly go to the contact, record the date and time, make a few notes, and remember next time what was going on in their life.
I pay for DayOne. Tried keeping a journal in Notes but using a dedicated journal app ’guilts’ me into making use of it. Have around 1,000 pages of written journal over the last few years but stopped so this has helped rekindle.
For consumption, Reeder was a onetime purchase and I love it so that I can read articles without going to website and getting sucked into minutes and hours of endless clicks and rabbit holes. Overcast is free but I pay the annual thing to support Marco since his app has been so reliable compared to Apple Podcast that for me will never stay in sync and randomly downloads hundreds of old episodes from years ago for no reason.
Ulysses is wonderful for what I have to put out weekly for lessons and also as a student. Would probably pay for a onetime price if they ever offered it like how Things has been so helpful for me.
So a mixture of both paid and subscription has helped me use the tools I have to get done what I need to do and want to do...
BUT, nothing, Nothing, NOTHING, N-O-T-H-I-N-G will ever match the feeling of me hopping in my truck as a 20 year old, driving over an hour to CompUSA, talking with the Apple employee in the back corner of the store (who I still talk with today), buying software and Mac OS X or iLife and iWork **IN A BOX** and driving home like a kid at Christmas just waiting to take the disc out and install it while watching the blue Aqua progress bar tell me how quickly it would be before I got to use my new software.
Those were the good ’ol days. At least then, with that much time, effort, and gas put into getting a new piece of software, you stuck with an app and its upgrades for several years instead of the cycle of finding the latest and greatest every other month.
Lost in Play looks fun - thanks for bringing it to my attention! Looks like it's free to try, and after that it's a single purchase of $5.99. That seems cheap compared to games prices I've heard.