Deliveries App Loses Functionality as Shipping Companies Refuse to Participate

[MadeTheSwitch]

I expect secondary markets to control prices. I expect them to give the game away for free because the secondary market should drive prices to near zero. Why would a developer sell their app for $5 when people who paid the $5 no longer want their copy? Those people should be able to recoup the loss they suffered buying the app. Let them resell it and force the developer to lower their price to compete not only with the other apps that do the same thing but also with copies of their app that they failed to provide compelling value for. I don't understand why this is so hard for you. If you want to make money make something people don't want to resell.

So hard for me? I don’t know why it’s so hard for you to answer my question.

Third time: What other products do you expect to be made free to you after a certain length of time on the market?

That you keep avoiding this question points to an inconsistency in your philosophy that you don’t want to own up to.

 

[4jasontv]

So hard for me? I don’t know why it’s so hard for you to answer my question.

Third time: What other products do you expect to be made free to you after a certain length of time on the market?

That you keep avoiding this question points to an inconsistency in your philosophy that you don’t want to own up to.

I keep answering it, you just don't like my answer. I expect every product to drive towards the cost of post-development unit production costs. For physical items, if that price drops under the cost of storage, I expect it to trend towards the cost of disposal. For digital products that cost rounds down to zero.

 

[MadeTheSwitch]

I keep answering it, you just don't like my answer. I expect every product to drive towards the cost of post-development unit production costs. For physical items, if that price drops under the cost of storage, I expect it to trend towards the cost of disposal. For digital products that cost rounds down to zero.

Right. So you are in fact inconsistent in your argument because you think that only digital products should be “zero” cost at some point.

And you haven’t even really explained why you think that. Why do you single out digital software? Why should it be free? Let’s say someone is new to the smartphone world or new to Apple products. And they see an app that would help them in their workflow or an interesting game, whatever....Why should they get it for free now just because it’s been on the app store x number of months?

I still find it really curious that you expect things to be free merely because a certain amount of time has passed. That’s not how the world works. Using that logic, book publishers should be giving me copies of Harry Potter for free because the books have been around awhile. And hey, I should get all the Star Wars movies for free too, especially the first three because look at how long they have been around. Or comic books. Or baseball cards. Or automobiles. Or whatever. Just make it all free after some certain arbitrary amount of time. What that time is, who knows? ?‍♂️

Things aren’t ever going to work that way.

Consumer prices for software should drop monthly until it has to be given away for free to get people to use it.

Or that way either.

 

[4jasontv]

Right. So you are in fact inconsistent in your argument because you think that only digital products should be “zero” cost at some point.

And you haven’t even really explained why you think that. Why do you single out digital software? Why should it be free? Let’s say someone is new to the smartphone world or new to Apple products. And they see an app that would help them in their workflow or an interesting game, whatever....Why should they get it for free now just because it’s been on the app store x number of months?

I still find it really curious that you expect things to be free merely because a certain amount of time has passed. That’s not how the world works. Using that logic, book publishers should be giving me copies of Harry Potter for free because the books have been around awhile. And hey, I should get all the Star Wars movies for free too, especially the first three because look at how long they have been around. Or comic books. Or baseball cards. Or automobiles. Or whatever. Just make it all free after some certain arbitrary amount of time. What that time is, who knows? ?‍♂️

Things aren’t ever going to work that way.


Or that way either.

Listen. I already explained this ad nauseam.

First. DO NOT PUT WORDS IN MY MOUTH. I didn't say ONLY digital products should be zero cost. They should be, but so should some physical items provided they meet the very clear and specific market conditions. If storage and distribution costs of individual units for sale approach zero then the sale price should tend towards zero as well. I also didn't say they should be free after some time. I do agree that government-granted monopolies over content ownership is way too long, but this has nothing to do with that. All products, including comic books and automobiles, should have to compete against a secondary market. But for some reason, THAT YOU HAVE YET TO EXPLAIN, some people think that digital items shouldn't have to compete against used copies. Piracy and depreciation are not acceptable explanations any more than knives should be banned from restaurants because they can be used for murder.

Second, for your Harry Potter example: yes, at this point, the number of copies of Harry Potter sitting in boxes and on bookshelves is so great that the secondary market should cause the price to drop to storage plus shipping prices. And wouldn't you know it, used paperbacks are going right now for as little as $0.59 on Amazon. But the digital copies still cost $10 because you can't legally resell digital copies. If you could, they would have to make it free because the secondary market would push the price to zero.

Copyright on Star War should have expired years ago, but that's not even the point I am making. If there wasn't an artificial restriction on digital goods then the cost of storage and shipping would result in most used copies being free. This is the most valuable argument for supporting NFTs, but developers and studios will never support it because it would cause the price of digital goods to be equal to their true value. A value that trends towards zero.

Meanwhile, content has to compete not only against everything that has come out prior to it being released but also everything after it. My explanation isn't just for digital products. It just so happens that digital products have such low distribution costs that it should eventually pull the going rate to zero. And developers and studios should embrace this, and use direct free distribution to promote new content that isn't free.

Oh, and this isn't wishful thinking. Many of them already do this.

 

[Trekkie]

As many have said, used this since widgets and iOS apps were a thing, and happy too.

What I will do first, is stop using shipping that doesn't work. Amazon has been going out of their way to make what is coming to you a guessing game more and more, even their emails are useless. The charges don't match up to items you ordered, nothing. Subscribe and Save is a joke, they constantly just stop selling/restart selling things and none of it arrives when they say it will.

Taking away the ability to track the damn things means I'll order somewhere else.

 

[eoblaed]

Funny how you only quoted part of my reply, opting to leave out the part where I said they should charge more if they need more. Let me guess, we live in unprecedented times and there is no way to predict cost increases so they have to charge a subscription to ensure they have the revenue to continue profiting proving a service.

Subscriptions are lazy and exploitative.

The problem with this approach is that it doesn't account for the fact that online services, such as this one provides, incur ongoing costs. It's not a matter of them not charging enough for the initial product, it's that for each customer they field additional expenses, every month, forever.

It would be entirely unsustainable to not pass those costs on to the customers in some way. It would also be prohibitively expensive if they were to charge customers up front for years of monthly usage.

A modest monthly subscription fee is, generally, the best solution.

 

[4jasontv]

The problem with this approach is that it doesn't account for the fact that online services, such as this one provides, incur ongoing costs. It's not a matter of them not charging enough for the initial product, it's that for each customer they field additional expenses, every month, forever.

It would be entirely unsustainable to not pass those costs on to the customers in some way. It would also be prohibitively expensive if they were to charge customers up front for years of monthly usage.

A modest monthly subscription fee is, generally, the best solution.

They don't incur costs for online services as everything is handled on the device end. And if they don't do it on the device then the app isn't just poorly priced it's a security risk.

This isn't a cloud service it's a browser that auto-refreshes.

 

[McTaste]

They don't incur costs for online services as everything is handled on the device end. And if they don't do it on the device then the app isn't just poorly priced it's a security risk.

This isn't a cloud service it's a browser that auto-refreshes.

agreed. and as a former user of the app, i bailed when it went subscription. i can open the ups/fedex/amazon apps if i am expecting something.

 

[CarlJ]

agreed. and as a former user of the app, i bailed when it went subscription. i can open the ups/fedex/amazon apps if i am expecting something.

If you sign up for free accounts with UPS/FedEx/Amazon, so they associate your address with your instance of the app, they can all send you push notifications when things ship, when they're close, and when they've arrived. That kind of killed the Deliveries app for me. Yes, all in one place would be better, but not if it keeps faltering and needing attention.

 

[max2]

Amazon did this. At least you can still track though in a app.

 

[verdi1987]

As of two days ago, it appears UPS tracking no longer works.

 

[compwiz1202]

I don't get it - they don't make much money directly from users (as most come from contracts with stores) and those apps most likely also won't make much money for them. Users also usually don't have a choice of a company which will deliver the package from the store and nobody likes having to install dozens of apps for the same thing, so this will only annoy people in the long term.

I can't even remember the last time I could pick the delivery service. Heck most of the time I can't even pick a faster speed.

 

[testcard]

Parcel app still works here in UK.

 

[verdi1987]

Parcel app still works here in UK.

I’ve been using Parcel for FedEx in the U.S. I preferred the Deliveries design over Parcel, so I continued to use it to track everything but FedEx. I guess I’ll have to switch over fully to Parcel.

 

[minik]

As of two days ago, it appears UPS tracking no longer works.

I just noticed that and there’s no communication from the developer.

 

[verdi1987]

I just noticed that and there’s no communication from the developer.

The developer essentially ceased development a year ago despite still offering subscriptions for it.

The Future of Deliveries

Deliveries began as a hobby—it was first released as a Dashboard widget named “Apple Order Status” on January 22, 2006. Over time more services were added, and the name and icon evolved along with it. Eventually it became an iOS app named “Delivery Status touch” on September 19, 2008, shortly…

junecloud.com

 

[CarlJ]

The developer essentially ceased development a year ago despite still offering subscriptions for it.

I absolutely loved the Deliveries app back in the day (and their companion Notefile app as well), and promoted it when people asked for that kind of app, but its time has passed. It was a good run.

These days, I have the UPS and FedEx apps, and those, together with the Amazon app and the Apple Store app, account for about 95% of what is sent to me (which is less, these days). I'm also signed up for "Informed Delivery" from USPS, so I get email every morning listing what will arrive that day (they have an app, but its a really bad wrapper around their website, not worth using).

With UPS and FedEx, in particular - you can set up a free account, associated with your address, and they'll tell you when you have incoming packages - I haven't typed in (or copy/pasted) a tracking number in years.

I wish it could be all in one unified interface, like Deliveries, but none of the companies seem to want to work together any more.

 

[verdi1987]

These days, I have the UPS and FedEx apps, and those, together with the Amazon app and the Apple Store app, account for about 95% of what is sent to me (which is less, these days). I'm also signed up for "Informed Delivery" from USPS, so I get email every morning listing what will arrive that day (they have an app, but its a really bad wrapper around their website, not worth using).

With UPS and FedEx, in particular - you can set up a free account, associated with your address, and they'll tell you when you have incoming packages - I haven't typed in (or copy/pasted) a tracking number in years.

I do have all of those—FedEx and UPS apps, email notifications, Informed Delivery. It was just much quicker to track in one place.

 

[minik]

I absolutely loved the Deliveries app back in the day (and their companion Notefile app as well), and promoted it when people asked for that kind of app, but its time has passed. It was a good run.

These days, I have the UPS and FedEx apps, and those, together with the Amazon app and the Apple Store app, account for about 95% of what is sent to me (which is less, these days). I'm also signed up for "Informed Delivery" from USPS, so I get email every morning listing what will arrive that day (they have an app, but its a really bad wrapper around their website, not worth using).

With UPS and FedEx, in particular - you can set up a free account, associated with your address, and they'll tell you when you have incoming packages - I haven't typed in (or copy/pasted) a tracking number in years.

I wish it could be all in one unified interface, like Deliveries, but none of the companies seem to want to work together any more.

I have UPS and FedEx accounts, even paid for the UPS MyChoice yearly membership. However not all items can be routed to the UPS Store or FedEx location to pick up at my own time. Oh well, I do like to support small developers and the apps itself has a nice UI but I will be cancelling my yearly subscription. BTW, how does the iOS built-in tracking (in the Wallet app) work?

 

[CarlJ]

BTW, how does the iOS built-in tracking (in the Wallet app) work?

I have yet to have the built-in tracking trigger. I expect it requires support on the store's part, and only some stores have implemented it, and that set doesn't overlap with stores I've purchased from recently.

 

[DominikHoffmann]

Maybe we can prod the developer to maintain the app by giving it two-star (⭐️⭐️) reviews for the diminishing functionality. I’d be happy to pay twice as much for the yearly subscription, if it regains full use of FedEx and UPS tracking.

 

[CarlJ]

Maybe we can prod the developer to maintain the app by giving it two-star (⭐️⭐️) reviews for the diminishing functionality. I’d be happy to pay twice as much for the yearly subscription, if it regains full use of FedEx and UPS tracking.

Please don't. The app is dead, it's not coming back, and the reasons are out of the hands of the developer (unless you personally would like to offewr tens of millions of dollars to UPS and FedEx to get them to change their rules). Weaponizing ratings is almost always a bad idea.

 

[verdi1987]

Please don't. The app is dead, it's not coming back, and the reasons are out of the hands of the developer (unless you personally would like to offewr tens of millions of dollars to UPS and FedEx to get them to change their rules). Weaponizing ratings is almost always a bad idea.

Both UPS and FedEx make their APIs available to developers for free. It’s probably too time-consuming for Junecloud to keep up the integration.

 

[sailnavy]

Looks like they lost UPS integration as well.

 

[jagooch]

Same here found the widget not long after I got my first Mac (a bit later than you though..Leopard), feels like the end of an era to some extent. I bought the apps out-right and didn’t transition to the subscription so it’s been a bit “degraded” for me for a while but I still enjoyed using it on my iPhone.

Noticed the issues with FedEx a couple/few weeks ago. Even though I didn’t like how they pivoted on the subscription I’m still sad to see this happen, the app was still useful in stand-alone mode and was a well thought out implementation for package tracking.

This is true for many apps. Sometimes I feel guilty for apps that where I was grandfathered in so I don’t pay a subscription.

But, if the app would go back to One Time Payment and release new versions, they would be getting my money. So, it was their choice.

For me, I want to have control over when I pay for an app and when I don’t. Maybe my budget is tight or I don’t see value in the new features so I don’t upgrade right away . Maybe I love the new features and I upgraded on day 1!

With subscriptions, that choice is taken away from me. And I don’t like losing control.