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Not a fan of the software rental, but I will point out that you get FIVE machine activations with a license. Do with that information what you will.
 
We had a good business model until Apple killed it, by not handling Paid Upgrades.

For me there are only 2 business models that work: Paid Upgrades and Ads. Let the user chose which works better. As an iOS developer I am not happy with subscriptions, but that is currently the only way I can give my users any privacy. But even with this I have to provide 2 Apps because there is no way to completely disable Ads on the Apple platform.

You sound like you know quite a bit about this, so could you explain what the fundamental difference is between a paid upgrade and making a separate new app, eg Tweetbot 3 that effectively replaces Tweetbot 2 over time? Genuinely curious to understand.
 
Obligatory shoutout to Serif for not moving to Subscription for version 2 of the Affinity suite.

That $99 upgrade to the whole 2.0 suite was pretty damn nice I will say.. Dont use anything but Photo, but for that price, might as well learn how to design our logos in Designer too.
 
Subscription? Not a deal killer but first strike. $50 a year, nope. I have no problem with web interface usually. But I subscribe already to Office discounted through my work (mostly for the other apps) and can use Outlook if I want something fancier.
It would have to be significantly cheaper to get me to bite.
 
The complaints here are as follows: great app but I can't justify paying for it.

And this demonstrates perfectly the parabola of technologies. They start as nascent, then get hot, then they cool off, and then they become ubiquitous. Trying to make money out of something that's ubiquitous is almost impossible.

Email is old. Really, really old. It was revived in 2005 when Gmail basically reinvented it, but even that's nearly two decades ago now.

To be able to charge for an app like this, you need the technology it's enabling to be nascent, or hot. For example, somebody might create a TikTok client that does some cool stuff you can't normally do, or they might create a Mastodon client.

But email? It just can't work. Even Microsoft recently made their Mac email client free of charge.
 

🤦‍♀️

You guys just don’t get it…… do you……

Running a server to run an app like this is expensive, in addition to getting access to gmail server. One time payment won’t be enough. Subscription make sense for this app.

Also, Apple really is discouraging developers from uploading new version of app as separate and charge users. They are actively encouraging developers to continue updating existing app and switch to subscription model.

Note that rumor is Final Cut Pro for Mac might soon switch to this model also.
Well, wrong concept then.
Better take C++, Swift or ObjC and build a decent local working binary instead of server based crutches.
 
Happily purchased a subscription. I'm not a developer. So have no skin in the game. But reading endless comments about how everything should be free is, frankly, moronic. It takes money to develop and maintain any product or service. Nothing is free. Want to use Apple's mail client? Fine, you're paying a premium for Apple products and part of that premium supports their mail app. Unfortunately it's not that great and not updated very often. Want to use Gmail on the web? Welcome to endless ads and again, an infrequently updated and maintained product.
 
Well, wrong concept then.
Better take C++, Swift or ObjC and build a decent local working binary instead of server based crutches.
Again. Mimestream is a classic mail client, no 3rd party involved, they don't need to pay for mail servers. They use the Google/Gmail API.

It's also a native application written in Swift.
 
I've been using it in beta for a long time. It's a great app but I use gmail for my personal account and simply can't justify the cost over just using the standard webmail interface. If it was more reasonably priced I might consider it. It's too bad really. Still I wish the developer success. I hope Google doesn't buy the app and then kill it like they did with Sparrow.
 
What's the point?
My thoughts EXACTLY!

Every feature shown is NOTHING new for most existing email clients that have been on the market for over a decade!

‘Categorize with labels’ whoopie.
‘Respond to calendar invites’ 🤣 💀 like really? Is this the best they can do?!

I’m not certain Googles API is the best way to go, or using anyone else’s API that is not a commonly shared protocol (aka ActiveSync for Push emails) as you never know when such a company will restrict access. Anyone recall Twitter API being restricted suddenly and without warning affecting so many 3rd party developers!!??

Focused inbox!
This was garbage when Microsoft first implemented this and it’s still garbage here as well. Some feel like it’ll separate spam and marketing emails but sooner or later it’ll separate critical emails and most will start to miss - especially time sensitive ones.

This is NOT the way! Even if the UI looks appealingly clean. They need to do BETTER!
 
What’s wrong with using Spark Mail app? It’s free and probably has same features, maybe I’m wrong.

That's like saying to an A&W customer "What's wrong with McDonalds?". Choice is powerful.

Was Spark that app that was proxying all email through their own servers, or was that another app?
 
Subscription app for a free service.

If you believe Gmail is free, you've drunken the kool-aid. Google is profiting off of you, your email, your behaviour, your likes, your dislikes.

And business users of Gmail pay a fee. It's not free on that side of the fence. And they are protected from the information siphoning that happens with the "free" version.
 
My thoughts EXACTLY!

Every feature shown is NOTHING new for most existing email clients that have been on the market for over a decade!

‘Categorize with labels’ whoopie.
‘Respond to calendar invites’ 🤣 💀 like really? Is this the best they can do?!

I’m not certain Googles API is the best way to go, or using anyone else’s API that is not a commonly shared protocol (aka ActiveSync for Push emails) as you never know when such a company will restrict access. Anyone recall Twitter API being restricted suddenly and without warning affecting so many 3rd party developers!!??

Focused inbox!
This was garbage when Microsoft first implemented this and it’s still garbage here as well. Some feel like it’ll separate spam and marketing emails but sooner or later it’ll separate critical emails and most will start to miss - especially time sensitive ones.

This is NOT the way! Even if the UI looks appealingly clean. They need to do BETTER!

Wow, emotional post. There's a big advantage to using a native app over a web-based app. That alone is worth a small fee.

APIs are used heavily across the web. They are not a fault or weakness. The Twitter fiasco was unique, driven by mismanagement and cluelessness.
 
Yeah, who the hell does this guy think he is trying to make a living off of software he builds that I was happy using for free!! My right to get the software he built for free should be more important than his right to make an income off of his work!

Yes, this is sarcasm. I've been using Mimestream for a while and just subscribed to the discounted annual option. Good for him for making a good sustainable income from his work as an indie dev allowing him to keep improving the product.
I bought Mimestream 1.0 at the introductory price of $29 ($32 with taxes). I’ll see how it develops over the next year to see if it merits the annual $50/year subscription. I just prefer a desktop client to the Gmail web interface. Honestly, it was partly to support the developer.
 
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I bought Mimestream 1.0 at the introductory price of $29 ($32 with taxes). I’ll see how it develops over the next year to see if it merits the annual $50/year subscription. I just prefer a desktop client to the Gmail web interface. Honestly, it was partly to support the developer.
yeah im considering paying for the discounted first year to support them and see what happens since i like the app
but i dont like it enough to pay the normal yearly fee.
 
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We had a good business model until Apple killed it, by not handling Paid Upgrades.

For me there are only 2 business models that work: Paid Upgrades and Ads. Let the user chose which works better. As an iOS developer I am not happy with subscriptions, but that is currently the only way I can give my users any privacy. But even with this I have to provide 2 Apps because there is no way to completely disable Ads on the Apple platform.
I'm a fan of what Agenda does. Their model lets you use a base version for free, but you can pay to buy premium features that are released over the course of a year. Once that year passes, you KEEP the premium features you paid for, even if you stop paying. If/when more features are added that you like, you can subscribe again to get caught up. It's a nice middle ground between tradition paid releases and software rentals where you're left totally empty-handed the minute you stop renting the software.
 
You don’t fetch your mails from your mail provider. Instead you use another service that sits in between and stores and manages all mails for you.
I would still call Spark a mail client. It's some software that offers you access to read and send emails. Calling the Spark app a "Spark client" doesn't really make any difference - I already agreed with you that Mimestream is using Gmail API to touch data, whereas most other mail clients use IMAP.
 
Call me old fashioned, but I am a person who prefers the perpetual license purchase… with a caveat: I do subscribe to Microsoft 365 Business at $149/year; it provides me with the “whole M365 package” plus Onedrive and manages my personal email domain.

At $49 a year, clearly the intention of this app is to generate ARR/MRR by going after all the low hanging fruit:
most lucrative customers in the PC Industry (Mac users) many of whom use the most popular email address (gmail). It might work, it might not work. My guess is that it will fill a niche, but my other guess is that they are missing out on some major money in not selling it standalone.
 
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You sound like you know quite a bit about this, so could you explain what the fundamental difference is between a paid upgrade and making a separate new app, eg Tweetbot 3 that effectively replaces Tweetbot 2 over time? Genuinely curious to understand.
Customer confusion and the belief that they are buying anew instead of an upgrade.

Oh, and more hassles in the App Store.
 
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I'm a fan of what Agenda does. Their model lets you use a base version for free, but you can pay to buy premium features that are released over the course of a year. Once that year passes, you KEEP the premium features you paid for, even if you stop paying. If/when more features are added that you like, you can subscribe again to get caught up. It's a nice middle ground between tradition paid releases and software rentals where you're left totally empty-handed the minute you stop renting the software.
That is a really good suggestion, I'll look into that. Thanks.
 
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Apps like these are doomed; it's very likely Apple's roadmap already includes those must-have features, and/or Apple will just imitate it after the fact. Seems like these kinds of apps/developers are hoping they'll be acquired, but Apple really only acquires companies with novel tech/patents or valuable IP.

I will say that Apple Mail is seriously due for some quality-of-life improvements.
There’s no way this is on Apple’s roadmap.

The point of this app is that it uses all the native Gmail functionality via Google’s API. Apple would never integrate with Google in that way.

The outcome of the integration is pretty awesome compared to the generic IMAP email client. For me, using server side search with Google’s algorithm is light years ahead of a normal clients search index. And there’s also a lot of other Gmail-specific goodies throughout the app.

With that said, I won’t pay that price for it. I can afford it with my business, but the price point is silly.

Hope they get the business to work though, it’s a great app.
 
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