Notability Users Frustrated By Switch to Subscription Model Claim Violation of App Store Guidelines

[Thomas Davie]

Maybe I was stupid for buying an iPad Pro and thinking I could buy a pencil writing note taking app -but I did. And maybe I’ve been incredibly stupid to put all of my dialysis notes and data into this app, thinking that it would be available to me forever w/o ever having to pay again.

My blood pressure/weight/meds journal alone is 37+ pages. It is going to be a pain to convert them into something else. I would like toknow the editing li it for Notability 11 if you stay free. I suspect I might blow by the limit in 1 day.

Upset at Ginger Labs, but not suprised. They should be neither if users start switching to something else.

Tom

edit #1 - Putting an editing limit on the ’free’ version 11 for people who have already purchased the app is deliberately crippling it. I don’t want/need the extras, just the ability to infinitely edit, and that has been taken away from me.

 

[swarlos]

Does Goodnotes let you import notes taken with notability?

 

[BigMcGuire]

Maybe I was stupid for buying an iPad Pro and thinking I could buy a pencil writing note taking app -but I did. And maybe I’ve been incredibly stupid to put all of my dialysis notes and data into this app, thinking that it would be available to me forever w/o ever having to pay again.

My blood pressure/weight/meds journal alone is 37+ pages. It is going to be a pain to convert them into something else. I would like toknow the editing li it for Notability 11 if you stay free. I suspect I might blow by the limit in 1 day.

Upset at Ginger Labs, but not suprised. They should be neither if users start switching to something else.

Tom

Yeah I've got over 300 notebooks - I estimate almost 1000 pages in Notability for me. Some notebooks are in the 100s of pages (classes I've taken, work logs, etc).

 

[dsusanj]

Does Goodnotes let you import notes taken with notability?

No, Notability has its own proprietary note format... unless you export them in PDF of course, but then you can't edit them in GoodNotes.

 

[swarlos]

No, Notability has its own proprietary note format... unless you export them in PDF of course, but then you can't edit them in GoodNotes.

Ugh of course. Man I’m super pissed about this.

 

[iamPro]

Always hated subscription models, but this takes it to another level.
I use the app everyday and happily paid for the extra features, but to know its all going away is just unacceptable.

Perhaps if Notability finally caves in and grant us the ability to better organize notes, have notes with the same name, improve shape detection, I might justify going with the subscription model.

 

[techfreak23]

Taken from subreddit here:

https://www.reddit.com/r/apple/comments/qkgt7g

Almost looks like they disabled reporting that app... lol I've tried it several times on different devices and it keeps telling something went wrong when I submit.

 

[B4U]

While it's of course sad for any user, I'm really hard sympathizing with a comment like this:

So he's been using the app for 6 years after paying 9 bucks and some more for the macOS app. And it's supported him through three degrees. And how he's upset the company who's obviously provided a great product want a stable financial model to help them keep providing a good app. Do they all think these companies can really survive for almost a decade on a $9 purchase and free upgrades after that.
The grandfathering is that they don't have to pay for the first year. I guess you can argue that's not enough, maybe add more time. But still...

Interesting take. ?
Let me rewrite that a bit and see if you still see it the same way.

"So he's been using the vehicle for 6 years after paying 20,000 bucks and some more for the accessories. And it's supported him through three degrees, 5 jobs, 2 marriages, and 3 kids. And how he's upset the company who's obviously provided a great product want a stable financial model to help them keep providing a good vehicle. Do they all think these companies can really survive for almost a decade on a $20,000 purchase and free warranty after that.
The grandfathering is that they don't have to pay for the first year. I guess you can argue that's not enough, maybe add more time. But still..."

Here is the thing, the user had paid up front for the product, and the product maker decided to take away whatever the user paid for.

 

[jst_testing]

I think apps should follow what the Craft app does - work on the model that you can import/export data with limited friction, and your data is YOURS. Notability sadly has users build history of data for many years, doesn't have an easy way to export all notes, and top it up, cripples functionality for users who PAID for it originally.

 

[Sherif Iskander]

I think this is the problem with one trick pony companies. This developer cashed in on an app that was hugely successful and instead of investing some of the revenue into new applications that can be sold to their entire customer base, they decide to just keep doing the same thing and expect to be able to grow as a company. They should have developed more products!!!

 

[TracerAnalog]

Yeah. That’s an insta-delete for me. I happily pay subscription fees for things that keep delivering new content, but to charge me for something I already bought? Really? Hard pass…

 

[techfreak23]

While it's of course sad for any user, I'm really hard sympathizing with a comment like this:

So he's been using the app for 6 years after paying 9 bucks and some more for the macOS app. And it's supported him through three degrees. And how he's upset the company who's obviously provided a great product want a stable financial model to help them keep providing a good app. Do they all think these companies can really survive for almost a decade on a $9 purchase and free upgrades after that.
The grandfathering is that they don't have to pay for the first year. I guess you can argue that's not enough, maybe add more time. But still...

It's hard to sympathize with something when you don't even understand what was said... he's mad because he paid for a product. Regardless of the amount of time, 1 year or 6 years, you get what you pay for. I'm mad too because I'm also one of their customers. There is no "Oh, never mind. Pay monthly or yearly now or you don't get what you originally paid for." That's bad business and against the App Store guidelines. They should have renamed it and relaunched a new Store item with the subscription model.

Also, most of us understand that development is not cheap, which is why most modern software is on a subscription model. That's not what's being argued here. Don't try to sound like a hero or advocate for developers and their internal costs of operating because you're not.

 

[mdorais]

Anyone have a good alternative to Notability that isn't subscription?

 

[BuffaloTF]

are those things worth $12 a year to you? because I can suggest an app.

oh, I’m sure I have it… which makes me conflicted here on if I should be angry or encouraged. I’d much rather buy major version releases, if given an option.

 

[msackey]

I'm surprised - most apps charge $30-40/year (think Ulysses) - I thought $11.99/year ($14.99/year for new users) was fairly reasonable for something I use daily but I had people screaming at me on reddit for just mentioning that.

Oh….Ulysses! Ah…I moved away from that precisely because of the subscription model. It helped solidify for me that I should just stick with Scrivener which I did and still use it.

 

[PlayUltimate]

Switching to subscription model for already paid users is not good. Looks like Apple might step in.

I guess abandonware is another option.

 

[Ken Linger]

You win $100,000,000 in the lottery (not speaking from experience here). Your options are to take $50,000,000 today or $5,000,000 per year for 20 years. Leaving taxes out of the discussion, you look at the two options and choose the one-time large payout today.

A few years later, you've spent it all and now want to switch to the annual payments so that there's always another big check right around the corner.

Sorry--you made your decision and, whether right or wrong, that's the deal you made. "But I have to eat, too!" is irrelevant.

Notability did this and I'm sure they were quite pleased with the "millions of users" who purchased their app. The deal wasn't for 1 year or 20 years, but for a lifetime. They got the benefits of the large payout and did what they could with it.

Now, whether you used it every day or occasionally and whether you think that $9 for a lifetime is a bargain or a ripoff, the fact is, those were the terms. What you do moving forward with new customers is up to you. You still have to (should) honor the existing agreements.

People here are not necessarily mad that it's yet another subscription but rather many of us purchased it BECAUSE it wasn't a subscription. Again, whether this was last week or a decade ago is irrelevant.

 

[Bob Sanders]

I'm surprised - most apps charge $30-40/year (think Ulysses) - I thought $11.99/year ($14.99/year for new users) was fairly reasonable for something I use daily but I had people screaming at me on reddit for just mentioning that.

You're not crazy. I would argue that a subscription model is better for heavy users of an app because it disincentivizes the developer from abandoning or killing a niche app that you love.

The weakness of a subscription model is that it's terrible for users that only want to use an app occasionally. Those are the apps that I never use again when they go subscription. Notability will never acquire casual users again.

 

[BigMcGuire]

Oh….Ulysses! Ah…I moved away from that precisely because of the subscription model. It helped solidify for me that I should just stick with Scrivener which I did and still use it.

Agreed. I moved to Notebooks by Alfons Schmid for my typed note taking / work logs. Been using that for awhile now.

Notebooks for Mac • Notebooks

Notebooks for Mac is a writing app, a text and markdown editor, a file organizer, a task manager, an eBook creator and more.

www.notebooksapp.com

 

[Born Again]

While it's of course sad for any user, I'm really hard sympathizing with a comment like this:

So he's been using the app for 6 years after paying 9 bucks and some more for the macOS app. And it's supported him through three degrees. And how he's upset the company who's obviously provided a great product want a stable financial model to help them keep providing a good app. Do they all think these companies can really survive for almost a decade on a $9 purchase and free upgrades after that.
The grandfathering is that they don't have to pay for the first year. I guess you can argue that's not enough, maybe add more time. But still...

Thank you.

I paid for notability but I’m okay with a subscription model. I got my money’s worth.

If we want them to stick around we need to pay into this .

 

[Grohowiak]

Interesting take. ?
Let me rewrite that a bit and see if you still see it the same way.

"So he's been using the vehicle for 6 years after paying 20,000 bucks and some more for the accessories. And it's supported him through three degrees, 5 jobs, 2 marriages, and 3 kids. And how he's upset the company who's obviously provided a great product want a stable financial model to help them keep providing a good vehicle. Do they all think these companies can really survive for almost a decade on a $20,000 purchase and free warranty after that.
The grandfathering is that they don't have to pay for the first year. I guess you can argue that's not enough, maybe add more time. But still..."

Here is the thing, the user had paid up front for the product, and the product maker decided to take away whatever the user paid for.

What's scary is that you have to dumb it down like this.

 

[PlayUltimate]

This is why I use Apple notes. I’m a notes freak and it does everything I need very well.

Ditto. Used Awesome Note for years which synced with Evernote. Was gifted a RocketBook and then bought a paid subscription to Evernote. Abandoned the RocketBook and moved to an iPad Pro with Pencil and migrated all of my notes to Apple Notes.
Timing of this is interesting because I was thinking of moving my notes to Notability since is had purchased the Desk and iOS versions; just never really used them. With over 4000 notes in Apple Notes, I'm glad I didn't start the migration.

 

[gregmancuso]

When someone brings up bad subscriptions, I point to Smile Software. I pay their subscription because they told me that I would be getting regular updates to my iOS Textexpander with the subscription model instead of those big updates once a year. I paid because I need this functionality in iOS.

It has now been over a year since the last update to TextExpander for iOS, despite bugs and a flaky keyboard. They are literally stealing from me. They can do this because iOS is locked down and there are no alternatives, unlike the Mac where they can be easily replaced with aText, Keyboard Maestro, or Alfred. and Typinator.

Is it really that iOS is "locked down?" Or is it rather the makers of aText, Keyboard Maestro, or Alfred and Typinator have not deemed iOS to be a platform for which they wish to support, for any reason?

 

[PlayUltimate]

In the long run something will have to change in how developers get compensated. Compared to pre-smartphone times, everyone uses many more different softwares/apps on average in daily life, and they are becoming ever more cloud-based. The developers need to maintain the respective infrastructure and thus need continuous income per app, but people do not want to have 47 mini-subscriptions leeching on them, so they become very selective, get annoyed all the time and jump ship easily. Maybe Apple could offer some kind of app subscription packages, $20/month for ten apps of your choice? Just throwing out example numbers. Developers would have to opt-in their app to the program, and they would get a share of the subscription fees. Could that work?

there is this: https://setapp.com/apps

 

[Bob Sanders]

You win $100,000,000 in the lottery (not speaking from experience here). Your options are to take $50,000,000 today or $5,000,000 per year for 20 years. Leaving taxes out of the discussion, you look at the two options and choose the one-time large payout today.

Notability did this and I'm sure they were quite pleased with the "millions of users" who purchased their app. The deal wasn't for 1 year or 20 years, but for a lifetime. They got the benefits of the large payout and did what they could with it.

Now, whether you used it every day or occasionally and whether you think that $9 for a lifetime is a bargain or a ripoff, the fact is, those were the terms. What you do moving forward with new customers is up to you. You still have to (should) honor the existing agreements.

People here are not necessarily that it's yet another subscription but rather many of us purchased it BECAUSE it wasn't a subscription. Again, whether this was last week or a decade ago is irrelevant.

Incorrect. Notability didn't ever make that choice because subscriptions weren't available for productivity apps in the App Store when Notability was released.

Feel free to make valid criticisms of how they have handle this change, because there are valid criticisms. Don't make posts based on factually incorrect premises.