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I always knew this day would come. I purchase this app when I got my first iPad in 2012, and since then, have been using it for work (as a teacher) every single day. $9-10, over a decade, that's barely a dollar a year. Crazy value, and it was also clear that this model would not be sustainable for the developer ultimately.

As with any paid app, the question at the back of your head ought to be - what happens if it every goes subscription-based some day. Do I stick around, or if not, what's my plan B with regards to not only alternatives but also any data residing in the app.

That said, whether this move contravenes any App Store rule or not, I literally couldn't care less. I am sticking around, I am happy to continue paying if it means the developer continues to support Notability for a good many years to come and well, I guess that makes 18? subscriptions for me right now?
18 subs?? Holy cow! Please post some of your subs and I'm sure some of the peeps here would offer some non-sub alternatives. However, as I'm finding, most apps that should cost $10 for what they do, often charge $30/year. I just don't get it.
 
I dislike subscriptions as much as the next guy, but I can see why the developers need to have a source of income to keep up development. I personally prefer the system used in apps like Agenda where you only (voluntarily) pay for new features as they are released and get to keep any feature you've previously bought indefinitely.
Or simply develop a new version of the software with new features/UI like it was always the case before?
 
subscription model is every where and it's getting annoying, they start like less than a cup of coffee per day and with 50+ the bill grow up fast. I'm sticking with Apple and Microsoft subscription as those are most common use for the rest (i.e 3rd party developer) to garbage bin (and no thrust where they store data and how they use it)

I rather buy the software and use it, a fews year go they invent maintenance fees on the software which is a form of subscription, now the hot trend is subscription
 
Yes, I agree they need to change their model. But they need to live with that they created. I would have no problem with them telling users you can use our "classic" version, but on X date, no further features/fixes will be added, and it will work with the next version of Mac OS.. until it doesn't. At that time, they can say "come and check out our new app, with all these new features, for a low monthly price of..." I would have no problems with that. But they chose an unsustainable business model way back when and they are making matters worse by alienating their customers. Are customers happy to pay once for something useful and have it for life? Hell yes!!! Who wants to pay more than they need to for anything? If you could walk into a SuperMarket and they wouldn't care if you paid or didn't pay... my guess is most people don't pay and then they go out of business. So you need another approach.
The main difference here compared to physical objects is that app services often require some backend to keep running that the developers have to pay for. The honorable way would indeed to do what you say, or to have some form of legacy tier like Carrot Weather does.
 
another reason to trash notability (i bough it without any add on and hardly use it), there is too many note taking apps, MS Onenote is not perfect but i do the job and good values as family subscription as in include un bunch of perk, compare to this notability is way more expensive
 
Or simply develop a new version of the software with new features/UI like it was always the case before?
How did Microsoft survive for all these years?? LOL I think Apple wanted to keep customers happy early on and have people pay once for an app. This way people would buy more and more apps. Lifetime updates. With subs, that's changed a bit, but a new problem now presents itself. But software has *version numbers* for a reason. Go back to old school rules... a minor dot version, free upgrade. A major new version, pay IF YOU WANT, or keep using the old app. Now, we can talk about how long a developer has to maintain an outdated app so it doesn't break on day 1 after an OS update, etc.. but at least that's a better discussion. If devs get greedy and they add a new "skin" and say this is a major upgrade.. customers will move on. It's literally how the free-market (no pun intended) works. But you can't change the rules (contract) post-sale.
 
It's one of my favorite apps and have been using it since undergrad in 2016. It's my lifeline in medical school. I am a second year student so in the worst of didactics (52 credit hours this semester alone ?‍?) and use Notability hours a day. At least nothing changes for me until next November, and as useful as the app is, I'll likely pay the subscription until I'm finished with med school-2024. Can't imagine I'll need that level of note taking as a resident, so will probably switch to the Notes app for any note taking needs from then on.
 
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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...

Yep. Sounds like a crap job to be a developer. Apple raises prices and people line up and say take my money. lol. Let a dev do this and it’s outrageous.
 
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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 $9 purchase and free upgrades after that.
The grandfathering is that they don't have to pay for the first year. I guess you can argue that's not enough, maybe add more time. But still...
I bought a subscription-free app having in mind that I would never have to put more than 10$ on it, otherwise, I wouldn't have bought it and kept using the default note-taking app

Imagine you buy a car and after 10 years the company comes to you and say "Sorry man, you used the car for too long, we need to make money so now it's a leasing"
They could have easily produced new versions rather than free updates like a lot of apps do
 
18 subs?? Holy cow! Please post some of your subs and I'm sure some of the peeps here would offer some non-sub alternatives. However, as I'm finding, most apps that should cost $10 for what they do, often charge $30/year. I just don't get it.
Currently tracking them via the Bobby app, and I am not including stuff like my annual insurance or monthly internet bills.

  1. Apple One
  2. Netflix
  3. Youtube Premium (mainly for ad blocking)
  4. HBO Go (trying out for 3 months)
  5. CuriosityStream + Nebula <- will probably let this one go, too much content and too little time
  6. Fantastical
  7. Overcast (more to support the dev than anything else, but I have been going back and forth between this and the stock podcasts app of late)
  8. Disney+
  9. Tweetbot
  10. Attendent (some zoom companion app which I will likely let lapse)
  11. Paste (currently on the fence on this, with copied not being actively developed anymore)
  12. Infuse
  13. Have a free year of notability, so subscription effectively starts next year, but I am staying. 10 years with the app has give me a ton of value many times over, and this is an opportunity for me to show my support to the dev, as I earlier mentioned.
Beyond the App Store, also subscribed to Macstories, Stratechery, Abovevalon (these are more newsletter / podcast type material), Office, Dropbox. ?

The minor ones like paste go for like $1 a month, so it's not really going to have any significant impact on my expenses. So yeah, that's that. ?
 
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...
I agree. I paid $10 for the app in 2016, and $3 for the macOS app, and honestly, I'm not that upset about the recent changes. The app is still worth $15/year for the kind of usage I require. It's a phenomenal app.
 
I bought my house. I've been living in it for 6 years.

But now the bank says I will have to pay rent every year. The good news? I get to live in my house for the first year, rent-free.

That's not a very good analogy. Think of it more like a club where you originaly had perpetual membership but where the terms have now changed. You never had anything physical to begin with. Like it or not, that's the reality of digital services.
 
This is unacceptable, why would they want to risk losing their customers. Maybe they weren’t getting enough people to buy the app.

Reminds me of Day One, I was so disappointed. Instant delete for me, luckily I don’t have many notes.
Day One Classic didn't stop working when they went to subscription, so you were free to keep using what you'd paid for for as long as you wanted. But if you did decide to upgrade, they also gave you a sizable discount on the subscription price in perpetuity.

Comparing that to what Notability is doing is totally unfair and inaccurate.
 
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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...
One year is definitely not enough. Nor is two, or ten, or fifty, or one hundred. The user you quoted paid to receive permanent access to those features which are now being taken from them. That’s called bait and switch. It’s not only against AppStore policies it’s also possibly illegal.

If the current model is not viable for the developer then they need to change it moving forward, not take away what has already been paid for, no matter how bad a deal it was for the developers/good a deal for the customers.

So it doesn’t matter if OP paid $1 or $1000 for the app. It doesn’t matter if he used it for 1 year or 10 years. They offered something for sale, he bought it. Taking what he bought away is wrong. Period.
 
That's not a very good analogy. Think of it more like a club where you originaly had perpetual membership but where the terms have now changed. You never had anything physical to begin with. Like it or not, that's the reality of digital services.
That would still be illegal, it's clearly a false advertisement in the first place.
Otherwise, it would be super easy to make money claiming a lifetime streaming service for 500 bucks and close it after 1year
 
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For me, if its subscription based, I'm not buying it. I don't work anymore so my stuff is not some critical must need app. If the current ones I use become subscription only, I will find an alternative. If I can't, then so be it.
 
Yep. Sounds like a crap job to be a developer. Apple raises prices and people line up and say take my money. lol. Let a dev do this and it’s outrageous.
This notion that we should be able to buy an app in the App Store once and then keep using it -- with updates! -- forever is just totally crazy.

For instance, I bought Day One about ten years ago, and then never paid them another cent for years. I can't remember what I originally paid, but it wasn't much. Years later they moved to a subscription model and offered me, as an existing user, a discount on the subscription price for as long as I chose to keep it. I really don't understand what people expect these developers to do. How many more years of free updates did I deserve for the few measly dollars I gave them ten years ago?

The whiny entitlement is quite strong with a lot of folks -- the same ones who line up to give Apple hundreds or even thousands of dollars a year to purchase (rent, if you're on the iPhone upgrade program) shiny new devices to replace last year's shiny new devices. What kind of logic is that?
 
The Deliveries app from Junecloud did the same crap and got away with it despite many complaints, so I assume this app will as well.
Yes that wasn't cool at all. Same thing with 1Password and now Notability which I already paid for all those add-ons. I feel betrayed :(
 
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I purchased many years ago too - I like the Handwriting recognition in it. But, that is now an in-app-purchase according to the app store. I'm still at 10.4.5 on my iPad and will keep it that way. Perhaps I'll move on to something else at some point when I need to upgrade my Mac.
 
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