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

Saladin12 said:
This! I didn’t even know a lifetime subscription was a thing. That proves that Notability did have an alternative that wouldn’t have punished existing users but chose not to utilise it.
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Yes, they could have provided existing users with a lifetime subscription. But as far as I know Notability is only available for Apple products... that might have played a part in the decision. We all know Apple users are more willing to pay for apps, however that doesn't make it right.

I honestly don't think they should have a provided a lifetime subscription model... as @Abazigal mention they used the app for about a decade, while only paying 10 bucks for the app. And with the added features during that time period... that was a crazy good deal. I mean, sometimes we have to look at it from a different perspective.

I actually prefer Notability developers to freeze the app and allow the upgraded version with iCloud sync to entice customers to switch. They shouldn't strip the app completely, but features that require maintenance needs to be applied for the upgraded version only.
 
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I’ve used Notability for nearly 7 years for everything from personal notes to creating solutions as a TA, all from that $2.99 sale purchase.

I will happily pay a reasonable price to continue using a tool I rely on. That gives me some confidence that they’ll stay around. For me, I don’t mind subscriptions for either a media application or a frequently used productivity app.

I do mind EVERYTHING going subscription - especially those tools you use maybe 3 or 4 times a year.
 
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It might be a PR stunt. Negative attention is better than no attention. Then they can magically do “the right thing” and be praised for it.

Just a guess
 
Why not grandfather in full pay purchasers and launch a subscription model for new customers? All of this could have been avoided.
 
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Subscription is the worse thing to happen, what happens when the company go off the radar and the app stops working and renders all your files useless?

I’d rather pay for software I know that will have its features enabled forever! If all software goes this way the MacBook Pro will turn into a £3000 endless money purge reliant on every app to have an annual charge!

That combined with cloud to access your files will be a bad deal, I’d rather own my files and software!
 
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if it is refunding payments to the purchasers, let switch to the annual payment system. REFUND
 
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.
 
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I’m done with it. Already moving things to Apple notes. Its not as feature rich but gets the job done.
 
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4743913 said:
It has now been over a year since the last update to TextExpander for iOS. 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.
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Not sure about iOS replacements, but the best Mac replacement is Typinator.
 
scotty321 said:
I love how these people think that developers work for them for free. ?‍♂️?‍♂️
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Not at all I’ll gladly pay for a updated version when I am in the need for new features!

But to charge me every year otherwise my whole app is disabled that don’t sit well with me!
 
merrilyaberry said:
Agree, however it was the company’s decision to charge a one-off fee and their choice to ‘survive’ through those funds. They should no way be leaning on existing consumers and expecting them to sign up to the subscription after a year as it is not what the consumer initially agreed to at the time of purchase.
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The alternative would have been that they just abandoned the current app, and create a new one. Maybe a fairer option.
 
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LarrySW said:
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.
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Not to defend the practice, but while very far from perfect, they did grandfather in much of the functionality. As someone that entered tracking details manually and didn't use the JuneCloud service that allowed emailing tracking notices to add the details, I wasn't impacted at all by the transition. Totally understand that other people were unfortunately and its a shame they didn't grandfather the full feature set.

Not ideal by any means, but I don't think they're the worst offenders, at least if the JuneCloud function wasn't pivotal to your workflow which it wasn't for everyone.



scotty321 said:
I love how these people think that developers work for them for free. ?‍♂️

And they still get an entire year to use the app that they paid for.
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People paid the price the Developer set but for a perpetual unlock. No ones asking for it to be free.
 
TheOldChevy said:
Yes, nevertheless the initial buy is a contract and you should not break it. Just let the app live (and die) while you create a new one with a new business model, but you cannot kill it (unless it was indicated differently in the initial contract). Now, I agree that the initial price did not pay for the living of a developer, but that's another story, nobody forced him to sell at that price.
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The problem with how the App Store works is that it's difficult to offer any form of grandfathering for that. If they create a new app the old users couldn't get a year for free, at least in an easy way.
 
After getting frustrated with OneNote, Evernote, and Day One, I switched to Joplin. Open source, private, free, and surprisingly easy to use, I haven’t looked back. It might be a good option for Notability refugees.
 
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Nothing new here, I don’t know why apple allow this!! I’m stuck with 1Password and weather pro , both changed to subscription even though what I bought was a full app. They took away functionality so I had to pay more! It’s a violation of terms!! Apple don’t care, they make more money that way!
 
scotty321 said:
I love how these people think that developers work for them for free. ?‍♂️ And they still get an entire year to use the app that they paid for.
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There are a lot of entitled people, but there is also a lot of small print legal gobbledygook. I think that it should be a requirement that the main points of what you get for your money-and how long you will get them, needs to be easy to find and understand with whatever time limits explicitly shown.

Right now most people are really renting a lot of the software and content that they use, even if they don’t know it. “Buy” a song or a movie or a book and it’s not guaranteed to be yours forever, there are a number of reasons why you can lose access to any data or program, most of them having nothing to do with the end user doing something wrong. The company providing you with access can lose THEIR right to distribute, for example.
 
When I bought my iPad Pro 12.9, I purchased 7-8 handwriting apps, including Notability. Have used either this or Goodnotes exclusively since December, 2018. I have no paper or oens/pencils in my house. A couple of times I’ve had to sign legal documents so I had to have them emailed to me as PDF’s.

Never purchased any add ons, although I’ve been beta testing Notability for quite a while. I suspect I can continue using the feature set I am currently w/o having to subscribe.

The issue that bothers me is the limited number of edits per month. The editing allowance. That kills it for me. Sad b/c I’ve really enjoyed using Notability for 3 years.

Switching to Goodnotes is easy as I’ve already got it installed.

I can understand why they are doing this (money). I just don’t support it.

And failing Goodnotes I’ve still got several other note apps.
’
Tom
(disappointed, not surprised)
 
I think I wouldn't have as much of a problem with this except that it is a pain in the ass to downgrade your app. So, if you went to 11.0.0 because you have "keep apps up to date" checked or to fix a security bug in 10.x.x, then you suddenly lose features. It would be different if I could explicitly downgrade or update to 10.last.version instead of whatever the app store tosses at me.

The power user might know how to backup to iTunes and restore the app - outside of that, most people are now stuck with something they might not want.
 
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