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Notability Users Frustrated By Switch to Subscription Model Claim Violation of App Store Guidelines
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sucks seeing how invested I am in notability.
They should release a new version and force that update if you want to update
They should release a new version and force that update if you want to update
A key feature of Notability is in it's voice-sync'd-to-notes that works amazingly well....I don't think any of the normally suggested alternatives to Notability can do that.
Even OneNote doesn't come close.
I do believe that is at least one note taking app that does it as well (but I forgot the name of it!)....would love to find out about that app so that I can move over to it.
Even OneNote doesn't come close.
I do believe that is at least one note taking app that does it as well (but I forgot the name of it!)....would love to find out about that app so that I can move over to it.
I’m a small iOS developer. I don’t make a lot of money at it, but it has gotten me by the last couple of years. It’s a paid app, but I’m probably going to have to go to a subscription model eventually. However, I’m a one man operation and I won’t be able to push out features as fast as people might want. A versioning system would allow me to introduce new features every so often yet still make money from offering those features. It works for my users who aren’t being charged once a year for an app that hasn’t seen any significant updates except bug fixes, and it takes pressure off of me to have to innovate constantly to satisfy subscribers. In other words the current system benefits the big players and companies that can afford to hire lots of developers. I get it. That’s the way of the world. But Apple could make it easier on all of us with a little more flexibility.
I worked on an app in 2009 that was pretty successful, which used a one-time purchase. After one year and 50k downloads, the publisher decided to switch to a subscription model. Much like Notability, it took away the old features for existing users in an update, but there was not even a 1-year warning, it was just an immediate next-time-you-use-the-app "now you must subscribe to continue." The subscription price per year was 4x the previous cost of the one-time purchase. WOW, did the users revolt. The rating went from 5-stars to 1-star, in a matter of days, and the comments were just brutal... "snake of an app," "dirty liars," every name in the book. Minimal uptake on the new subscription, and the whole thing basically imploded. Today the company is in bankruptcy.
I think that we can learn a few lessons from the mis-steps of these companies, both as publishers and as consumers. I don't feel it's fair to attack Notability for making decisions they deem vital to running their business. At the same time, it doesn't mean their customers will continue to be loyal to them. As a consumer, absolutely you need to respond in a way you feel is appropriate. If you want to leave them a 1-star review or report them to Apple, so be it. But they provided a service that people appreciated for some time and during that time period (plus 1 year) the users got the value they were expecting. You have to look at the company and their business model to make a good purchasing decision, and then continue to revisit your assumptions over time.
Now as a publisher, you're wise to view the situation from the point of view of the customer... with the understanding that today's customer holds a lot more power than they used to (in the form of reviews, tweets, and forums like this). So if you need to change your business model, it works a lot better when you can find a way to do right by your existing customer base, because it's a lot more expensive to find new customers than it is to keep your existing ones. I don't have any details into the inner workings of Notability, but one thing that could have happened is that they were offering a product for a one-time fee, which had an ongoing cost to them, resulting in them losing money over time on this feature. It became untenable for them to continue offering it. They probably shouldn't have offered it in this way to begin with. But it's not easy creating a product that people are willing to pay for (which is also profitable). If you think about it, as other people have mentioned, it's probably not realistic to assume they can continue running their business profitably via these one-time purchases, and that pigeon finally came home to roost.
One thing that I've been doing over time is transitioning as much of my workflow as possible into the built in Apple apps like Notes and Reminders, because I believe given their business model, stated philosophy towards users, and their track record, Apple is most trustworthy in this regard. So I don't always get every bell and whistle I'd like out of the apps, but my life is simpler and I'm less dependent on additional / smaller publishers.
In the end, the App Store is becoming a mature and vibrant consumer ecosystem, yet it's entirely novel and there's never been anything like it before. As such, there's bound to be issues that we discover over time. It's not perfect and there will be corrections. I think in the case of Notability, what they did was actually pretty fair... they gave a full 1-year warning in which the customers can make a decision, and if they choose, to migrate their data elsewhere. If it's really worth it to you, you can choose to pay for the service going forward. I would urge all Notability users to give it some time and thought before deciding, rather than making a reactive move that you may even come to regret. I'm sure their team works hard to build the product, and this wasn't an easy decision for them. You may ultimately decide that it's worth the money to continue as a customer, or you may find a different option that works better for you. Either way, there is something to be learned and gained from the situation.
I think that we can learn a few lessons from the mis-steps of these companies, both as publishers and as consumers. I don't feel it's fair to attack Notability for making decisions they deem vital to running their business. At the same time, it doesn't mean their customers will continue to be loyal to them. As a consumer, absolutely you need to respond in a way you feel is appropriate. If you want to leave them a 1-star review or report them to Apple, so be it. But they provided a service that people appreciated for some time and during that time period (plus 1 year) the users got the value they were expecting. You have to look at the company and their business model to make a good purchasing decision, and then continue to revisit your assumptions over time.
Now as a publisher, you're wise to view the situation from the point of view of the customer... with the understanding that today's customer holds a lot more power than they used to (in the form of reviews, tweets, and forums like this). So if you need to change your business model, it works a lot better when you can find a way to do right by your existing customer base, because it's a lot more expensive to find new customers than it is to keep your existing ones. I don't have any details into the inner workings of Notability, but one thing that could have happened is that they were offering a product for a one-time fee, which had an ongoing cost to them, resulting in them losing money over time on this feature. It became untenable for them to continue offering it. They probably shouldn't have offered it in this way to begin with. But it's not easy creating a product that people are willing to pay for (which is also profitable). If you think about it, as other people have mentioned, it's probably not realistic to assume they can continue running their business profitably via these one-time purchases, and that pigeon finally came home to roost.
One thing that I've been doing over time is transitioning as much of my workflow as possible into the built in Apple apps like Notes and Reminders, because I believe given their business model, stated philosophy towards users, and their track record, Apple is most trustworthy in this regard. So I don't always get every bell and whistle I'd like out of the apps, but my life is simpler and I'm less dependent on additional / smaller publishers.
In the end, the App Store is becoming a mature and vibrant consumer ecosystem, yet it's entirely novel and there's never been anything like it before. As such, there's bound to be issues that we discover over time. It's not perfect and there will be corrections. I think in the case of Notability, what they did was actually pretty fair... they gave a full 1-year warning in which the customers can make a decision, and if they choose, to migrate their data elsewhere. If it's really worth it to you, you can choose to pay for the service going forward. I would urge all Notability users to give it some time and thought before deciding, rather than making a reactive move that you may even come to regret. I'm sure their team works hard to build the product, and this wasn't an easy decision for them. You may ultimately decide that it's worth the money to continue as a customer, or you may find a different option that works better for you. Either way, there is something to be learned and gained from the situation.
I've used Notability for years and years and years - and to my memory, I've only paid for the application once on my Mac and my iPhone - my iCloud family uses it too. I bought some of their tiny little $.99 themes and a few of their planners (that I ended up never using).
I thought $11.99/year was not horrible for an app that I use every day heavily... I've got thousands of pages of notes in this application. The way the pen feels in this app works with my handwriting style vs all the others. That said, I'm not happy about a subscription but I thought the year of continued use wasn't all that bad especially considering I had only paid for this app once in the last ... I can't even remember how many years.
But WOW the reddit threads are really hitting them hard. I would have liked to think that they would have seen this coming and I do think bad on them for not grandfathering people in - I guess the line of thought is, probably not a lot of new iPad pencil users so forcing this on their current user base was probably calculated as a win despite the angry majority.
I could never get used to the pencil feel on Apple Notes / GoodNotes (requires me to change the way I handwrite). CollaNote looks like it has amazing pencil feel but the notes changing on my iPad from other users freaked me out so much I don't know if I could use that for my sensitive notes...
Getting tired of this subscription stuff - seriously considering going Apple Notes. Only way I can make it work though is the Pencil - which I wish had a much finer line.
I thought $11.99/year was not horrible for an app that I use every day heavily... I've got thousands of pages of notes in this application. The way the pen feels in this app works with my handwriting style vs all the others. That said, I'm not happy about a subscription but I thought the year of continued use wasn't all that bad especially considering I had only paid for this app once in the last ... I can't even remember how many years.
But WOW the reddit threads are really hitting them hard. I would have liked to think that they would have seen this coming and I do think bad on them for not grandfathering people in - I guess the line of thought is, probably not a lot of new iPad pencil users so forcing this on their current user base was probably calculated as a win despite the angry majority.
I could never get used to the pencil feel on Apple Notes / GoodNotes (requires me to change the way I handwrite). CollaNote looks like it has amazing pencil feel but the notes changing on my iPad from other users freaked me out so much I don't know if I could use that for my sensitive notes...
Getting tired of this subscription stuff - seriously considering going Apple Notes. Only way I can make it work though is the Pencil - which I wish had a much finer line.
Please tell me this is not true.
Notability users have been left frustrated and annoyed after the developer of the popular Mac and iOS note-taking app revealed on Monday that it has switched to a subscription-based model, and that key features included in original app purchases will stop functioning after one year.
Previously available as a one-off $8.99 purchase, Notability for iPhone, iPad, and Mac is now free to download on the App Store, but not all the features are available in the "freemium" version, and those that are included have editing limitations.
To get "the full Notability experience" offered by version 11.0 of the app now requires an annual $14.99 subscription, which includes unlimited note taking and access to additional features that are otherwise available as in-app purchases.
As far as it affects current users who purchased the full app, key features will become non-functional after one year, after which they will have to subscribe to retain the feature set they originally paid for. In other words, no grandfathering scheme is currently being offered. Addressed to those users, a Medium post from the Notability Blog explains:
Thousands of Notability users have taken to Twitter and Reddit to express their frustration with the unexpected change.
As many users have pointed out, on the face of it, the change appears to violate Apple's App Store Review Guidelines, which state "if you are changing your existing app to a subscription-based business model, you should not take away the primary functionality existing users have already paid for." We've reached out to both Notability and Apple for comment.
Notability has garnered an Apple Editors' Choice spot and is regularly a top-ranked app worldwide on the App Store. The app has gained widespread popularity with students and teachers alike, as it includes a variety of note-taking, journaling, and drawing tools, and can be used to mark up imported documents.
The other popular note-taking app for iOS and Mac that Notability is often compared to is GoodNotes, which remains available as a one-off $7.99 purchase on the App Store.
Several popular apps have switched to subscription models in recent years as a way to stave off dwindling income after years of free updates, but some developers have taken a different and less divisive approach.
For example, just over a year ago the developers of popular paid-for camera app Halide released Halide Mark II as a whole new app, and gave it to all users of the original app for free, with all the new features and updates free for a year. After the year is up, the app continues to work, but to get additional features requires an optional subscription or a one-time purchase.
Article Link: Notability Users Frustrated By Switch to Subscription Model Claim Violation of App Store Guidelines
In the past when you configured iPhone and iPad for local backups to the computer, it also backed up applications that were downloaded from App Store. Then Apple changed it so that App Store downloads were no longer backed up. So if you erase and restore an iPhone/iPad, apps are now redownloaded from the App Store. If the app is no longer on the App Store, there is basically no way to get it working again.
You have this right, and I suspect it’s because the devs might be in a creative rut as meaningful new features have been few and far between for notability. God, I remember when they really pushed the stickers as something to be excited for.
Still whatever you paid for should continue to function. So maybe that means you keep around an old app that doesn’t get new features?
This happens all the time and Apple needs to crack down on it. Another good example is the "Deliveries" app. Even noted in their changelog:
"Subscriptions: Try Deliveries for a month to see if it works for you, or subscribe yearly for a significant discount. One subscription gives you access to Deliveries on iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple Watch. If you previously purchased the app, you'll still get most features for no extra charge. Learn more at juncld.com/subs"
I paid $5 for this app only later to be charged a subscription fee for the same exact features... Clearly in direct violation of Apples rules yet nobody said a word to the developer..
9.0.1
Oct 1, 2020"Subscriptions: Try Deliveries for a month to see if it works for you, or subscribe yearly for a significant discount. One subscription gives you access to Deliveries on iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple Watch. If you previously purchased the app, you'll still get most features for no extra charge. Learn more at juncld.com/subs"
I paid $5 for this app only later to be charged a subscription fee for the same exact features... Clearly in direct violation of Apples rules yet nobody said a word to the developer..
Notability says to existing users, "You will be able to continue using Notability as you do now for the next year for free."
No, Notability, you are wrong. I will be able to continue using Notability as I do now for the next year for $8.99.
No, Notability, you are wrong. I will be able to continue using Notability as I do now for the next year for $8.99.
If you have one app that is nothing really special then you don't have a business model. It's a joke. Since when developers are a protected group?
Always remains fascinating to see how people that spend thousands of dollars on Apple stuff get totally pissed when their favourite ($8.99) App suddenly becomes a financially unacceptable burden...
It comes down to perceived value.
- Netflix, Hulu, Paramount + etc. I subscribe and unsubscribe as there are shows I want to watch. I don't like how segmented TV has become, but that's the licensing world we live in.
- Podcasts - I've listened to thousands of hours of podcasts over the last decade for free. Some of my favorite shows now offer optional support tiers and I pay it because every week I get continued value and entertainment and want to support their work.
- Ulysses, 1Password, Backblaze, Carrot, and Notability are tools that I rely on frequently or daily. I'll happily pay for continued support as long as the value I perceive continues.
- Squarespace - meh, hosting a site and owning domains costs fees.
- Pateron - eh, I really enjoy the work those people do and I can afford to support them so I do.
You bought a new TV and the following year they make it do you have to pay a yearly fee to use it.