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Popular Weather Line App Acquired By Unnamed Buyer, Service to Shut Down Next Year

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Popular iOS app Weather Line has been acquired by an unnamed buyer and removed from the App Store with immediate effect, the developers behind the weather forecaster have announced.

weather-line.jpg
Weather Line Home Screen widget​

Despite its acquisition and removal from the App Store, anyone who has previously downloaded the app can still use it until the service is shut down in April 2022, while users of the premium paid-for service will also have their subscriptions extended until then for free. From the Weather Line blog:
In recent months, we were approached by a buyer. They saw the uniqueness of Weather Line and the strong foundation we've built. While we aren't able to provide further details on their future plans for the app, we hope you can understand, and will look forward to it.

The acquisition means the app is going away. Today, we removed Weather Line from the App Store. For all existing Weather Line users, free and paid, the app will continue working for 13 months, until April 1, 2022.
Click to expand...
The developers went on to emphasize that no personal user data, such as email addresses and payment information, was included in the acquisition deal, and there are no circumstances in which anyone will be billed again by the app.

Weather Line's smart infographic-focused design, streamlined forecast interface, and Home Screen widgets proved a hit with iOS users, so it will be interesting to see what comes of it in future.

Dark Sky, another popular third-party weather app, was acquired by Apple last year, but there's currently no suggestion that Apple is behind the Weather Line buyout.

Article Link: Popular Weather Line App Acquired By Unnamed Buyer, Service to Shut Down Next Year
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2021/03/02/weather-line-ios-app-acquired/
Sad, but also, happy for the indie devs involved.

Not really sure what the deal is here, though. The devs don’t join the new team, the app is discontinued, user data isn’t sold… what exactly did they buy, other than having one less competitor?
 
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chucker23n1 said:
Sad, but also, happy for the indie devs involved.

Not really sure what the deal is here, though. The devs don’t join the new team, the app is discontinued, user data isn’t sold… what exactly did they buy, other than having one less competitor?
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Nowhere does it say the devs won't join the new team. Weather apps don't really have a lot of user data anyways. Their value is mostly in their prediction algorithm and data visualization methods. Either that or someone bought them out to kill off competition.
 
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szw-mapple fan said:
Nowhere does it say the devs won't join the new team.
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https://twitter.com/x/status/1366484878527782930

“For those asking – we will not be joining the purchasing company.”

szw-mapple fan said:
Weather apps don't really have a lot of user data anyways.
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They do especially if they’re “free”. It’s a good mine for location data.

Not saying Weather Line in particular does this, but many weather apps absolutely do.
szw-mapple fan said:
Their value is mostly in their prediction algorithm and data visualization methods.
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The app doesn’t do prediction. It uses Dark Sky and other sources.

Visualization, yes, but I’m unconvinced that’s valuable enough to purchase the app.
szw-mapple fan said:
Either that or someone bought them out to kill off competition.
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Yup.
 
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Well this is a bummer -- I use this app multiple times a day and pay for the premium subscription. Definitely my favorite presentation of hourly and daily weather data, out of any app or site, ever.

I sure hope it was Apple who made the purchase, and plans to incorporate the design with the back-end they got from Dark Sky. That would be cool.
 
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Pangalactic said:
Serious question, why are there so many weather apps if they all do the same thing from (likely) the same sources?
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A lot has to do with the presentation of the data. Personally I liked Weather Line‘s UI the best. At the time it was unique and something with it just clicked with me. I even bought the lifetime license when it became available to support the developers, and to give a FU to the subscription model all developers now want to go to.

I guess suckers, I mean people like me will have to wait and see what happens next.
 
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Nicky G said:
Well this is a bummer -- I use this app multiple times a day and pay for the premium subscription. Definitely my favorite presentation of hourly and daily weather data, out of any app or site, ever.

I sure hope it was Apple who made the purchase, and plans to incorporate the design with the back-end they got from Dark Sky. That would be cool.
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Couldn't agree more. I absolutely love this app. I tried many different weather apps and for me personally no other app comes even close to "Weather Line", especially with the design.
 
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and 1989 others said:
Can anybody explain why some people are obsessed with weather apps?
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Maybe you live in a place with consistent or predictable weather. A lot of us don’t. I cycle 35 mins to work along the coast. Wind, rain, and temperature all impact my commute. It can thunderstorm in the morning commute, and be 30 degrees in my evening commute. I have to plan accordingly
 
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and 1989 others said:
Can anybody explain why some people are obsessed with weather apps?
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So I can plan my outdoor activities with some granularity as to day and hour and which ones are most appropriate. I have three weather apps used several times a day. Even wind speed and direction for cycling, and explaining unexpected peaks and dips in hybrid car trips. Sorry I missed this one, would have taken a look if I had known about it.
 
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Why I can see this as “our turn, Apple”, when Apple removed a well loved app from the Play Store?
 
Nooooooo :(. I just bought the yearly subscription. Meh. It has such a great widget and overall design.
 
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In the absence of WeatherLine you guys should check out my app, WeatherGraph. There are some similarities but we use a completely different data source (National Weather Service, which means it's only available in the US but imo a lot more accurate than most weather apps out there). Also, no subscriptions!

apps.apple.com

‎WeatherGraph: Visual Forecasts

‎WeatherGraph is a simple but powerful weather app for iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch which displays weather forecasts in the United States from the National Weather Service (NWS) in an easy to read graphical format. WeatherGraph uses the highest quality weather data available - the same...
apps.apple.com apps.apple.com
 
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