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Collectorz' bold new subscription-based update plans - brilliant? or suicidal?

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40hz:
^What's the alternative then for the developers?

Apple seems to think it should be pay once, use forever - or buy it all over. Their app store has no provision for upgrade pricing. It's either list, universal discount, or free.

I have no objrction to what pricing model a software developer uses. As long as it's rational, consistent, and (by my own assessment) fair to all parties involved.

Too many small and indy developers put themselves out of business by selling for too little that something new needs to be tried from time. The alternative is endless cycles of feature bloat to justify a more expensive upgrade every few years. I'd rather pay smaller amounts on a periodic basis in order to be sure of ongoing QC and prompt bug fixes.

But to each their own. :)

Renegade:
Their subscription plan doesn't tie you in in any way. As 40 mentioned, the programs run even if you're not subscribed. You can actually use the new plan like a tradition one-time purchase option, all you need to do is opt out of the plan after the purchase is made. The update model is way more flexible - it ends up being cheaper if you don't want every new feature the minute it's released and lets users with a smaller budget catch up to the latest versions for a nominal charge, if and when they find it worthwhile. I honestly don't see any pitfalls - which is why I posted about this here, to see if there's something I missed. :)
-nosh (October 24, 2013, 06:21 AM)
--- End quote ---

Reading again - I'd misunderstood what was going on there.

It's a bit of an odd way to do things, but it seems more than reasonable. The ability to update for $2.50? Pretty darn good. I wonder how it will work out for him. From a customer perspective, it makes sense to only pay for the month that you update in, and only do that once in a while when you need to. It almost seems like he's shooting himself in the foot.

40hz:
^Exactly so. He should make it either or: low monthly subscription fee|pay significantly more for single upgrade

nosh:
It almost seems like he's shooting himself in the foot.
-Renegade (October 24, 2013, 08:34 AM)
--- End quote ---

What I thought too - and that's not considering coping with the backlash, clearing all the confusion and having some long term customers leave screaming, vowing never to return again. But Alwin says he's happy with the situation after considering the overall online feedback and _sales_. So if this works out from their perspective it's a pretty decent payment model for everyone concerned.

superboyac:
This has a couple of interesting points for me.  First, this is one of the first softwares I ever purchased well over a decade ago.

But what's interesting is that collectorz hasn't been active, like, at all for the past several years.  So there's a catch 22...i heard it wasn't active because it wasn't bringing in enough business.  But what has changed?  Just that the owner decided to use a subscription model?  That's what's weird.  After so little activity, he's going to try to reinvigorate the market with this.  OK, we'll see.  I just feel it's a bit of a dying market.  But the software was really great, I thought, I'm still a big fan.

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