Michal Marek When introducing the iPad Pro, Apple made it quite clear that the company relies on developers who will only show with their applications how much potential is hidden in the new professional tablet. iPad Pro has a beautiful large display and unprecedented computing and graphics performance. But that is not enough. In order for an Apple tablet to replace a desktop computer in the work of professionals of all kinds, it will have to come with applications that match the capabilities of desktop ones. But as the developers point out which interviewed magazine The Verge, that can be a big problem. Paradoxically, the creation of such applications is prevented by Apple itself and its policy regarding the App Store.
Developers talk about two key problems, due to which truly professional software is unlikely to enter the App Store. The first of them is the absence of demo versions. Creating professional software is expensive, so developers must be paid accordingly for their applications. But the App Store doesn't allow people to try the application before buying it, and developers can't afford to offer software for tens of euros. People will not pay such an amount blindly.
"Sketch it's $99 on Mac, and we wouldn't dare ask someone to pay $99 without looking at it and trying it," says Pieter Omvlee, co-founder of Bohemian Coding, the studio behind the app for professional graphic designers. "In order to sell Sketch through the App Store, we would have to drop the price dramatically, but since it's a niche app, we wouldn't sell enough volume to make a profit."
The second problem with the App Store is that it does not allow developers to sell paid updates. Professional software is usually developed over a long period of time, it is regularly improved, and in order for something like this to be possible, it has to pay off financially for the developers.
"Maintaining software quality is more expensive than creating it," says FiftyThree co-founder and CEO Georg Petschnigg. "Three people worked on the first version of Paper. Now there are 25 people working on the app, testing it on eight or nine platforms and in thirteen different languages.”
Developers say software giants like Microsoft and Adobe have a chance to convince their customers to pay regular subscriptions for their services. But something like this cannot work for a wide variety of applications. People will hardly be willing to pay several different monthly subscriptions and send money to a number of different developers each month.
For that reason, a certain reluctance of developers to adapt already existing iOS applications to the larger iPad Pro can be seen. They first want to see if the new tablet will be popular enough to make it worthwhile.
So if Apple doesn't change the concept of the App Store, the iPad Pro may have a big problem. Developers are entrepreneurs like everyone else and will only do what is financially rewarding for them. And since creating professional software for the iPad Pro with the current App Store setup probably won't bring them a profit, they won't create it. As a result, the problem is relatively simple and probably only Apple engineers can change it.
Well, the mac app store has been here for a few years and there are still no demos and no paid updates either.
Is this now a general campaign against AppStore and MacAppStore?
It seems to me? or it's just bullshit and the background is just a desire to make more money with a guarantee of not making a profit.
I think if the developers want to, they will just make a demo version. There are a ton of apps in the light version, and if you want more, pay for the pro version.
True, having a limited time to uninstall the app and not having to pay for it would not be thrown away, but neither the developers nor Apple probably want that, because IMHO their profits would fall in half.
Paid updates? What is this nonsense? Would developers want to take users hostage? What would that mean? that when they release an update that they want to pay for, it's like the old one stops working because it has to be updated?
I think the current model is perfectly fine and I hope Apple doesn't give in to these cravings. Many times in the past, developers have released a new version of their app as a new app No. 2 for other money, why can't the old one still be available?
The claim that they want to wait until the new iPadpro is popular is also wrong in my opinion. If no one makes a proper application for it, then the market will simply not be created and there will be nothing to wait for. But those who realize how stupid it is will get into it right away (if they haven't already) and will only have an edge over the competition. I think it has been proven enough in the past that falling asleep in this field does not pay badly.
Just excuses and distortions.
It can be seen that you absolutely do not know which one is running... Once you use something more than a browser on your PC, you may find that this is completely normal with professional software. So it's pretty stupid to talk about lite versions, the only thing is that they would be limited in time, but not functionally... And for paid updates - again, a completely normal thing for most professional software - see, for example, all the applications from Adobe before they switched to subscriptions, or they it's still relevant at autodesk, maxon and hundreds of other companies...
It could certainly be solved, but why bother with it when apple could do it itself...
Of course, paid updates are standard on PCs, but you can still use the old version. See tons of people using CS6, 5 and some 4... (Because subscriptions are absolute crap imho!!)
Here, in my opinion, is an obvious attempt to remake the set system in the AppStore and instead of looking for a solution, throw a monkey at Apple. I just hope Apple doesn't give in to these pressures.
I consider both arguments to be excuses. Demo versions in the App store would probably be nice for developers. On the other hand, is it such a problem to use "in-app purchase" to unlock the functionality of the full version? Alternatively, release a new version of the application and with it the possibility (again using in-app purchase) to unlock new functions/content. There are many applications that use this model successfully.
On the contrary, the App store or in general the model of a central source of software is, in my opinion, much more friendly for users who do not have to remember what, where, when they bought and where to download it again after a year.
Well, I'm a little worried about something else - in general, where the world is going:
– Unlike OSX, iOS is still a closed toy
– Terminal, installation of any SW, web servers, database servers, scripting in Python, node.js, ruhy, PHP, (generally multi-platform development)…
– More advanced users can enjoy all of this
– So it can easily happen that the overgrown world of middle management and business, who can get by with e-mail, a browser, some kind of organizer and office, will make Apple much bigger deals with iPday than us advanced/professional users with desktops and laptops
– And then Apple calculates that laptops and computers are no longer worth it and simply throws us out
– See for example the unforgettable MacBook 17"
– Sorry, I haven't bitten this girdle yet (I mean replace the display size with the pixel density)
– So I just hope it won't be soon :)))
eeee…..noooooooo, so this is all just bullshit. I exchanged the unforgettable 17″ supernotebook for a 13″ Retina right after I was unable to move without the help of doctors due to dragging a heavy bag. Does anyone really need an iOS web server, php and other nonsense that hundreds of millions of backbone servers offer? And I hope apple will do what it pays to do = what customers buy. If they're not buying it, it's probably not good enough.