I’ve long been against the rising trend towards subscription pricing. However, I’ve also always said that there is one area where they make sense. And Apple hit a home run in the case of their new iPad Pro apps.
The one situation where subscriptions make sense is when you are dealing with relatively expensive software that many people can’t afford to buy. The Final Cut Pro video editing software just introduced as coming to the iPad Pro on May 23rd fits that bill nicely. It used to cost over $300 to purchase that software outright for your Mac.
If you’re a teenager working a part-time job while pursuing YouTube stardom that price tag might’ve been a real downer. But $5 per month? That’s smack dab right in impulse purchase territory. Even those Taco Bell paychecks could cover that level of monthly commitment. The yearly commitment of $60 is still well below the full price of $300+.
The subscriptions that everyone loves to hate are the ones where the yearly commitment is well above the old outright purchase price. Like a weather app that used to cost $5 is now $2 per month. So the app essentially goes from $5 to $12 per year. People know a huge price increase when they see one. These are the developers that give the whole paradigm a bad name.
If you’ve been reading my blog for many years you could be forgiven for thinking that I’m simply against subscription pricing. But I’m not. They make sense in a particular situation. And Apple just hit that nail squarely on the head by making Final Cut Pro attainable to many people who maybe couldn’t afford it before. That’s a job well done.
If you’re a teenager working a part-time job while pursuing YouTube stardom that price tag might’ve been a real downer. But $5 per month? That’s smack dab right in impulse purchase territory. Even those Taco Bell paychecks could cover that level of monthly commitment. The yearly commitment of $60 is still well below the full price of $300+.
The subscriptions that everyone loves to hate are the ones where the yearly commitment is well above the old outright purchase price. Like a weather app that used to cost $5 is now $2 per month. So the app essentially goes from $5 to $12 per year. People know a huge price increase when they see one. These are the developers that give the whole paradigm a bad name.
If you’ve been reading my blog for many years you could be forgiven for thinking that I’m simply against subscription pricing. But I’m not. They make sense in a particular situation. And Apple just hit that nail squarely on the head by making Final Cut Pro attainable to many people who maybe couldn’t afford it before. That’s a job well done.
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