“Until now, subscription pricing was reserved for apps that served media content: streaming audio and video, news, etc. Apple is now opening it to any app, which effectively solves the problems of recurring revenue and free trials,” John Gruber writes for Daring Fireball. “Even better, Apple is changing the revenue split for all subscriptions: for the first year of any subscription, the revenue split remains 70/30; after the first year, the revenue split changes to 85/15.”
“This change is effective starting this Monday — any app that already has subscribers will start splitting revenue with Apple 85/15 on subscriptions that are at least a year old,” Gruber writes. “This dramatically changes the economics of the App Store… This could be the change that makes the market for professional-caliber iPad apps possible.”
Other changes:
• There are now more than 200 price points available to subscription-based apps.
• Apps can now change subscription prices easily. This was a huge pain the ass previously. When an app changes subscription pricing, existing subscribers will be notified automatically and given the option to agree to the new pricing or unsubscribe.
• Subscription-based apps can now offer multiple tiers. Think bronze/silver/gold. Again, previously, Apple’s app subscription APIs made this difficult if not impossible. Now, it should be easy. And it should be easy for users to change tiers on the fly.
• Territory-based pricing is now possible. Developers can use this to charge lower prices in countries like China and India. This was not possible before.
• Most subscription-based apps use either monthly or annual renewal intervals. But apps have the option of renewing every two months, three months, or six months as well.
Gruber writes, “I think all serious productivity apps in the App Store should and will switch to subscription pricing.”
Tons more in the full article – highly recommended – here.
MacDailyNews Take: The ability for any app to offer subscriptions, along with multiple tiers of subscriptions, in a massive game-changer and a giant step forward for the iOS/watchOS/tvOS platform.