“In-between such big point-releases, sales will often drop to a non-sustainable level. In fact, Max Seeleman (Dev Lead on Ulysses) seemingly anticipated a reaction by publishing a lengthy explainer post on Medium. Other high-profile apps in previous months have garnered a similar response. The backlash from users probably wasn’t entirely unexpected though - the Ulysses team isn’t the only company facing this dilemma. Development Lead on Ulysses Max Seeleman visualized the unsustainable nature of the “yearly update” model for apps in his Medium post. With the race-to-the-bottom nature of App Store pricing, it’s increasingly difficult to launch a financially-successful app to the world, let alone build a sustainable business from it. Yet this is the dilemma that many app developers face today when it comes to the monetisation of their product. To say that the customer base felt burned at the switch was an understatement. The situation (and rating) has actually improved a lot since the company announced their pivot to a subscription model back in August, but at that time, the listing was seeing a carpet-bombing of 1-star reviews. If you want to see a prime example of angry customers, pay a visit to the iOS App Store and look at the reviews for writing app Ulysses.
