"Single payments have much to irk you as a businessman four years from now."
I'm planning to sell a desktop application and accept single payments... and that works for other companies like TechSmith.
Passive income is a wonderful thing, and subscription models lend themselves very well to this.
If your app doesn't lend itself to a subscription model, are you able at least to charge for an annual support contract?
I am the type of user who is willing to pay $10 a year and gamble on something as I have only lost $10 - I can then forget about it if it does not work out. However a monthly fee I found off putting - the thought of money coming out of my account each month until I cancel (which I would probably be too lazy to do) puts me off. That's why I think app's work so well for Apple. I pay a one off fee and I forget about it.
This is trickier than it sounds. Don't assume that your target users are like you (unless that's the niche you've decided to target.)
That's why I think app's work so well for Apple. I pay a one off fee and I forget about it.
Apps work great for Apple, but lousy for the app developers. Apple makes some nice vigorish on every transaction, but it's a very small minority of apps that actually bring in enough revenue to support a business.
Without knowing your app's "value proposition" or what kind of niche you are targeting it is difficult to give more specific advice.
I think you've answered your own question here. Recurring monthly subscription models work so well precisely because we're passive by nature. You'll earn more revenue by going monthly.
The other attraction of the monthly fee is the headline figure is less off putting to the end user - "Hmm, $9 that doesn't seem so bad" compared to the equivalent yearly charge ("$108 bucks, no way man.")