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Comment by spuz | Hacker News Reader

I really hope they still allow you to use it even if you haven't paid the subscription. It's a tool for emergencies so by definition you need it only when you don't expect to need it. It would be a shame to lock people out from something that could have saved their life just because they haven't paid the $x.99 per year service. In theory they could always back-charge users who are not subscribed but even then that could discourage people from using it in a dangerous situation.

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would be nice, but garmin inReach is very specific in their wording to make sure you know that if you don't have an active subscription, your SOS call will NOT work. Subscription is the standard now so doubt apple would do differently. I was genuinely surprised by the 2 years free though. Garmin inReach mini is a $350 device with 0 free function out of the box without the subscription

I think it's more justifiable to require a prepaid subscription for a dedicated safety device. The difference with a phone is that you're much more likely to have it on you even when you haven't paid for the satellite feature. On the other hand, if you haven't paid your Garmin subscription, you wouldn't take your beacon with you. The iPhone would be great for situations that you don't anticipate such as a breakdown. It seems cruel not to help people in those types of situations just because of a small fee.

There are devices however that offer free satellite help signals. No data or anything, just press the button and it will send your coordinates to a (government funded) emergency dispatch who will automatically send rescue.

Yes. Charge $20 per use instead of a subscription. $50 or whatever they want. Just don’t make people sign up for a subscription.

I get what you mean but I really hope it doesn’t make the Apple Pay chime in that case, heh.

I think the amount you'd have to charge to not have a massive decrease in revenue would make Apple look like monsters. Human brains really aren't good at valuing rare events.

Here's a possible scenario. I'm sure it's wildly off from reality, but maybe reality has the same properties. Each month, 1 in 10,000 users call in [1]. For the same revenue you can charge:

$1 per user per month

$10,000 per use

One of those, people will hate you for. Charging $100 per use would slash your revenue by 99%. May as well make it free. I actually think that would be the way to go and maybe they'll do it some day.

[1] If that seems wildly low, remember it's per month and getting lost in the wilderness is pretty rare for the average person.

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