Apple's Answer on Upgrade Pricing
david-smith.org
david-smith.org
Suppose for example you have FooApp 1.x, and you later want to release a major update, FooApp 2. You release FooApp 2 as a separate app for new customers, and provide an update to FooApp 1.x which lets existing customers update.
This is admittedly awkward, and can only really work for upgrades where the main new things in the new version are additional features. For apps which have major architectural changes it would be problematic. To the best of my knowledge though this is the best we can do in the context of the current policies.
Could you extract the purchase date from the receipt and use that as a basis to determine which features to enable, providing IAPs to unlock the rest? At a certain level it may be too cumbersome under the hood, especially when compared to the traditional update method of providing an entirely separate binary, but it could work by also providing a means for bug fixes on "older" versions without additional labor.
I am totally fine with the $200 pricing which is less than the cost of the previous upgrades. Everyone seems to be forgetting that there was a point when Logic cost $999.
Same could be said for FCP X: Used to sell for $1600 and new price is $300, and then complaining that there's no upgrade price.
Used for example only, I realize that it wasn't so much an upgrade as a step backwards for functionality.
a lot of assumptions made for this one niche product, only on the mac app store, for a product that is receiving an update 4 years after the last version was released.
maybe, it's just the fair market value price for a new version of an application?
It's been a few years, Apple seems happy not to provide upgrade prices. They've had more than a few chances with their own software.
Without any further information (which we're almost certainly not going to get) it's difficult to tell if this is the case.
Though we left the old version in the app store (with a warning in the description for new would-be customers) so people can re-download their old version.
It seems to me that quite a few people don't know about the the Purchased list.
It doesn't have to be approached in the typical upgrade fashion either, the companies can treat the program as a completely new one but I would like to see some form of promo codes that only existing users can take advantage of in order to show appreciation for their support of your product.
Suppose I bought a lawnmower from Honda in 2000. After 13 years, I move to a home with a bigger yard, and I decide that I'd like a bigger mower. Should I reasonably expect to get a discount from Honda on my next mower just because I bought one of their products before?
1. Point the old app to the new app, so people know there is an upgrade. Also address the concern of moving data to the newer upgraded app. 2. Provide an subscription model