Ben Thompson wrote a series of great posts on App Store dynamics and, in particular, on sustainability for productivity apps. In the latest post on the topic Ben outlines what he sees succinctly:

Unfortunately, productivity apps are a terrible match for app store economics. The app store favors:

• Simple, inexpensive apps that are downloaded by a lot of people
• Free front-ends for for-pay or advertising-based services
• Games with repetitive mechanics that can monetize existing users through in-app purchases

The solutions for enabling sustainable productivity apps are actually pretty obvious – just look at how productivity apps make money elsewhere:

• More expensive apps with trials
• Paid updates
• Built-in subscription support

And yet, iOS 7 introduces radical change in nearly everything except for app monetization. Why doesn’t Apple do more to enable sustainable businesses on the app store?

He goes on to answer his own question. I think there are a couple of other possibilities:

APPLE IS BLINDED BY THE FOREST

This app market is so crazy and moving so fast that Apple may not even see the problem. To Apple it may look like one giant forest of apps when what is really going on is that a whole series of ecosystems are residing next to each other. The gaming and entertainment ecosystems are doing quite well. They have tools to make them more successful like in app purchases. Apple put special tools in place for news apps, too. But productivity blends in. Apple may not even recognize that there is a problem.

APPLE DOESN’T CARE

Let’s be honest here: my inability to make a living wage is not Apple’s problem. It is possible that Apple just doesn’t care, figuring the market will work itself out. They give us a lot of tools to work with: one-time purchases, free app distribution at no charge, news stand and subscriptions, in app purchases. From here, they may figure, it is our problem. Go figure it out.

APPLE IS WORKING ON SOMETHING

Apple is a very famously a quiet company. We don’t really know what is going on internally. Maybe Apple is and has been working on a major overhaul with all kinds of things developers have been asking for. Maybe Apple has a whole series of things in the works that are being held up by a massive overhaul of iTunes and its ten-year old infrastructure riddled with technical debt and spaghetti code. The massive overhaul that is iOS 7 may be followed by a massive overhaul of iTunes and its infrastructure next year. Since Apple is doubling down on secrecy we may not know until Apple decides it is time for us to know.

PURE SPECULATION

Personally, I think Apple has been very clear. They give us a number of tools and it is our job to figure it out. Apple has a way of indicating what is coming years in advance and I think the fact that Apple doesn’t charge us to host free apps in the App Store is a pretty good indicator. The App Store is an incredible distribution mechanism but, at least for productivity apps, a horrible monetization mechanism.

While away I gave a lot of thought to iOS 7 and what I should do as a developer. Here are a few thoughts:

1. Upgrading an old app to iOS 7 only is very problematic from a customer’s perspective. If the customer chooses not to upgrade he/she can never recover the app if they need to reinstall. There is no way to fix any lingering bugs for that old customer. Maybe the latter isn’t a problem as you are moving on but the former is a major problem. I have a hard time telling a customer I’m moving on and they can never recover our product if they have a device issue.
2. There are lots of devices that won’t support iOS 7. All but the most recent iPod touch (fifth generation) won’t support it. Furthermore the fourth generation was still on sale a month ago. The first iPad, a number of which are still around, and all iPhone’s not named 4, 4s, or 5 won’t support it.
3. Furthermore I would bet a number of customers won’t upgrade initially. The change from iOS 6 to iOS 7 is pretty extreme. Many may wait to see the reaction.
4. I like the idea of developing a new app that is iOS 7 only. It is a wonderful chance to streamline the code, fix any problems, remove feature bloat or fix the business model.
5. Charging for the new app, if the old one was a one-time purchase, is hard here. I did this once and got killed for it, albeit temporarily. This is a major change, though, so maybe customers will be more understanding.
6. In addition those old purchases don’t go away like they used to. You can remove them from the store but the customer can still recover them. This changed a year or two ago, which was a smart change.
7. I’ve been very vocal that one-time purchases don’t work well. Others believe the same. The prices are too low and the revenues too small to support customers long-term, and productivity apps need long legs. I’m contemplating a business model change at the same time we consider iOS 7 only apps.
8. The timeline is tight. It may not feel that way but if Apple maintains old schedules we are looking at an early October release. That’s only three months away and the summer months go fast. Apple is releasing betas quickly and things are going to change and break and get fixed and we are going to have to keep up with all of that. Not to mention other projects were started and need to be completed.
9. It may be necessary to contemplate a MVP app, a minimal viable product, that gets your foot in the door with some key features but doesn’t try to include everything from the previous release. This may mean keeping both the old and new products in the store until the features can be added. Of course this means maintaining two apps, one designed specifically for iOS 7 and one from the earlier generation that works on iOS 7.
10. One thing is very clear though: apps not designed specifically for iOS 7 are going to look awkward and out of place. iOS 7 is a tremendous opportunity to re-think everything that came before.

I know I’m excited to dig into the code… once I can get a few of these other projects out of the way. Oh boy, that clock sure is ticking.