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Apple's policies could cause an App Store problem for the iPad Pro

By Cookie Monster - on 22 Nov 2015, 8:00am

Apple's policies could cause an App Store problem for the iPad Pro

 

Apple has always boasted about having the most creative and useful apps for its products via the App Store, but its recently launched iPad Pro may not see as many pro apps developed for it. You may think that the problem lies with the developers, but it isn't. 

Developers who spoke to The Verge recently shared that Apple's App store policies have been making it difficult for them to port over Mac apps to the iPad Pro. Pro apps which are developed for the Mac have free trials for users to try out before they pay, but the App Store does not allow a similar option.

Developers are left with two options; to lower the price of their pro apps or not port them over. This has forced Sketch co-founders, Pieter Omvlee and Emanuel Sa, to abandon plans for an iPad Pro app. 

The Verge - "Yes, it has a beautiful screen, but there’s more to consider…," Sa said. "Apps on iOS sell for unsustainably low prices due to the lack of trials. We cannot port Sketch to the iPad if we have no reasonable expectation of earning back on our investment."

"Sketch on the Mac costs $99, and we wouldn’t dare ask someone to pay $99 without having seen or tried it first," Omvlee said in a recent interview with The Verge. "So to be sold through the App Store, we would have to dramatically lower the price, and then, since we’re a niche app, we wouldn’t have the volume to make up for it."

Another issue which app developers encountered in the App Store is the inability to offer paid upgrades to longtime app users on the App Store. This has prompted some developers to launch an entirely new app.

The Verge - "I think what a lot of people are worried about is the lack of upgrade pricing for those of us who want to keep incrementing these apps over the years," says Chris Liscio, creator of the popular music instruction and production app Capo. Capo for desktops sells for $29.99 on the Mac App Store, whereas the iOS, touch-optimized version of the app sells for $9.99. 

Bigger players such as Microsoft and Adobe have the resources to offer free, lightweight versions of their apps, and then persuade consumers to pay for full-featured ones. While the number of downloads is not a top priority for these companies, they are for the smaller players especially when Apple takes a 30% cut of any paid download or app subscription fee. Maintaining apps is also financially taxing.

The Verge - "Maintaining software is more expensive than building it in the first place," FiftyThree co-founder and CEO Georg Petschnigg says. "The first version of Paper, we had three people working on it. Now we have 25 people working on it, testing on eight or nine different platforms, in 13 different languages."

Unless Apple is willing to modify some of its policies, developers may not have the incentives to optimize their apps for the iPad Pro which in turn could affect the success of the tablet in the long term. 

Source: The Verge

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