The Broken Upgrade Model of the Mac App Store →

Wil Shipley of Delicious Monster:

Some might say, “The App Store’s current model of free upgrades forever is great! You should just adopt it.”

Well, it seems great, but for any software which has major versions that replace the old ones (this excludes games), forcing new versions to be free is harmful to both software developers and our customers. (Let me be clear that I fully believe minor updates — for bug fixes — should stay free.)

For developers, upgrades fund the new software we’re writing, not the current stuff. Think of upgrade revenue as the Kickstarter project for our next product, whether it’s a major version of an existing product or something totally new. We live for those upgrade humps. They keep us warm in the cold months.

This applies to iOS as well. The perfect example is the Omni Group which produces high-quality apps for iOS devices. It’s simple: paid upgrades encourage further development, and better quality software in the iOS store. There’s no downside here.