I think a smol problem here is that Apollo offered a “Lifetime Subscription” for a flat amount. In order to honor that Christian would be obliged to take money from elsewhere to cover those subscriptions, potentially for decades.
I’m a lifetime subscription holder and I would have, without a doubt, been fine with having my flat amount cover a few months of the new model, then switching over to the per month amount needed to keep Apollo running. But that wasn’t even offered!
He just decided that he’d had enough and pulled the plug.
No, he wouldn’t. He’d have to start passing on the cost of the new API pricing + his fair share as dev, to the users of Apollo. Nothing about how the app currently functions would have to change, just the amount users pay to use the app under the new pricing.
He never even offered that as an option. (Not that I’ve seen or been told by him as a subscriber.) He apparently decided that doing so wasn’t worth it and pulled the plug. And to be clear, as the app developer that’s fully his right and I support his decision.
I’m old enough to know that sometimes in life you’ve just “had it,” and it’s time to walk away.
He explained that 30 days was not enough to design and roll out a whole new pricing scheme, and he would have to start paying the increased fee for all his existing lifetime subscribers, in the hopes that enough people would subscribe to the new schemes to offset the cost.
A change like that is not something you undertake lightly.
I think one of the big issues for him was monetary liability. Even if he did pass the API costs on to willing users, he still wasn’t going to be making much -if any- more money.
It’s kinda like somebody offering you $1 to get a $20 bill across the street safely - vs - someone offering you $1 to get $20,000 across the street safely.
If something went wrong with the $20, then no big deal. But if something went wrong with the $20,000, then oh shit. A dollar isn’t worth that headache.
Same thing with Apollo going completely sub based at $5 or $10 a month. If something was slightly off about his accounting or API call guesstimates or anything else, he could easily be on the hook for tens of thousands of dollars that the subscription fees didn’t cover that month or quarter or year.
The bigger problem is that Selig and other developers have an actual conscience and understood that the pricing for the new model would be way too high (in the ballpark of $20-$25 per month per user) to even cover the costs.
Not only that but he would lose around 2m per month in the rollover while ending life time and long term subscriptions bringing up the costs another 250k. Just to change it to a model that very few would pay for.
Instead he decided to cut losses, terminate the subscriptions and not owe 2m per month.
I think a smol problem here is that Apollo offered a “Lifetime Subscription” for a flat amount. In order to honor that Christian would be obliged to take money from elsewhere to cover those subscriptions, potentially for decades.
I’m a lifetime subscription holder and I would have, without a doubt, been fine with having my flat amount cover a few months of the new model, then switching over to the per month amount needed to keep Apollo running. But that wasn’t even offered!
He just decided that he’d had enough and pulled the plug.
I don’t blame him, he’d have to start over on his project he’s worked on for years. I wouldn’t want to do it either lol
No, he wouldn’t. He’d have to start passing on the cost of the new API pricing + his fair share as dev, to the users of Apollo. Nothing about how the app currently functions would have to change, just the amount users pay to use the app under the new pricing.
He never even offered that as an option. (Not that I’ve seen or been told by him as a subscriber.) He apparently decided that doing so wasn’t worth it and pulled the plug. And to be clear, as the app developer that’s fully his right and I support his decision.
I’m old enough to know that sometimes in life you’ve just “had it,” and it’s time to walk away.
he said some of his busy users would cost $15-20/mo. That’s definitely too much for most people for something like this
He explained that 30 days was not enough to design and roll out a whole new pricing scheme, and he would have to start paying the increased fee for all his existing lifetime subscribers, in the hopes that enough people would subscribe to the new schemes to offset the cost.
A change like that is not something you undertake lightly.
I feel for him too.
I think one of the big issues for him was monetary liability. Even if he did pass the API costs on to willing users, he still wasn’t going to be making much -if any- more money.
It’s kinda like somebody offering you $1 to get a $20 bill across the street safely - vs - someone offering you $1 to get $20,000 across the street safely.
If something went wrong with the $20, then no big deal. But if something went wrong with the $20,000, then oh shit. A dollar isn’t worth that headache.
Same thing with Apollo going completely sub based at $5 or $10 a month. If something was slightly off about his accounting or API call guesstimates or anything else, he could easily be on the hook for tens of thousands of dollars that the subscription fees didn’t cover that month or quarter or year.
I would’t be able to sleep like that.
Very valid point. Thank you!
The bigger problem is that Selig and other developers have an actual conscience and understood that the pricing for the new model would be way too high (in the ballpark of $20-$25 per month per user) to even cover the costs.
Not only that but he would lose around 2m per month in the rollover while ending life time and long term subscriptions bringing up the costs another 250k. Just to change it to a model that very few would pay for.
Instead he decided to cut losses, terminate the subscriptions and not owe 2m per month.