An issue I see with this is pricing. People are used to cheap iOS apps, but if you applied the same pricing to macOS apps, that would be bad for developers. Would the price of universal apps fall somewhere in the middle? Or would everything be a subscription? Apple clearly wants the latter, but no one wants a bunch of subscriptions either.
By 2021, developers will be able to merge iPhone, iPad, and Mac applications into one app or what is known as a “single binary.” This means developers won’t have to submit their work to different Apple App Stores, allowing iOS apps to be downloaded directly from Mac computers — effectively combining the stores.
Check It Out: Universal Apps Could Include macOS
iOS apps have been disposable by developers, customers and Apple. With 32 bit cut off, we lost a lot of apps that developers abandoned. Apps that don’t get enough sales get abandoned. Customers abandon apps when a new one comes along that is better. And there’s tons of apps, obviously.
As for subscriptions, prices will have to be low with all of the tons of apps we use. I don’t mind subscriptions as I’d rather have an app producing regular income rather than one-time sales, but with all the apps we have, yes, keep subscription prices low.
People fear that Mac apps being combined with iOS will be dumbed down. Some surely will, as customers want easier apps to use without giving much thought to how they are used.
I stopped buying apps when I started to see many of my apps just disappearing. Esp. with the aforementioned 32 bit abandonware. I’m no longer inclined to buy apps that will disappear.
Not sure if they are solving a problem with the merge or creating a new one. Six of one, half a dozen of another, as the saying goes.
I think Key power apps that are mostly for a computer modality will remain more costly, but the big money will come from lower priced version which could be used on both iOS and macOS.
When an app become universal, the potential installed user base will rise dramatically and likely would offset the lower cost of a universal app.
I have purchased a few programs on iOS that cost more.
Most apps however really don’t warrant a higher purchase price.
I think people are willing to purchase and try out lots of apps and hence the price they will pay is necessarily less in general, but for key programs or apps, people are willing to pay more.
Call them Keystone or Cornerstone Apps.
There will always be a market for such higher cost apps, but with the current paradigm of 100’s of millions of people buying the apps vs 10’s of millions for computer boxes, there is a greater market now than in previous generations. The profit will come from scale of the potentially vast installed user base and not from a relative few number of users willing to pony up a large amount of money for only a the few big apps on their computers.
In the old days I may have had 10-20 high cost programs on my computer. To date I have several hundred “apps” which I have purchased for iOS.
But for those few apps which are indispensable to me, I am willing to spend a bit more than $4.99