Notability's freemium furor highlights the chasm between devs and customersSome developers don't understand users, and most users don't understand developers.
The big news over the last day or two was the decision of Ginger Labs to take Notability down the subscription route, something that might not have been a huge issue for most people. The problem came when the developer made a hash of the communications surrounding the move and misread the room significantly. The result was a considerable backlash and one that led to a backdown. And it could all have been so easily avoided.
Developers taking apps that were previously one-time purchases and making them a subscription is nothing new. We've seen 1Password do it. We saw Flexibits do the same with Fantastical, too. There have been others, and they've all managed it with varying degrees of success. Some made an absolute hash of it — Ginger Labs being one of them.
The original communications were just vague enough to have people, like me, assuming the best. The developer said that anyone who already paid...
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Notability's freemium furor highlights the chasm between devs and customers
