[gnicholas]

> Unlike paid upgrades, a subscription guarantees recurring revenue not only for the developer, but for Apple themselves.

Actually, Apple would get more revenue the other way. They only take 15% on subscription revenue after the first year.

[wlesieutre]

Assuming that the cost to users of paid upgrades versus subscriptions are the same, which I don't think is a good assumption.

Paid upgrades I only had to buy when they were worth buying, so often I wouldn't. I was using Photoshop CS5 for quite a long time, well after CS6 came out and then into the subscription era, and I got a great value out of that purchase even as someone who wasn't using it professionally.

Subscriptions can keep on charging me the same price even when development is stopped or focused on features I don't want. Keep paying forever or you lose it.

[syzarian]

What Apple earns from fees from $x per month per user in recurring revenue is greater than the fees for $y per user per upgrade for certain values of x and y depending on the number of users in each category. How do you know what you is true?

[comte7092]

There are two scenarios:

1. Monthly subscriptions earn more revenue for developers compared to pricing sporadic upgrades/updates.

2. The converse of 1.

If 1 is true, then we’d likely end up with subscriptions regardless or apples incentives here. If 2 is true, then Apple is clearly leaving money on the table, because they take a percentage of revenues, and as parent comment states, they take a higher percentage of that revenue in the alternative scenario.

So it doesn’t really matter if they know which drives more revenue. All that matters is that the incentives dictate that Apple benefits the most when developers make more revenues.

[syzarian]

It matters as it pertains to whether or not the claim that was made is true.

[wafriedemann]

The bean counter is not enforcing strategies that make him less money overall, that's certain.

[hgsgm]

No business CEO is trying to make less money.

[barbazoo]

Maybe, in the short term, to make more money in the long term.