[RandallBrown]

I had an idea for a subscription service that would give developers a share of the subscription based on how much their app was used compared to other apps. That may work perfectly for the Mac App Store.

So I pay 10 dollars a month to have access to the MAS and I download 3 apps. I use App A 50% of the time, App B 20% of the time and App C 30% of the time. (To keep the math simple lets pretend Apple doesn't take their share). App A's developers would get $5 a month, App B's developers would get $2, while App C's gets $3.

Maybe to handle the Pro apps like Final Cut you could have different subscription tiers?

To users, this would be a simple netflix like subscription model. Developers would have an incentive to make their apps more useful and engaging. (I'm sure it could be abused too)

[ghaff]

Interesting idea and somewhat akin to how music streaming pays the artists (well, the labels mostly). The challenge, as you allude to, is that software is a lot less homogenous. You only do one thing with a song--listen to it. You use software in a lot of different contexts and it's not obvious that time running is going to give equitable results. And Pro-ishness is also very context-dependent. For me, Final Cut might be a hobby thing. For you, it might be something you depend on for your livelihood.

That said, I do think we're going to see more experimentation with subscription models. Adobe's Creative Cloud is one example. I could imagine some sort of aggregator of games as well.