[joshspankit]

I’ve come to the opinion that the classic “make a product, sell it once, make the next product” model has always been kind of a lie. History is littered with companies who made a great product, sold it, then went out of business because the next product couldn’t make enough money fast enough to sustain them.

Especially in tech, every “evergreen” product needs to have at least basic security updates over it’s lifetime, and most likely needs code updates to continue to work across generations. I also think recurring payments can be done in a way that respects user rights and without the draconian licensing that we are rightfully cautious of.

As an example: I have paid for a parcel tracking app on iOS for a few years now. It’s solid and reliable and does not chase features or try to be something flashy. It just works. In order to keep it working they need to spend money on servers to run the interfaces with the delivery companies, dev time updating those interfaces when the delivery companies change their apis/websites, dev time to keep the app in line with Apple’s expectations for each iOS version, and the yearly Apple fee. I pay $3 per year and I’m happy to pay it. I feel confident that the money goes towards those costs while also providing the reliability necessary to let the dev(s) stay focused on making the best most effective product.