Tell HN: Why I'm ecstatic at Apple's subscription model.

The AppStore is not an easy-money kind of environment. It rewards hard work and quality, and consequently we've been able to do relatively well there. But as it has evolved it has become clear that low app prices are a permanent fixture. So, for the past several months I've been working on moving our bread and butter app from a "Pay us $4 and use it forever" to a SaaS model. We'll make the app free, and give people 3-4 months of cloud service to go with the app. (This cloud service is a genuine value add for the app, so we're shifting models by adding a fundamental new feature. Anyone who doesn't want it will have the functionality they have now.) Then for the ones that like our App and stick with it-- and we get about %20 retention with some really fanatical users now-- the cloud service is eventually a $1 a month subscription. So, instead of making $3 per customer, we'll be making $8.40 per year for customers we retain. Further, as a free app we'll get at least an order of magnitude