Not a while has passed since the presence of smart phones in our lives and it has become impossible to dispense with them, and of course it is not the basic phone functions that attract users, but the applications that developers put on the application store, applications such as Facebook, Office, Photoshop and many others are what makes our lives and our jobs Easier.

Applications are not free and payment methods are evolving so what is next?

Nothing is free

Of course we all use a lot of free applications on our phones ... We have Facebook, Messenger, Twitter and others, and these are big applications that pay a lot of money to keep their services of high quality, so do they pay for our services? Of course not, and any free application gets money by one means or another. Facebook, Twitter, and Google with all their services make money by selling ads specifically for each user as they have enough information about you and they can know your interests and needs, and this information is sold to advertisers so that they present advertisements that you may be interested in. . And as We mentioned earlier ...

If you do not pay for the commodity, make sure that you are the commodity

The evolution of payment systems

We know apps like Facebook sell ads, but what about other companies? The advertising revenue does not suit all applications such as big games or powerful programs such as Office, Photoshop and the like ... The advertising revenue will not be sufficient to cover the expenses and provide sufficient profit for the developing companies. Here, these companies resorted to selling applications at the beginning and guess what! Their prices exceeded hundreds of dollars and although professionals were buying them, many ordinary users did not want to pay such money for their applications, so some turned to obtain alternatives and others turned to piracy and stealing those applications from the developer, and here arose the need for a new payment system, and monthly subscriptions appeared, which consist of payments Rather small to pay large sums to buy.

Why is the subscription system important?

The subscription system is not only for large companies such as Microsoft and Adobe, but has been adopted by many smaller development companies even though their programs were not expensive and users buy them, but the problem with these companies is that when the user pays for the application once, the application becomes his property and with all his updates as well. Companies are to continue to update the applications and work on them without charge later, and the income is from new buyers whose existence is not guaranteed on an ongoing basis ... The idea is when paying for an application once you pay for the effort that has already been made, but what about the expenses and future effort for development? So, subscriptions came to solve the dilemma. Companies get constant and constant income to develop their applications. In theory, the user gets cheaper service in the short term by paying small sums instead of paying a large amount one time. Does everyone win like this?

The subscription system shines with specific services

One of the industries that most benefited from the subscription system is the music and audio industry in general and the film and series industry, as the old system for buying audio albums and buying movies and series or even renting them as in i-Tunes is an expensive matter and allows the user only what he bought at high prices ... As for the subscription system Sites such as Netflix have appeared, which allow the user, by paying a small amount every month, to watch an endless library of movies and series that are always renewed, which need a fortune to buy each one separately.

But the subscription is not for all apps

Although generalizing the subscription to get services is a great idea for developers, but the case is not the same for users, as a user I often want to buy the application only once and not have to pay continuously for all of my applications, for example a well-known writing application called Ulysses was running a one-time app purchase system, but Recently, he changed the monthly or annual subscription system, and this brought a lot of noise and anger from users, why do I keep paying always for the application that I use to write ?! Why am I paying in the first place having previously bought it at full price?

What if subscriptions accumulate?

Another problem posed by the subscription system is the possibility of accumulating subscriptions, where the amount of two dollars or even ten dollars as a subscription to an application may seem not a big deal, especially in the United States and Europe where the value of currencies is large compared to the dollar, but what if all of my applications require a subscription? Ten dollars here and ten dollars there and in this manner may exceed one hundred dollars a month, or hundreds, depending on how many applications and services you use.

What's the solution?

Although the subscription system is tempting, it is not suitable for all applications, so it should only be present with those applications that need it, as we explained with the example of Netflix before or the Arabic (Watch) service, as for those other applications, they must take another way to obtain sufficient profits. For example, an application is released and sold at a certain price with its free update, then after two or three years a large program update is issued with great new benefits and here the user has to pay again to get the great advantages that the developer worked on throughout those years. It is also possible to think of many other solutions and ways to benefit from fixed and permanent subscriptions.

What do you think of the subscription system? Do you prefer the spread of this system in order to pay?

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