In brief
The article argues that one-time app sales can survive through continued new-user growth. It sees subscriptions as a way for companies with stalled growth to charge existing users more, and warns that small companies may lose users without solving their underlying growth problem.
Generally, after developing an app, developers sell it for a one-time fee. This is a very simple business model that customers like. Once they pay to buy the app, they do not need to renew or pay again later. It seems a fair deal for both customers and developers.
However, many software publishers later switched to a paid subscription model. The usual argument is that modern apps are not static: developers need to keep fixing bugs and adding new features. If people continue using a piece of software, it seems only fair that they should continue paying for it. Providing updates to users who have paid only once can seem somewhat hard to accept.
How can a business survive with a one-time purchase model for paid apps?
The secret is growth. If an app attracts new users every day, those new users will pay for the app. Delivering updates to existing users does not cost much either. So why are other companies so eager to adopt paid subscriptions? Because their growth has stalled. They have little appetite for growth, as the people who need their software are already using it, and paid updates do not work. Their only way to increase revenue, therefore, is to charge existing users more.
The one thing that is hard to understand is why small companies also want to adopt a paid subscription model. Has growth in their user base also stalled, and are they hoping to improve their bottom line? If so, they are finished: subscription fees will only keep shrinking their user base, leaving the underlying problem of insufficient user growth unresolved.
http://www.hksilicon.com/articles/1058812