The Future of Adobe AIR

hugo

I think that several folks didn't understand that their price model is forever and not only for the publish month.
Xamarin a few years ago (before was bought by Microsoft) was a subscription model, however you only needed to pay when you need to publish (at least it was what a friend of my told me on that time).

However, seems fair that you continue to pay in the same way that you continue to have the App published.
With a lower developer base (comparing with other platforms), if you pay only on the subscription model, than I would say that is doomed at the born but it's not the case.

AIR has been free and nothing beats free and people feel it now.

zwetan

Michoko This is probably one of the rules I'm the most uncomfortable with, because it could potentially involve a lot of work (imagine you have many AIR legacy apps that, after some time, don't sell enough to make $25/year, you'll have to republish all of them with a splash screen). If you want to keep your apps splashscreen-free, you'll have to pay forever.

you don't pay the license per app, you pay per revenue
at the very "worst" you don't want any splashscreen and all your apps revenue is under 50kpa
so you would pay $199 per year

compare to publish apps on iOS, no matter what you have to pay _$100 per year

"forever" is a bit strong for mobile apps as you kind of have to update them regularly anyway

2dguy

zwetan you don't pay the license per app, you pay per revenue

Several people believe it is per app, not per year. Are you 100% it's per year revenue? Thx.

Zantafio

zwetan compare to publish apps on iOS, no matter what you have to pay $100 per year

You might want to compare also what you get with this 100$ per year in terms of IDE, APIs, Technologies etc. pp.
Compared to that 199$ for AIR is a practical joke. Especially since you still need to pay the playtforms that you are publishing for.

Michoko

2dguy by reading the whole document, it is repeated all the time the tier is determined by your global yearly income. I don't know why people insist it could be per app.

Edit: "kpa" means "thousands per annum"(https://dictionary.cambridge.org/fr/dictionnaire/anglais/per-annum), not "per app"

leokan23

2dguy It is clear in the documents + Andrew cleared this up.

License is / year / developer sit. It is not per app.

Revenue is / year for all your generated revenue from AIR apps, including IAP, Ads, contracted work, subscriptions etc.

Zantafio

leokan23 Revenue is / year for all your generated revenue from AIR apps, including IAP, Ads, contracted work, subscriptions etc.

So they want to see your tax returns?

2dguy

Awesome, thanks to the both of you for clearing that up for me. I will pass it on to peeps I'm in discussion with.

leokan23

The only issue I see is "contracted work" as many of our clients, don't want some random company have information about what they pay, but this is a specific problem, that might not bother many people.

Shaun_Max

leokan23 how exactly does the audit work?

leokan23

Shaun_Max No idea. They said there will be audits, but there was no extra information shared.

mistergreen

Shaun_Max The new AIR will probably contact their servers every time your app is launched. If so, They better let developers know for privacy policies on Android & iOS. Your app will be rejected if you don't have the proper policies.

Shaun_Max

leokan23 lol .. and what about the the sdk, it can be easily copied & there will be pirated version all over the internet.

Shaun_Max

mistergreen one of my friends, just told me that, before publishing the app, there could be an intermediate login process to activate the sdk.

leokan23

Shaun_Max could be. If you used Distriqt ANEs they had a similar mechanism. You had to start the ane with a specific key, which matches your id.

2dguy

I have zero problems with a login before building to verify license, but we're going to have to know EXACTLY what they have built into the runtime regarding collecting any metrics for their auditing process. Anyone have any ideas how that is supposed to work?

zwetan

Zantafio You might want to compare also what you get with this 100$ per year in terms of IDE, APIs, Technologies etc. pp.
Compared to that 199$ for AIR is a practical joke. Especially since you still need to pay the playtforms that you are publishing for.

maybe you should let HARMAN even a chance to start doing that ?

personally what I think is a joke and will certainly be an unpopular opinion
when you do business, as earning money from the software you build and sell,
I do think it is good business to invest in what help you build those softwares

whether it is books, tools, donation to OSS projects, supports, etc.

on the case of the AIR SDK, specifically that case,
if we could imagine a situation where you could have access the AIR SDK sources in C++
to compile it yourself and have no license fees to pay whatsoever,
OR
paying a license fee to a third party likE HARMAN to compile it for you
(with all the testing, QA, etc. that include)

my choice would be very clear: it would be cheaper and more efficient to just pay the licensing fee

Michoko

Just curious: how does Unity work regarding this? Do they consider that once the app is published, you can cancel your subscription? Or do you have to maintain payment for the tier that was used to publish the app?

Michoko

Zantafio I think there are still many unclear points. If they want to check our accountability, it might become annoying pretty fast, depending on the documents we have to show them. Also, what if you use AIR33 for Android only, and stick to AIR 32 for iOS and Desktop? Do you only compute your yearly revenue for Android sales, since the license for AIR 32 is still free?
I think we'll need explanations from Harman soon (but I suppose there are many internal discussions at Harman right now, after the first reactions from the community).

Zantafio

hugo If you release your app/game, until 31 July, there is no issue and your app/game theoretically will survive until July 2021 for a lot of devices and a few (older) after that.
If you need to updated your app/game starting 1 August or fail to release until 31 July, you will have no other option then release as AIR 33 and pay for them OR see a splash screen (if your app/game is free or your revenue is under $25kpa).

This is only for apps in the Play Store, or do Android devices check as well?
Some of my in-house / marketing / scientific apps are just distributed as an apk on the clients web site.

2dguy

Zantafio Just for the play store. I'm also considering a broader marketing campaign and just having my app available from my website. If google is not going to help promote me, why should I help promote them at this point?

Zantafio

Michoko
I cannot help to chuckle when comparing these "busines models" to the non digital world.
A powertool manufacturer setting his price according to your plans to use the tool for building a treehouse for your kids or for tables you are selling. And then adjust the price on how many tables you have sold.

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