Sell Non App Store version

[levelbest]

I have watched Affinity since it first came out. So far, I have resisted purchasing a license. But, I did subscribe to this forum and I have enjoyed watching may Affinity tutorials. I am just having  a hard time getting past the idea that I have to purchase this nice app, on the app store. I really dislike the app store as I strongly dislike Apples intrusive nature in the name of "my convenience".


Point A: Serif has a web portal so that Windows customers can purchase directly from Serif's site. Why not allow this with the mac versions as well? The system is already in place ... why not use it? Serif would probably have to create a sister version of both apps as Apple probably has rules about that sort of thing. There goes Apple’s control again.


Point B: There are many, many others who feel as I do. I think that Serif is missing the boat and would increase their sales quite a bit by making a direct purchase option on Serif’s site available. If someone enjoys purchasing from the App store then I say, that’s great. I am not making commentary here against using the App store by others. I am not trying to force my personal disdain about using the App store on others.


Point C: I am trying out Luminar right now. I still like the design of Affinity Photo and I can already see that Affinity has more of what I want - barrel distortion correction for one thing. This means that eventually I will probably hold my nose, get an iTunes card at my local supermarket, and purchase Affinity Photo through the App store. Of course, I will have to take several showers after that.  ;-) But at least I will finally share a seat at the table with other users of this fine app and fine company I am sure.

This is a feature suggestion thread, right?

Respectfully,

me.

[A_B_C]

What do you mean by the intrusive nature of Apple? Or rather, why is this bothering you in this particular case?

Don’t misunderstand me, I am concerned about online privacy as well, and I don’t want to advocate the modern ways of consumer data collection, but if your concerns regarding the purchase of an application license through the App Store should be a reason for not getting Affinity Designer or Photo, I fear you would have to give up using Apple products at all. I don’t see much difference between purchasing an application license on the App Store and downloading the latest OS update through the very same channel. Do you? I am just curious to know … 

Kind regards, Alex 

[- S -]

I would like to see this too.  However, my reasons are due to Apple's exchange rates.  Allowing customers to purchase directly from their website as well, would allow Serif to set their own prices and give consumers the choice.

 

[RNKLN]

I'm convinced the Serif guys have considered Point B too. So far, and knowingly, they have stuck with the App Store model.

[levelbest]

And finally, this policy has been relaxed. I just joined yesterday by purchasing a license through the Affinity website. Hooray! I also purchased the Affinity Photo book that is currently on sale. Now I am looking forward to getting up to speed.

[Merde]

25 minutes ago, levelbest said:

And finally, this policy has been relaxed.

A bit too late for me

AppleID lock-in is a huge limitation (AFAIK one cannot transfer license between different AppleIDs).

I'd like to have all (4 so far) licenses in one place. I'll have something to ponder about when APub is released.

[someguy]

I agree

 

thank you serif for allowing purchases outside of the apple store.

[jaosnsmithw]

On 3/10/2017 at 10:08 PM, levelbest said:

I have watched Affinity since it first came out. So far, I have resisted purchasing a license. But, I did subscribe to this forum and I have enjoyed watching may Affinity tutorials. I am just having  a hard time getting past the idea that I have to purchase this nice app, on the app store. I really dislike the app store as I strongly dislike Apples intrusive nature in the name of "my convenience".


Point A: Serif has a web portal so that Windows customers can purchase directly from Serif's site. Why not allow this with the mac versions as well? The system is already in place ... why not use it? Serif would probably have to create a sister version of both apps as Apple probably has rules about that sort of thing. There goes Apple’s control again.


Point B: There are many, many others who feel as I do. I think that Serif is missing the boat and would increase their sales quite a bit by making a direct purchase option on Serif’s site available. If someone enjoys purchasing from the App store then I say, that’s great. I am not making commentary here against using the App store by others. I am not trying to force my personal disdain about using the App store on others.


Point C: I am trying out Luminar right now. I still like the design of Affinity Photo and I can already see that Affinity has more of what I want - barrel distortion correction for one thing. This means that eventually I will probably hold my nose, get an iTunes card at my local supermarket, and purchase Affinity Photo through the App store. Of course, I will have to take several showers after that.  But at least I will finally share a seat at the table with other users of this fine app and fine company I am sure.

This is a feature suggestion thread, right?

Respectfully,

me.

 

Thank you so much for this. I was into this issue and tired to tinker around to check if its possible but couldnt get it done. Now that i have seen the way you did it, thanks guys
with
regards
 

[hawk]

Some reasons why I personally dislike the Mac App Store:

1. It is slow, outdated and frustrating to use.
   • Startup is slow, pages are slow to load, even Back/Forward sometimes reloads a page instead of using a cache.
   • No tabs/windows/bookmarks.
   • No wishlists.
   • Bad text-only search, no filtering.
   • Can't zoom screenshots.
   • No videos (I thought they finally made it possible a few years ago but I've never actually seen a video on any product page since then).
   • Can't select text.
   • Doesn't show tooltips for truncated text. This is especially problematic when many developers clutter the listing name with marketing text, sometimes even full sentences.
2. It doesn't allow bundles/deals, upgrades, transferring licenses.
3. Mandatory sandboxing excludes many great tools.
4. MAS apps randomly require me to sign in (and therefore to be connected to the internet) when I launch them from time to time.
5. Apple breaks downloaded installers: https://www.macrumors.com/2016/03/03/older-os-x-installers-broken-by-certificate/
6. There's no way to download older versions of apps. Therefore you also can't revert to a previous version when there's a major problem.
7. If I don't update an app for a while, and then want to update when the latest version no longer supports my system, then I'm SOL, I can't get the latest bugfix version for my system.

So yeah, direct purchasing is still the way to go for me, and googling, and sites like MacUpdate and AlternativeTo are better ways to find apps, and I'm glad that Affinity is now available outside the MAS. I will definitely be buying Affinity Publisher through the website.

[Fixx]

Besides, is buying direct from Affinity a better way to support Affinity as there is no commission to Apple? More profit to developer.