I guess they could have sold yet another version of 1password 3 with the update for a lower fee, but that's confusing. At one point, with the upgrade from v2 to v3, agilebits had something like 4 or 5 versions of 1password in the app store (iphone/ipad/iphone & ipad combined version/v3) and while it offered better value, it was also confusing and off-putting for new customers.
I can't remember - does the iOS app store allow devs to charge for version upgrades? Or do you just have to create an all-new sku?
"However, considering that we need to be able to feed our families, it is likely that 1Password 5 will be sold as a separate paid app, like we did for 1Password 4 in the iOS App Store. We just decided to make 1Password 4 for Mac an exception to this." http://discussions.agilebits.com/discussion/16268/what-shoul...
It's clearer if there is one app per platform. Getting my wife to use a password manager is tough enough - Having to explain why there are 14 variations in the store would just add to the burden.
But as to why it was a new version in the first place.. This is Apple's supported answer for paid upgrades. They did the same for Logic Pro X.
But as an end-user who only owns an iPhone, the only "feature" I notice in 1Password 4 for iOS is "Dropbox syncing still works". Not very compelling.
Yes, this is basically it.
It was hard to pull our good friend 1Password 3 from sale, it still exists in the App Store, just not for sale. This allows purchasers to still download it, but it isn't for sale for new users.
One app is much easier than several. We had previously:
* 1Password for iPhone
* 1Password for iPad
* 1Password Pro (the two above as a universal app)
We did this because we released the iPhone app when they provided an SDK, and then the iPad was released but some users just wanted to pay for the iPad version, not the iPhone app again. So, we made it so users could do that, trying to provide a better price point for those users. For new users we stressed Pro for it's universal nature.
But, this was all very confusing. I can't tell you how many emails I answered that were from confused customers asking which one they would buy.
Having three apps was very hard.
This probably isn't the best place for this due to comment threading, but updating 1Password 3 for the newer Dropbox API would've taken a LOT of developer time. We did not use the Dropbox SDK because when we wrote 1Password 3's original code base an SDK did not exist, or if it did come out shortly after it wasn't acceptable for use for a variety of reasons, usually performance related. If I recall our developers correctly via various chats.
And if we did update for the newer Dropbox API then we'd be supporting two platforms (3 and 4) and it's just hard to do. Plus, the much bigger issue was we wanted to move the features of 1Password forward, for example, custom fields and sections. To get this support in 1Password 3 we would've had to have basically rewritten the entire data model and at that point all that's the same from the old app is the interface :)
The even bigger issue for a new app is supporting older platforms. Some devices can't run iOS 6, which 1Password 4 requires. Such as the iPad 1, which many users continue to use and love. If we had updated the app inline, those users would've lost the ability to download a working version if they needed to. This seems to have changed recently, as you can now download the last version to work for a particular iOS release. But this didn't exist last December, or leading up to release for months prior.
Now, hindsight being 20/20, many developers are doing new apps with regard to iOS 7 because it's a cleaner "break" and requiring more significant rewrites and provides a natural point at which to make a new app and charge for it. So, many developers are going through the same thing we did with iOS 6, but they're doing it with iOS 7.
Hope that provides some level of insight.
Kyle
AgileBits Support
