Fantastical 3.0 - Much more than just a calendar. It’s Fantastical.
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Fantastical has a brand new user interface with multiple views, including detailed (and beautiful) full screen views for iPhone, iPad, and Mac.
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Like others here, I was not a fan of the move to subscription pricing. The bigger issue for me was that Flexibits, the manufacturer, chose to effectively delete the Mac version of the app through the guise of an app update. I feel like that’s a bit dishonest. People trust that app updates are for things like security patches, bug fixes, and feature improvements; when that trust is used to eliminate a viable app and force users to adopt a subscription-based app, it feels shady.
So digging into this deeper, it looks like all the features from Fantastical 2, are available for free to me in version 3 (Unlocked for you if you own version 2) so no issue for me here, loving the refresh.
From their blog - https://flexibits.com/blog/
"And what about our existing customers who bought our apps in the past years to get us to this point? Some have called us crazy, but we call it doing the right thing. All of the features from your prior purchase of Fantastical 2 will continue to work with the new Fantastical. That’s right: your new apps will automagically detect your existing purchase and provide a special unlock of the features you already paid for. This means you will continue to get bug fixes and support for some time to come, too."
@manny_orduna Mac app and iphone, i could be missing something need to play around with it a bit more, but so far everything seems normal (The same) to me. Did you download originally via the AppStore or direct from the site?
@manny_orduna ah! so when i upgraded the app on my mac, it said not to do it via the app store if using version 2 otherwise the features would not be automatically unlocked.
My flow was update out of appstore, created new account on v3, then updated on my iphone with the same login
@manny_orduna yeah just noticed no feature parity between iOS & Desktop for version 2 buyers. This really should have been released not as a forced upgrade.
Ugh… Long time user, loved Fantastical 2.0, now in the market for a new calendar app — any recommendations?
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@macguitar Flexibits has now just joined the sh*tlist of apps and services that start off with amazing problem-solving and innovation and yet still caught up in this well-known and horrendously unsustainable business operations model.
Unfortunately, it's a common milestone: the one big BIG bet: will they keep loving us?
You build something cool. You put everything in pleasing the user and in support and customer service. Everything goes in there - "we'll research and develop later" - and they love you. Slowly, you start thinking that love is all you need.. until you realise that a one-off charge doesn’t turn your business to live forever.
This is the when the sh*tlist (or sh*t-lost) moment downs: you start thinking about splitting that love and satisfaction -- that the user deposited with their first purchase -- into small strategic bits so that you can multiply against looming cash debility and unpleasant forecasts.
You then bet that people will keep loving you, so much so, that they will simply accept that. As quietly as possible. You may have even planned for some loss.
You believe that splitting everything into small parts, they will then gladly repay for a lot of it and, worse, disguised as a favour, an improvement, a GREAT thing for them.
Like other users here, I’ve been a very satisfied customer who’s paid for every incremental upgrade so far to my needs. If I'm perfectly honest, I paid for ONE functionality - natural language processing. Other than that, Apple or Google Calendar is just fine and Fantastical isn't replacing Doodle, Things, Basecamp, my Weather app, etc for me.
I’ll say it again: direct user apps and services have to stop acting as if they were high-scaled enterprise modelled solutions or even film and tv show streaming aggregators.
Subscriptions for versioning after a fixed one-off charge to cover (re)implementation is just a bad idea and the worst of practices. Why? Historically, You WILL get replaced. Quickly or slowly, but surely.
Great antagonising use case: Things.
Probably one of the best actually.
.. And you haven’t even noticed, but as soon as you put the subscription version out, I’ve already replaced you — without even blinking.
You say “I guess it wasn't really love then..”
You bet it was not.
Tada.
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@macguitar Believe it or not, silly photo-filter apps got the model right.
You build - and charge - for innovation. You charge (or not) for the 'framework' app offering the main enabling functionality and then, as needed, new functionality add-ons are offered to users, who pay for what they need, when they need it.
THAT is the model.
I would go even further for direct-user apps and services:
Let the users themselves build community and design/develop the functionality that they need; let them be paid for it whilst the platform makes a part of that money in the role of a licensor and/and platform provider.
But you are JUST a calendar app. All this 'super-app' oomph seems sort of silly. You're NOT really competing with all those apps and functionalities.
In the example of Fantastical, if you WERE EVER TO GO BIGGER than a calendar app or simply become a really great one (to both users and yourselves):
Model 1) Simple, quick to implement: Fantastical keeps innovating and writing new functionalities that are individually purchased as add-ons by the user IF/WHEN THEY SO NEED IT;
Model 2) Harder, as it involves a complete shift in building mentality: service as co-shared development (I call it SASD), where users themselves develop functionality add-ons that they deem better. Flexibits gets a cut of whatever is sold, as user-developers are also paid every time someone buys their solution.
There may be licenses, building profiles, revenue and operation models, etc etc etc. The business unfolding is A LOT LARGER AND MORE CONDUCIVE.
Like a great PM I once had in the past very wisely said: A community of subscribers is not a community; it's a revenue records database.
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After buying the iOS, iPad and desktop version of Fantastical 2 even the most basic features like being able to see the full year have been replaced with a pop-up to buy into their subscription model. $120 to use a calendar app for 24 months? Then paying $120 for another 24 months? No thanks.
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Throw another log on the fire of "longtime loyal Fantastical user lost". I'm not paying all this, especially at a time when the competition is better'n ever. Hell, I have BusyCal included in SetApp. It's definitely not quite the same, not quite as much polish. But is it Fantastical worth it? Hard to argue.
I guess they did the mental math and figured bleeding 3-4× as much out of half as many users was worth it. Long term I'm not so sure, given the impact on the brand.
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New description: a free calendar app that charges you if you want to see your calendar entries.. :D YDTM
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The update to 3 is absolutely unfair! I would say cheating:-( They want me to pay again for features I have already paid before like view of months, year etc. I am going to get my money back-anyone know how to make it?
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