Realmac Dropping Clear+, Returning To Just One Version Of Clear
We’re going to be returning to just one, universal version of Clear for iOS, with the original version of Clear gaining iPad support. If you already own a copy of Clear, you don’t need to do anything as we’ve just launched an updated version of Clear with iPad support.
As Apple doesn’t offer a way to migrate users between copies of an app, we’re going to make Clear free for 24 hours so owners of Clear+ can move to the correct version free of charge.
So, they pushed out a (universal) paid-for iOS 7 update in September. People complained that they were being shortchanged for iPad compatibility. Realmac backtracked by adding iPad support to the old Clear app, effectively running two identical versions of the same app.
This put them in a right mess and now to get out of it they are having to forfeit revenue for a couple of days. Loads of people — including me — will exploit the ‘free window’ selfishly and be able to get Clear without paying a penny.
I’m not saying they should have offered the iOS 7 update from it. That’s fine. What they shouldn’t have done is backtracked. Stick to your decisions or you get stuck in an endless spiral of compromises and reimbursements.
This is an example of extreme technical debt.