Brent Simmons talks about using Bindings in his MarsEdit application. One reason why developers avoid using new APIs and other features of new versions of Mac OS X is that their users are lagging behind in previous versions.
At my mac user group, we have to use SubEthaEdit 1.x because not all of the users are using 10.3 yet. The reason? They’ve just bought the 10.2 upgrade a year earlier and don’t want to spend yet another $129 USD again. With 10.4 on its way, we’ve got a problem.
Yes, I understand that from a business perspective selling each Mac OS X major revision is profitable, but at the same time it is creating version lag in the user base. Therefore, developers don’t want to use new APIs and features, adding to the catch-22 by eliminating their application as a potential incentive to upgrade the OS.
Apple has stated that they will slow development of Mac OS X. That’s not the problem. Rapid development of an OS is awesome. The problem lies in charging $130 for every major revision. What happened to odd revisions being free upgrades? That’s one way to go.
The way it is now, Apple might as well have a subscription service to the OS; $100/year. Third party developers don’t like their user base lagging behind, it’s just not a good situation to be put into.
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