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I’ve had a custom Online Store for my Mac apps for the past 3 years with very few sales compared to the Mac App Store. It’s pretty low maintenance since I let it handle by professionals1. But it still takes work to maintain.

I always want to give customers multiple options - whenever possible. It’s unsustainable to keep maintaining the Online Store at this time considered the few sales coming from it. It is not enough to even cover the bare costs. I’ve kept at it for a while, but I can’t any longer.

Here’s a full list of the changes:

IPLocation

Starting today the new versions of “IPLocation” will only be available through the Mac App Store.

  1. The Online Store will stay online and you will still be able to buy the old version of the app from there. Whoever bought the app from the online store (ever) is eligible to receive the full version of the Mac App Store application at no extra charge. Open a ticket with your license code as title and I’ll get back to you.
  2. Whoever will buy “IPLocation” from the Online Store in the future2 will automatically be eligible for a complimentary MAS key of the app. Detailed instructions on how to get the key and a link to this page explaining what’s going on will be provided.
  3. It is possible that this will change in the future and I’ll go back to offering direct sales too, but if it’ll happen it won’t be anytime soon. If that’s the case I will update the website to state so.
IPLocation Mini

Starting today “IPLocation Mini” is discontinued. The app will still receive the updates it needs to keep functioning3. If you’d like you can upgrade your license from “Mini” to the full version live on the Mac App Store. Open a ticket with “MINI UPGRADE” as title and attach your license code in the message. If you don’t want to do so the “Mini” version will keep working for the foreseeable future, but it’s not actively maintained - take a look at the footnotes for more details.

It’s not a total shutdown, it’s more of a change in the licensing structure. The real cost comes with managing the licenses, not maintaining the Online Store.

It’s the best way to do it with fewer hassles for everyone involved - or so I think. Let me know what you think.

As always, I’m open to feedback.

  1. I don’t want to have anything to do with credit card details, customer addresses or any other personal information. And surely I don’t want to store any of it on my servers. 

  2. All links to the Online Store have been removed, but the store is not offline. I’d still like to offer the ability for people who can’t use the Mac App Store to buy it directly. 

  3. Breaking bugs will be fixed. Note that this doesn’t mean that it will support future OSX versions. If the previous years’ trend continues the app should keep working even with new major Mac OSX releases, but that’s not guaranteed. It is strongly suggested to migrate to the Mac App Store version if possible. 

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Valentino Urbano


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Valentino Urbano

iOS Developer, Swift, Writer, Husband

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