Notability has decided to switch to a freemium business model, and leave its original users who have paid to access the app behind. This decision is in blatant violation of Apple’s App Store Review Guidelines which state, “if you are changing your existing app to a subscription-based business model, you should not take away the primary functionality existing users have already paid for.” There is no question that by taking away features such as unlimited edits, and limiting the amount of edits users can make in a month, Notability has destroyed its primary use case—taking and editing notes. Alongside this change is the removal of customization features and auto-backup, a crucial feature for use in education and those who share documents using their favorite cloud service.

        Aside from the fact that this change will heavily affect those who utilize Notability for personal use, Ginger Lab’s new decision will affect the education systems that rely on the service even more. Many schools and organizations have paid significant amounts of money to access Notability in its days of being a pay-to-play application. Schools simply can not afford to pay even more in a subscription service, especially as they have already paid for what they thought would be a secure and lasting service for their students. Notability was an investment for these schools, and all of a sudden they have had the rug pulled out from underneath them.

        Ginger Labs should respect its original users and allow them to access all of the features they were promised when they paid to use their application.