Do we have to purchase the subscription via the app store or can this be done directly on skritter website?

Either. Buy purchasing on the Skritter website, you will pay the same amount, but all of the money will be going to the site.

If you purchase through the app store, Apple will take it's 30% cut.

I noticed the 12/24 month purchase options with the app in the app store, basically those options make it almost half the price of paying monthly. When are these options going to be available to the rest of us? And surely it means that skritter is loosing even more money via the appstore if someone purchases a 12/24 month subscription (since apple takes 30%). I certainly wouldn't mind paying for 12 months at that price! Prices are as follows (copied from app store):

"Top In-App Purchases

Two Year Subscription On Sale$119.99
Twelve Month Subscription On Sale$69.99
Month Subscription$9.99"

EDIT: Just noticed the app launch blog post explains this:
"We can’t use conveniently auto-renewable subscriptions in the App Store, so we’re offering in-app launch sale prices on longer subscriptions up to two years. You can easily continue to use your normal Skritter account subscription, too, for more flexibility."

You can PayPal those sale prices to scott@skritter.com, including your Skritter username in the note, and we'll get you hooked up.

@nick

Can you clarify- At this time there is no way to pay for 2 years via the Skritter site.
I'll either have to do it via the app store, or via Paypal direct to scott@skritter?

I'm asking as I rather pay skritter direct without Apple being the middleman.

@goobybear
scott@skritter actually is a payment to Inkren, the company behind Skritter.

That's right--and please include your Skritter username in the PayPal message.

Apple takes a 30% cut?!!! 30%!!!!!!!

It seems to be a fair price for the great market and payment infrastructure they've created in the App Store.

Let's not listen to the polite and honest version of Nick and just try to get all the money to the Skritter guys:) Apple is already holding an amazing amount of money.
Maybe we could sneakily include this payment information in our App Store review to tell new customers but I imagine Apple will filter and block these kind of reviews, and most new customers won't find out about the 30% cut.

Or write something like '5 stars, great app, (tip) pay Skritter via their site, not in the app'
Hmmm...

I don't think it's a good idea to write reviews encouraging people to give the app store the runaround.

I agree. I don't see anything sinister about Apple taking a 30% share in exchange for providing access to billions of potential customers and collecting the payments, not to mention providing the platform that makes this version of Skritter possible. At the same time, I don't see anything wrong with users who pre-date the Apple version (or anyone else for that matter) choosing to pay Skritter directly, for whatever reason. Lets not try to be clever and stick it to Apple. Just go learn some more vocabulary. Its a better use of our time.

Well it's an interesting subject. I can agree with both thoughts. Apple is there to make profit and they do as much as possible according to what is legal to make as much profit as they can. From moving to other states and countries for preferential taxes and what not else, they're very busy with it and it's totally understandable. On the one hand many people feel the burden of some of the decisions big corporations make, and on the other hand many positives can be given of what they are doing and providing. That's just life, the beauty of always having two sides. So all I think is when I see an option to get the money into the hands of the people directly rather than through a major corporation, I'll do that. And maybe there's this hippie inside me who wants to tell others to do so too (since the Skritter guys run a good company). Ah, time to listen to Podster and learn some vocab.

Why does the Australian iTunes store not offer the six-month or two-year subscription? Is it a mistake?

http://itunes.apple.com/au/app/skritter-chinese/id520277126?mt=8

You know what? I'm an idiot. Disregard my post. Sorry.

The app is fantastic, by the way.

Is PayPal the only option for purchasing 12-months through the site? I'm about to move to Taiwan so I'd love to bulk buy some months for me skritterz

Yeah; PayPal is it site-side for the moment.

I was surprised to see the currency differences.

In the Skritter app with a European Apple account, the 2 year subscription costs only 89.99€.

The US subscriptions seems to be at 119.99 USD.
Google says that 119.99 U.S. dollars = 95.74 Euros
Then again, when I check the Paypal price for sending the 120 USD, it says 98.87 €.

So compared to the in-app payment (where Apple takes 1/3 and you only receive 60 €) the European Paypal is 8,88€ or 10% more expensive.

I prefer to help you guys and send you the money which you have really deserved after all those months of hard work, but anyway, Nick, do you also get this difference or is this 10% lost in currency differences and Paypal charges?

We only get to pick a price tier, and Apple tries to make the price tiers equivalent across all App Stores while still making nice price numbers. Apparently they have not done this very well with the current exchange rate.

If you want to send 89.99€ to us via PayPal, do that instead. I won't suggest that you pay more than you would in the App Store!

Not to burst anyone's "Use PayPal so Skritter gets all the money" bubble, but when I use the PayPal app (maybe it's different on the web page) and choose "Goods or Services", it says that there is no fee for me to send the money, but the seller pays the fee. Looking on PayPal's website, it seems to be a bit unclear when it's really free or not... I'm assuming it's free when it's to family or friends, but it isn't free if the recipient is a business? It's a much smaller fee than Apple (appears to be less than 5%), but it's still there.

Or am I reading something wrong?

@chinajustin

Paypal takes "1.4% to 3.4% + £0.20 GBP*" according to their UK website, I assume it's similar for USD.

It's the same as with Apple: unless you walk up to one of the Skritter guys with $120 cash, the intermediate (be it Apple or Paypal) will have to take something for providing the service! So just pay them already and start Skrittering :P. I've spent 2 hours on the app since last night and it's awesome!

@Catherine

Well " :P " back at ya! Hehe. I've been using it already today, and even my technologically challenged wife loves it.

I just wanted everyone to understand, as you said, SOMEone SOMEwhere gets a piece of the cookie; PayPal's just happens to be less than Apple's.

Plus, I wanted to make sure I wasn't missing something when others were saying Skritter gets all of it when you use PayPal.

@chinajustin
Agreed! It's totally worth it, and worth the wait, and the £130 for an old iPhone - I'm going to Shanghai in the summer and now I can spend the whole ~11hour flight revising Chinese :). So much better than trying to use a textbook on a plane.
(2 year subscription - check!)

@Nick: Perfect, thanks a lot =) I just send the 90 € to Scott via Paypal.

After I reviewed so many characters just in 4 days I was sure I would use the app a lot in the future and finally re-start my Skritter career :)

Gonna post a little comment in the Appstore as well.

I've also noticed this in the App Store in my local currency. I just did a search on subscriptions on this forum and ended up on this thread. Cool! Once I have decided for a 2 year, I will send Scott a PayPal payment with my username in the message as I'd rather do so more directly rather than through my iTunes account. I am currently on the month by month subscription.

Just to be sure, scott@skritter.com is still the email for paying by paypal right?

I just sent in my subscription for a year to scott@skritter.com through Paypal, and got confirmed the next day, so yup, that's right!