I call shenanigans!!!

[Keith]

First, Icenium changed its licensing model to only allow use of the Visual Studio plugin if you paid for the enterprise version (which cost nearly 5x that of the standard edition). Now, it looks as though Icenium has been rebranded as AppBuilder and the lowest usable license that you can purchase (allowing for release to Google Play and Apple Appstore) is $49 per month (up from $16 per month with Icenium). Also, if you want Visual Studio support you now have to pay $99 per month (up from $79 per month with Icenium). This seems like a bait and switch tactic. What's the deal here? Are you trying to kill individual developers?

What will happen to my code that I have developed in Icenium Graphite? Will it automatically be ported to AppBuilder? How exactly will this transition occur in terms of billing and product usage?

[Troy]

If you're using GitHub to host your code, the new rebranded windows client and web client will open your code just like Graphite and Myst did. The rebrand is nothing more than updating some UI (Telerik missed some places because "Icenium" still shows up - oops!).

[Gabe]

Hi Keith, I know there are a lot changes happening lately and I understand the confusion.  As an Icenium Developer Edition subscriber, you're automatically upgraded to the AppBuilder Professional Edition.  If you're paid annually, then you'll maintain the previous billing amount until your subscription expires.  If you're paid monthly, then you'll maintain your previous billing amount until July.  At that time the AppBuilder Professional Edition billing amount will take effect.  

As an aside, the Platform FAQ has these answers and a lot more - http://www.telerik.com/purchase/faq/platform  (keep scrolling to the bottom)

However, at the end of the day, $16/month does become $49/month.  This pricing enables us to create & maintain the feature-set and level of service we want to offer.  It also means we don't have to pull other shenanigans like billing per project.  And for individual developers, we maintain a freemium offering that enables you to use many of our Platform's features and create fully functional mobile apps.  However, it does lack features that would enable you to easily publish to live app stores.

It’s always challenging to reply to frustrations like yours because I understand where you’re coming from…and it’s completely valid.  However, I also understand the enhancements we’ve added to AppBuilder and what we'll be doing in the coming months.  Ultimately, it’s on us to demonstrate that we can bring at least this much value to the table.

Hi Troy, the rebranding really is more than a fresh splash of paint.  Our products, previously, did not do a good job talking to one another.  It meant we had many pieces of the application development puzzle (planning, UI, building, connections, testing, measures, etc.) but it was really difficult to use these products together in a cohesive way.  For the last 6-months we’ve had the entire company working to fix this problem and, for the first time ever, many of our services are available in one place in an integrated way.  And we’re still just getting warmed up.   

Sorry for the long reply and thanks for voicing your feedback!  Hopefully this helps eliminate some confusion (or at least explain our perspective).  :)

Gabe Sumner
Product Marketing Manager
Telerik Platform

[Vladi]

Hello everyone,

Just want to inform you that we heard our users' feedback and decided to act on it. As of last week (AppBuilder's 2.1 release) the AppBuilder Visual Studio Extension is available for all active Telerik Platform and AppBuilder Professional license holders. More info can be found in this blog post.

Kind regards,
Vladi
Telerik