Mizage, makers of the Divvy window management application, have come up with a clever way round the problem of migrating customers from traditional online purchases to official Mac App Store purchases: if you can prove you’ve bought their app twice, they’ll refund your original payment.
This has come about because Apple’s provided no official means of transferring existing software licences to the Store. If you bought App X once before, you have to pay for it again if you want to get it via the Mac App Store (and so make use of the App Store’s built-in software updates, etc).
So the solution from Mizage is simple. If you’ve already bought Divvy, and you buy it again through the Mac App Store, just send them some proof of purchase (they suggest forwarding your emailed App Store receipt) and they will refund the money you paid for Divvy the first time round.
So you still only pay once for the app, and you get to transform it into an official Mac App Store purchase.
Here’s what Mizage wrote in their announcement email:
“We’ve had a lot of people ask us if they could switch to the App Store version. Unfortunately, Apple doesn’t have any way of transferring a license, so we decided to do what is best for our customers and provide this opportunity. Switching is completely optional. We will continue to support Divvy outside the App Store, just as we always have. This is merely for your convenience, if you so choose.”
There are restrictions, though: refunds can only be made in US dollars, and via Paypal.
