this post was submitted on 04 Jan 2026
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You had me until the word subscription
The alternative being free? I'm not going to comment on the value of this specific case but one-time "lifetime" purchases are historically unsustainable. There are plenty of fine services with a subscription and if (read: if) Punkt can leverage some kind of independence charging one versus getting $20m from Google for including it as the default search service, I think it's a fine addition a market with fewer and fewer real choices. Seems like a knee-jerk reaction IMO
This phone runs a MediaTek Dimensity 7300. Charging $699 for that hardware means there is already a massive markup baked in. I would generally argue against this stating "buy once, cry once", but in this case the price is already inflated comparibly to the offering. They're selling services bundled in with their operating system on their infrastructure, their servers. They are the data handler in this case. You give them rights to your data. With a subscription fee and a continuous reliance on them for this service you are in a SLA with them. They can modify their service to be more expensive, less privacy focused on a whim. You then have a device you are unhappy with that your sole investment purpose was for privacy and control. You have an ethical brick.