The new App Store pricing model (old price, new price, increase):
- 59p - 69p (14 per cent)
- £1.19 - £1.49 (20 per cent)
- £1.79 - £1.99 (10 per cent)
- £2.39 - £2.49 (4 per cent)
- £2.99 - £2.99 (no change)
- £3.49 - £3.99 (13 per cent)
- £3.99 - £4.99 (20 per cent)
- £4.99 - £5.49 (9 per cent)
- £5.49 - £5.99 (8 per cent)
- £5.99 - £6.99 (14 per cent)
- £6.99 - £7.99 (13 per cent)
- £7.49 - £8.99 (17 per cent)
- £8.99 - £10.49 (14 per cent)
- £9.49 - £10.99 (14 per cent)
Personally I think that developers should be able to charge as little as they like for their App and it irks me that Apple have set a 69p minimum as this may lead to decreased competition (something that is always bad for the consumer). For example, with no minimum price, Apps could gain an advantage by undercutting the price of a familiar app, leading to a likely price drop of familiar apps.
However, remember that if you don't want to pay for your apps, there are always alternatives.
2 comments:
Hi. I am an Australian iPhone developer. You may be interested to know that in our app store the prices have been adjusted downwards, not up. Price tier one was au$1.19 but is now au$0.99, price tier 2 was au$2.49 but is now au$1.99 etc..
I'm 99% certain the adjustment is only to cover movements in exchange rates over the several years since the price points in each app store were set. When you set your price tier for your product as a developer (or I guess as an iBooks author or iTunes musician) you are setting it in US$ really.
also, understand it makes little sense to be selling at a currency conversion that is several years old, but to be reimbursed by Apple at current exchange rates, just the same as it makes little sense for Apple to charge the consumer at such an antiquated currency conversion, but to be converting the payment to $US at current rates. All that Apple has done is redress an advantage that your UK iTunes store customers have been enjoying, just as they have redressed a disadvantage that Australian iTunes customers have been suffering.
As an Australian dev with most of my sales happening domestically, this adjustment has me making between 20 and 25% less from each sale. I am certainly not complaining, it is up to me to change the selling point of any product at any time, I need only up to the next price tier to correct any imbalance if I wish. Also, I can only wait and see how this 20% price cut locally influences my sales.
It is IMHO very sensible of Apple to set the price tiers in one dollar US increments. Do you really want a price war between competing products undercutting each other by a matter of cents ?
best regards, Jef Long
PS Apple do have another price point below your 69p, and in every App store that I know of, developers can always list a product for free and monetize in other ways, advertising, in-app upgrades...
PS2. Software developers offering you a product they have worked very hard on, perhaps for many months, for only 69p or 59p is a new and exciting development in the computer software industry, and accomplished only because of the massive size of the marketplace that Apple has created. It has also come about because of Apple's excellent DRM management. Encouraging piracy to save a couple of cents or pence is an incredibly pissy position to adopt and counter productive to this software pricing revolution.
Firstly, thanks for your comment.
I am aware of the adjustment's in other countries, but as a UK citizen writing a blog based (primarily) at other UK based iOS users, I decided not to mention the price changes in other countries in this post.
I can understand the need to adjust app prices relative to changing exchange rates, but I do not believe Apple is being transparent (or fair) about this issue. Whilst not particularly related to iOS (but definitely related to exchange rates) a macbook currently retails for $999 in the US Apple Store, which according to the exchange rates used to calculate the new App prices, should directly scale to £699 in the UK. This is not the case, a macbook costs £867. As a UK citizen I am used to being ripped off by Apple compared to people in the US and feel that the lack of continuity across of Apple's product line in regard to international pricing and conversion rates is another example of this.
You say that you only need to up the price of your apps by one bracket, but in the UK app developers previously charging 59p have no option to go down a price bracket and still make a profit. If they made their App free and introduced adverts, previously paying customers would be quite rightly annoyed.
Personally, I do not partake in the piracy of well developed and fairly priced applications, however there are obviously some people that do. I like to use my blog to provide unbiased information which may include coverage of things of this sort. Whether encouraged or not it is the readers choice whether to partake in the piracy of applications and theirs alone.
Thanks again for your comment and good luck with your career in app development.
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