Comments on: AppStore Prices – Is Cheaper Really Better?

By: Jonathan W

Jonathan W — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 05:57:37 +0000

Very interesting read.
Regarding the “can’t try before buy” problem mentioned by Elia, I don’t actually think this is a big issue thanks to ‘lite’ versions. Almost every paid app has a free version to give you a demo of what the fully featured version can do.

I personally think the top 10, top 25 lists have a lot to do with the low prices of apps. Because these lists are ranked by unit downloads, they push developers to lower their prices and focus on achieving high sales volumes. I’ve written about this issue here:

http://blog.jwegener.com/2009/04/01/iphone-app-competitive-dynamics-downward-pricing-pressure/

I’d love to hear your comments. Thanks.

By: Biglar

Biglar — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 19:22:28 +0000

Marc, Thanks for your quick response.

By: Marc

Marc — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 16:36:28 +0000

@Biglar: I appreciate your concern and it is on the list. Regarding updates in general, we’ve continued to release improvements and updates over the course of the 9 months or so eWallet has been out. The last one was in February and added PassBuilder password genertion (a very big request.)

So yes, your request is on the list of things we plan to address as we produce additional updates. Also, I’m fairly certain that this one will be sooner rather than later. At the same time, I won’t promise that we’ll hit the specific update that you (or another user) is looking for. We prioritize based on a number of factors (with customer requests as a big one.) Some things we get to right away (sync), others take some time – and in some cases we just don’t get to add a feature at all. It’s the nature of the business, I’m afraid.

In the meantime, it does look like your particular request is likely to hit the app sometime in the next release or two.

By: Biglar

Biglar — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 16:23:50 +0000

Marc, Regarding your comments about NO PROFIT=NO UPDATES. I have Ewallet on my iphone and also the windows application on Parallels to sync it. Everything works ok, …. but the text on the Iphone in Ewallet is so small you almost need a magnifying glass to read the info. Particularl when many application keys are 20 or 30 digits long with alphabetic and numerical characters mixed. I know many people have asked to view the cards in landscape view or to have options to increase text size, etc. But no updates — or apparently none on the horizon. Hopefully, since we have paid some more than other apps, we could get the benefit of at least this small improvement, which would make the app completely usable.

Regards
Larry

By: Precios bajos: opinión de un desarrollador veterano de iPhone | El Blog del iPhone

Tue, 31 Mar 2009 22:53:59 +0000

[...] encontrar mas información en el blog, el cual encontraremos en http://blog.iliumsoft.com/2009/03/19/appstore-prices-is-cheaper-really-better/ Share and [...]

By: Antair Games » Blog Archive » Weekly Update

Antair Games » Blog Archive » Weekly Update — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 00:06:23 +0000

[...] Twitter loop, so I don’t have much else to share. I did read this one cool article though: Is Cheaper Really Better? — yeah, you guessed it, it’s about the App [...]

By: Ken Fink

Ken Fink — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 08:52:08 +0000

My friend had got an apple iphone. He jailbroke it after downloading a few software from apple store. I asked him why, he said, apple store the things were costlier, I do not yet understand

By: Marc

Marc — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 17:00:42 +0000

@Elia: Thanks, Elia! And great points – especially the “I’m not paying $20 for that if I can’t try it first.” That really is a big issue.

By: Elia Freedman

Elia Freedman — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 16:47:58 +0000

Thanks, Marc. Great summary. After all these years of floating in the same circles (12 years running Infinity Softworks myself) I’m surprised we haven’t directly met (although I’m quite familiar with Ilium). Two general comments:

First, one thing you didn’t comment on that I think artificially suppresses the purchase price for iPhone is the lack of trials. I’m much more willing to pay $20, $30, even $50 for an application if I can try it first and make sure it’s the one for me. But absent that information, I’m going to struggle with a higher purchase price and may default to lower priced products to try to fill the need.

Second, we’ve charged $50-120 for our powerOne products on Palm, Windows Mobile and BlackBerry. Our initial app for iPhone, FastFigures, is $6 as an introductory price. Were our prices high on other platforms? Very much so. My research showed my target customers would pay it willingly. My research for iPhone showed much lower price points were expected by my target customers, in the $7-$13 price range. (I’m below initially as a bonus to the hundreds who asked for the app and had been with us for years.) So clearly there is also some “price expectation” adjustments that have happened on the AppStore as well.

By: Interview at AppCraver - AppStore Pricing « Ilium Software Blog

Interview at AppCraver - AppStore Pricing « Ilium Software Blog — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 12:43:45 +0000

[...] good people over at AppCraver read my blog post about pricing and asked to do a short interview. They asked some great questions that further [...]