Is it our fault (devs) that the prices of the apps are low? Interesting podcast

steve86

Hey guys.

I was listening to this really interesting podcast on the way home and I thought I could share it with you. Unfortunately I was just surfing the radio stations and came across this podcast so I have no names of the guys or the name of the podcast.

This guys were average joeys and not tech savvy people and they were saying something that might be true.

It turns out that they were discussing that how could be possible that something that took months to produce and a lot of hard effort such as a good iPhone app could be just worth 99 cents. They were saying that they feel sorry for the developers that thanks to the overwhelming competition had to sell their hard worked products at a price that is cheaper than a bag of Doritos.

Here is the part that cough my attention and the part that I want to hear your opinion. They were saying that it was actually the developers fault, trying to win some customers they set the prices ridiculously low so that it would be a no brainier to buy an app. That the customers could think "heck even if its a bad app who cares its only a dollar."

They said something that might be true. If people are willing to spend 99 cents on an app, if they had no other option they would be willing to spend 1.99 on the same app or 2.99. If there were absolutely no developers that use tier 1 prices we would all be making more money because well the lowest tier would be 1.99 or 2.99.

They said that it is the developers fault for "educating" people that apps are so cheap that now when they see a 1.99 app a lot of them think man this is very expensive.

I quote one of the radio guys saying "C'mon people its just 1.99!! how could something that took months and hard effort to produce could be expensive at just 1.99 the small popcorn at the movies is 3 times more expensive than that".

They ended up discussing that apple should drop the 99 cents tier and the 2.99 should be the least expensive.

Anyway I just wanted to hear your thoughts about this if you have some time. Cause it might be true.

Regards,

Steve

DrGlickert

I would imagine that Apple at some point will eliminate the "Tier 1" pricing and get rid of the 0.99 apps. OR, they'll raise the price of "Tier 1" to $1.29 kind of like they did with their songs.

They'll just shift everything up a bit once they get greedy enough. No one got mad at the artists that make music when they raised the price to $1.29, people got a little pissy with Apple. I'm sure that Apple will raise the price and then people won't get mad at developers (We're just the messengers, don't shoot us!).

I say the issue definitely is that developers want volume rather than good price points. So we all charge 99 cents for an app that well worth $3 - 5 bucks each. I would say the problem is more Angry Birds. If they went to the $1.99 that they were considering, then I would expect more developers to jump to $1.99 too.

I'm halfway thinking that I should make an app and sell it for 99 cents AND put in iAds.

Think about big games these days; Madden has the "Old Spice Red-Zone" and TONS of in-game ads, and people pay over $60 bucks for that game--- EVERY FOOTBALL SEASON TOO!

I think I'll start a movement among developers. $0.99 AND iAds or $2.99 for the full version. FREE only for "demo" modes.

steve86

Yea I think you are right.. It would be cool if at least apple would raise tier 1 so we could get 1 dollar per app after giving them their 30% cut.

ps: i'll join that movement

jonmulcahy

it is, it's been a race to the bottom. It makes it so much harder to make a living at making apps. You really have one chance to do well, otherwise just give up and start a new project.

tenrdrmer

Yeah its the same thing that happens anywhere ppl see the chance to make a fast buck. And the only way everyone else can compete is to match the lower price.

steve86

jonmulcahy said:
it is, it's been a race to the bottom. It makes it so much harder to make a living at making apps. You really have one chance to do well, otherwise just give up and start a new project.

tenrdrmer said:
Yeah its the same thing that happens anywhere ppl see the chance to make a fast buck. And the only way everyone else can compete is to match the lower price.

Yea you are both right.. I hope apple realize this and do something about it.