iTunes App Store Pricing Decisions

I don't like the line in there about them pushing people to put a price tag on there products. I really hope theres enough free apps that will be worthy. There is on the computer, and you know you can sell most apps you get for free on the computer, so hopefully it will be the same deal on the iPhone.

I really hope the prices are controlled somewhat...If 90% of the solid apps are $9.99 plus, there will be significant resistant from non-hardcore end users.

I honestly think $1.99-$4.99 should be the threshold for basic apps...

I want to see some hardcore games. I hope there are not a million puzzle games. I want race, football, etc. I hope EA or the bigger companies step up and launch some PSP like quality games.

EDIT: Need for Speed, Madden. It can be done. Think playing football and tilting iPhone to move and touching to throw ball, etc. You get the point.

i think $2-$5 is a good range for these apps. If every app is $10-$15 than I am not even gonna bother...

A developer of a "general interest" app should charge a very low entry price ($9.99 ish) and state in advance that upgrades and feature rich versions will be at a higher price, so customers know in advance what to expect. It will encourage sampling of the basic functional app for low end users. It sounds like the iPhone will be so pervasive there will be a booming market for 3rd party localization of single language app developers!

Rocketman

Your base are belong to us!

A developer of a "general interest" app should charge a very low entry price ($9.99 ish) and state in advance that upgrades and feature rich versions will be at a higher price, so customers know in advance what to expect. It will encourage sampling of the basic functional app for low end users. It sounds like the iPhone will be so pervasive there will be a booming market for 3rd party localization of single language app developers!

Rocketman

Your base are belong to us!

Still too expensive to begin with. For a basic app that I can only use on my phone, and isn't 'professional' (ie Quicken to-go, Office to-go, etc) I don't think I'll really spend more than $5.

I don't plan on buying any apps right off the bat. I will want to see how people react to certain apps and to see whether people feel they got their money's worth on others

If you all don't want to pay for an app, don't buy it

The strongest way people can get the point across that the price is too high is low sales

Apple will list and adapt to how the sales are in the first few weeks, imo

Top end cell phone games cost $12 in the US.

http://www.mobilemag.com/content/100/345/C14122/

So I won't be surprised if they charge $15-18 for top end iphone games.

I really don't care the cost as some apps will only do 1 thing while others would be whole programs like office.

My biggest concern will be will there be free trail periods so you can see if you like the app and its worth the money. If every app comes with 24 hour free trial period that would be really helpful. I'm certainly not spending even $5 on an app that may blow chunks so to speak but $50 for something really revolutionary would be just fine.

Cavero accepts that developing games for the iPhone and other new mobile platforms will be more costly and time-consuming, but says that higher prices will balance out these costs.

So if there are maybe 5 million iPhones out there (can someone back me up on that? Not totally sure), how much can a decent developer make? Let's do some math (just estimates, k?). So say:

-Maybe a "good" app means 1 million people buy it at $5 a pop: $5 million easy. Not bad. That could fund a team of developers, do some advertising, blah blah
-Say 5 hundred thousand buy, that's still 2.5 mil.
-Cut that down some more, 100,000 is a cool half million.
-If you're a hobbyist and get a few thousand (5,000), that's still $25,000 for a hobby.

Okay, if you charge $10 for an app, everything above doubles. :eek: And let's not forget all the iTouchers out there.

Not sure what it costs to make a game, but I'd say it would be possible to make some good money.... I think the market is there and they shouldn't need (different from want) to charge too much for a simple app. But then again, I'm a musician and don't really know anything about business or programming. Although I do think it was smart that they told us about an app store a long time ago to get us used to the idea of paying for the apps.