Cheap Apps Stifling Innovation?

[helitx]

I do not agree with that all the way. Lets put an app called my toilet on the main page (looks like crap,plays like crap,must be crap) and you say it will sell better than most because it is on the main page and they are not. Thats crap. If the app is a good one it will sell. If it sucks it will not. Price makes is a small part of it but you are saying put crap in front of everyones face and they will buy it anyway. Would you price it at 2.99 and sell 300 of the apps or price at .99 and sell 1500 because more people could afford it.

You are skewing the possible results, of course putting an app called "My Toilet" on the main page would not help the sales BUT I guarantee it would sell and way better than most would be willing to admit or believe.

Conversely, and to counter your point, take a HIGH quality app (at any price) and make it so it is ALWAYS at the bottom of the pile, i.e. last few pages of the AppStore, sales will be abysmal.

Back in the Palm OS heyday (not all that long ago really) we saw this over and over. Pretty much if we:
A. Put an app on the home page as "Featured"
B. Put it in a top spot in an email blast
C. Put it on the home page of the <insert name of company> store that we powered

It would sell, period, no if, ands or buts. PRODUCT PLACEMENT is king. Granted sales of a crap app will drop if bad reviews are posted but plenty enough will buy before and after that point.

You are also missing the difference between pricing that drives impulse buys (proven to be $1.49 and under for mobile apps) and those that are priced at a level which gives them much higher perceived value. The argument "I would rather sell 1,000 at $X than sell 100 at $X+$Y" do not hold here. You are confusing two different dynamics.

paying over $5 for iphone software is rediculous to me.

Keeping with the theme of the beginning of this thread...

REALLY? So, if the jailbreaking software required payment of say $14.95, you would not pay for it?

I am not a computer programmer though have worked alongside tons of them. Why is their time not worth money? The math does not work when people say AND think it will actually happen when they think or hear: "Well, if I can sell 1,000 at $5 then surely I can sell 2,000 at $3". It simply does not work that way in reality. Ask any Palm OS developer who was around during it's heyday. I do not have the data here though would bet that the Palm OS applications sold when Palm was hot is way (WAAAAAY) higher than the application numbers/revenue for the iPhone today. Not including media (i.e. music/video sales)

[LGgeek]

This guy does make sense however I don't agree with him wholeheartedly... make an app worth buying and people will buy it. If your apps aren't selling for 10, 20 or god knows how many more dollars, they just aren't worth that much to people..................Ay just a buck most people are willing to take a risk. Something that sounds good but costs 50 bucks (and might not end up so good) isn't worth the risk for as many people.

+1
at a buck I would give it a shot, if bad app then not out much.

[Grassmasta]

Conversely, and to counter your point, take a HIGH quality app (at any price) and make it so it is ALWAYS at the bottom of the pile, i.e. last few pages of the AppStore, sales will be abysmal.

Back in the Palm OS heyday (not all that long ago really) we saw this over and over. Pretty much if we:
A. Put an app on the home page as "Featured"
B. Put it in a top spot in an email blast
C. Put it on the home page of the <insert name of company> store that we powered

It would sell, period, no if, ands or buts. PRODUCT PLACEMENT is king. Granted sales of a crap app will drop if bad reviews are posted but plenty enough will buy before and after that point.

You are also missing the difference between pricing that drives impulse buys (proven to be $1.49 and under for mobile apps) and those that are priced at a level which gives them much higher perceived value. The argument "I would rather sell 1,000 at than sell 100 at +" do not hold here. You are confusing two different dynamics.

There is actually a book called the Paradox of Choice by Barry Schwartz that discusses this very phenomenon. The short hand version of this, is that there is so much information to process that it stresses out the mind, leaving people to select from what is most readily offered. I.E. if there are 3 samples of jelly at a grocery store, most people are more than likely going to purchase one of those 3 jellys; unless they have a favorite jelly in mind that they like better. Marketers are very aware of this fact, and companies do it all the time. Its interesting if you pay attention to it, because you can really start to pick out what companies want you to buy; including apple's appstore.

Its interesting though, because despite that bit of fact; for an individual programmer to write a letter to Lord Jobs, complaining about his lack of app sales, is pretty shameless.

[helitx]

Its interesting though, because despite that bit of fact; for an individual programmer to write a letter to Lord Jobs, complaining about his lack of app sales, is pretty shameless.

Good point. One thing to keep in mind is that the products being put "front and center" are not APPLE's products, they are someone elses. Therein lies another dynamic; in other words

- does the person at apple have a relationship with the developer that is conducive to featuring their product? Think favortism does not come into play? wrong...

- is there a fee for placement? or other exchange such as pay for advertising with us and we will do this other thing for you.

- insert other non engineering/computer modeling type decision making process

Think there are people at Apple who do not get along with developer "X" and thus the products of developer "X" will always be buried, or at least never featured? You bet.... RELATIONSHIPS are uber important.

[andypropaganda]

I don't know if this guy realizes it, but it's not just on the iPhone that people prefer cheaper apps. It's like this all over the computer world. People do not enjoy paying for software. Why? Because it's not tangible. Whether people admit it or not, they do not enjoy paying for things that they cannot hold or feel. How many people use the "pro" version of peer to peer programs as opposed to the free version? Who doesn't like freeware?

If you want your programs to sell better then invest in advertising? Advertise your game or app on a site that is devoted to iPhone or Apple news, or even just any mobile device. Something along those lines. You can't just expect a $20 app to sell. Especially the way the economy is right now. People don't have a lot of extra money to spend. I know that I haven't payed more than $2.99 for an app. And that was only once.

[BlackWolf]

Well, in my opinion the problem is a little different: The problem is that there is not only 99-cent-crapware, but also a lot of $5-crapware. When I see an app that costs more than $3, I get really careful because I bought a lot of expensive apps that turned out to be aweful - crashing all the time, running really slow, stuff like that. I guess if you really create quality apps they will rise in the appstore - if you sell them for a reasonable price.

Considering that I get "real" pc- or macgames for about $30-40, I will never pay $20 for an iphone app. As cool as iphone games are - they are always mobile games, no pc games.

[EGutierrez91]

I usually try out applications before purchasing the full version. If a company offers a Lite/Free version, and I'm more than happy with it, I'm willing to pay the full price.

Saying $0.99 apps are stifling innovation is a bit harsh, since some apps are extremely useful and/or fun.