14 DAY TRIAL // Lead Developer at Tumblr, Marco Arment, has posted an interesting article on his blog, saying that iPhone developers could well raise the price point of their apps, should they be delivering “real value.”
Citing two authors writing posts about "the sad state of App Store pricing," one of whom attempts to persuade app developers to raise prices and make $9.99 the new starting point, Marco asserts that “developers should strongly consider his message.” On the other hand, having spotted the response of Veiled Games, Marco points out to some incorrect generalizations as the reasons why developers are holding back on higher pricing:
- People aren’t willing to pay very much for iPhone apps. - If you charge more than $0.99, a lot of people will complain. - Very few apps are priced at $9.99 or higher. Of those, nobody’s selling in any volume.
Marco contradicts such statements, saying “Well, guys, I’m a developer, and my app sells for $9.99. It’s not a blockbuster hit, and it hasn’t made me a millionaire, but it sells at a healthy rate, considering that I only spend a few hours per week on it, I haven’t spent a penny on promotion, and I haven’t released a new version in months (although I’m about to).”
“A few people have complained about the price, but their numbers pale in comparison to the people who email me to say how happy they are with my app. Selling an app for $9.99 isn’t impossible, but you can’t expect just anything to sell for that price,” he writes.
Ok, so these are some of the irregularities, meaning that, to solve these problems, developers simply need to act accordingly. One of the most important things a developer needs to do to move an app is “offer a free version.”
“It’s tough to ask someone to pay more than $2 blindly, without any way to try your app,” Marco asserts. “Make a free version that doesn’t suck, but leave enough great features or content as paid exclusives, and make sure the free app tastefully tells its users that the paid version exists (and why they should buy it).”
In Marco's opinion, other important checkpoints for developers include:
Deliver real value - “Make people love your product;”
Respect yourself as a developer - “Have pride in your work, and don’t deliver crap;"
Never pander to cheapskates - “You will never satisfy everyone. You don’t need to;”
Have reasonable expectations - “Do the math to figure out a fair price point, or decide if an app is worth making.”
The developer thus concludes his analysis, adding that “There are a lot more people than you think that will pay reasonable prices for good software, but most of them don’t leave reviews or send emails. They quietly buy the app and you never hear from them. These people are the market, not the complainers and whiners.”
Marco Arment is the author of Instapaper, an app for iPhone adn iPod touch that can read saved web pages (offline) on the go.