For many (if not most) iPhone developers, the App Store's overheated competition and bloated inventory have led to scorched-earth pricing that makes it virtually impossible to parlay mobile development into a valid for-profit business model without turning to subscriptions or in-app advertising. RIM's tried to nip that behavior in the bud by
capping the minimum sale price at $2.99, and it sounds like Microsoft feels the same way in light of the flowery, motivational language being thrown the way of developers at learning sessions ahead of the
Marketplace's launch. "I know, 99 cents is interesting -- yes, consumers like to pay 99 cents for applications," admits Microsoft's Loke Uei, "but 99 cents, come on, I think your app is worth more than that." You heard it straight from the horse's mouth, people --
your app is worth more than that. Ultimately, Uei says the goal is to set the bench higher by keeping low-quality apps out of the Marketplace, but to start out and beef up, they might consider taking all the crap they can get and worrying about stroking devs' egos after the fact. If the store's client app makes it easy enough to browse, search, and get to best-of-breed content, this point should be moot anyhow.
posted Aug 20th 2009 2:54AM
I like the idea of building an app catalog void of the dumb crap in the iphone app store, but I like paying 99 cents and, yeah, I'm not buying as many apps at $2.99 ea. The problem with telling 99 cent app devs "your app is worth more" is that in many cases, it just isn't. Whereas 7/10 people might pick something up for the lower price, a dev may be lucky to get 1/10 at the higher price and that just doesn't add up to profitability.
I don't think it will stop all the apps showing up that are garbage. They still will be made. It just mean instead of paying 99 cents for garbage you will be paying $2.99.
I like how MSFT plans on giving the ability refund your money within 24 hours if you don't want an app. I would gladly pay more for an app. What I hate with my iPhone and the App store is there are so many apps for various things, most of the apps suck and a few I have boughten and learned they sucked and wish I could get my money back. Such as right now there are a few diffrent navigation apps I want to try but it would cost over $200 to get them all. Well I want to try them each before buying but I can't so I'm not buying any of them.
Well, for WinMo Devs, yeah 99 cents is peanuts because there is not much demand and the hardware is lame to startwith.
Sell more apps for 99 cents rather than force the customer to pirate @ $9.99...!
Such a fanboy you are that you don't even know what you are talking about. Windows Mobile has a huge demand, such as it is pretty close to the same market share as the iPhone. The Apple app store sucks It wouldn't be so bad if you could get refunded for apps you pay for that find out it sucks a minute later after you have downloaded it. Apple is losing sales from me because of it. There are a few apps out there I would like but I'm not going to spend the money again and get burned, as 99.99% of the apps on the store would do.
This means less wasted money by the customer and dev will put out better apps....
"Lame" hardware ??
Higher res screens, higher res cameras, SD cards, better Bluetooth implementation, FM receivers, mutli-band radios, battery change etc etc ... yeah, I can see how you would make a comment like that
As for demand, last time I checked Handango was doing pretty good: 140k+ apps, more than 100Mio downloads ....
Winmo already has a bad rep (most of it is deserved). They are shooting themselves in the foot. I don't like iphones but their PR machine has already set the standard. Good luck but it sounds like they are going to steer potential clients to Apple and their .99 store (crap or not).
I can respect them telling their devs that they're worth more but the 2.99 strategy is a terrible one that will not prosper. They are trying to reinvent a flat tire.
Resistive touchscreen, non TFT touchscreen (can't see sh!t outside), crappy OS with poor hardware implementation and memory usage, no (real) 3D acceleration, proprietary headphone jacks on most of them, etc. etc. etc. So yes, lame hardware.
I personally prefer the Resistive touchscreen
I can see my diamond outside fine?
crappy os -> opinion
you think the TP2 has poor hardware implementation?
bad memory usage? I've never once ran out of memory on my 2 year old HTC Diamond
my diamond has a few games that are 3D accelerated...
my A2PD headphones dont need a stereo jack... also many phones have them, Touch HD, TP2, Omnia ect...
non-changeable batter, no physical qwerty, locked down phone, that sounds lamer to me ;)
An OS isn't hardware.
I expect to see "App Hunter" ads on television soon. Hunters will be looking for applications under $2.99 each and won't find any in the Microsoft app store, but they will find them in the Apple app store and be so elated (in the television commercial).
why set a price minimum, so does this mean no free apps?