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App store price increases
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Confusing
14-07-2011
Related content from Digital Spy:

Apple hikes up App Store prices


Just loaded up the app store on my iphone and everything's increased in price! What reason do they have to put them up so much, except greed

Here is full list of changes
http://www.pocketgamer.co.uk/r/Multi...ws.asp?c=31494
59p is now 69p
£1.19 now £1.49
£1.79 now £1.99
£2.39 now £2.49
£2.99 still £2.99
£3.49 now £3.99
£3.99 now £4.99
£4.99 now £5.49
£5.49 now £5.99
£5.99 now £6.99
£6.99 now £7.99
£7.49 now £8.99
£8.99 now £10.49
£9.49 now £10.99
danleto
14-07-2011
You only realise it's greed now?
russellelly
14-07-2011
Originally Posted by Confusing:
“Just loaded up the app store on my iphone and everything's increased in price! What reason do they have to put them up so much, except greed

Here is full list of changes
http://www.pocketgamer.co.uk/r/Multi...ws.asp?c=31494
59p is now 69p
£1.19 now £1.49
£1.79 now £1.99
£2.39 now £2.49
£2.99 still £2.99
£3.49 now £3.99
£3.99 now £4.99
£4.99 now £5.49
£5.49 now £5.99
£5.99 now £6.99
£6.99 now £7.99
£7.49 now £8.99
£8.99 now £10.49
£9.49 now £10.99”

Apparently it's to bring prices in line with USD, since the exchange rate has drifted. Some other countries have seen a price decrease for the same reason.

http://www.macrumors.com/2011/07/13/...-store-prices/
cleocat
14-07-2011
Just about to post the same thing but why has 2.99 not changed. It's an increase of 17%
stud u like
14-07-2011
Disgusting behaviour! Talk about ripping people off!
d3nium
14-07-2011
Installous FTW!
LowLife
14-07-2011
But you're an Apple customer, being ripped off should be second nature to you...
david.boobis
14-07-2011
Originally Posted by russellelly:
“Apparently it's to bring prices in line with USD, since the exchange rate has drifted. Some other countries have seen a price decrease for the same reason.

http://www.macrumors.com/2011/07/13/...-store-prices/”

If that were the case then the prices would show a uniform increase in relation to their US counterparts, but that's not the case - $1.99 to $2.99 shows a 50p increase, while $4.99 to $5.99 shows a £1 increase. $6.99 to $7.99 shows a 50p increase, while $54.99 to $59.99 shows a £2 increase.

I'm not going to speculate as to the reason for the changes, but to say it's purely about pulling prices back into line is naive.
mtaylor1811
14-07-2011
Be interesting to see if and when the Pound ever gets strong against the Dollar, Apple reduce the price of there apps to compensate - yeah as if lol
grumpyoldbat
14-07-2011
Originally Posted by david.boobis:
“If that were the case then the prices would show a uniform increase in relation to their US counterparts, but that's not the case - $1.99 to $2.99 shows a 50p increase, while $4.99 to $5.99 shows a £1 increase. $6.99 to $7.99 shows a 50p increase, while $54.99 to $59.99 shows a £2 increase.

I'm not going to speculate as to the reason for the changes, but to say it's purely about pulling prices back into line is naive.”

There's clearly some rounding up going on, to make the prices look nicer.
david.boobis
14-07-2011
Originally Posted by grumpyoldbat:
“There's clearly some rounding up going on, to make the prices look nicer.”

They never cared about that before (59p, £1.19, etc) so I don't buy that argument either. Even if that was the case, it's a bit harsh to financially penalise the UK because they want the prices to look pretty.
davethorp
14-07-2011
Rarely buy paid apps anyway so not really bothered
cavemanjames
14-07-2011
You buy a product for brand name at an extortionate price and then get upset when they increase the price of their apps?
grumpyoldbat
14-07-2011
Originally Posted by david.boobis:
“They never cared about that before (59p, £1.19, etc) so I don't buy that argument either. Even if that was the case, it's a bit harsh to financially penalise the UK because they want the prices to look pretty.”

They all end in 9 though. The conversion for 99c to £ comes out at about 62p, so they've rounded that to the nearest 9.

If the exchange rate wasn't right, at least this means app developers will get a fair price regardless of which country their apps are sold in. I'd guess up to now, they were receiving a smaller amount for every app sold in the UK.
iain
14-07-2011
Originally Posted by Confusing:
“Just loaded up the app store on my iphone and everything's increased in price! What reason do they have to put them up so much, except greed ”

current exchange rates, due to the weak £ compared to the $?

Iain
david.boobis
14-07-2011
Originally Posted by grumpyoldbat:
“They all end in 9 though. The conversion for 99c to £ comes out at about 62p, so they've rounded that to the nearest 9.

If the exchange rate wasn't right, at least this means app developers will get a fair price regardless of which country their apps are sold in. I'd guess up to now, they were receiving a smaller amount for every app sold in the UK.”

OK, but if you look at some other conversions that doesn't work:

$6.99 = £4.33 -> App Store = £4.99
$9.99 = £6.19 -> App Store = £6.99
$29.99 = £18.58 -> App Store = £20.49

Looks like they might be realigning the more popular price points and regaining historically "lost" revenue through the higher ones - so Apple gains through distributed sales, but the individual devs who missed out don't.
grumpyoldbat
14-07-2011
I don't follow you. If Apple sells at the new prices, the devs get 70% of the new price. Apple's 30% is from the newer price. Both Apple and the devs would have lost out at the lower price.
david.boobis
14-07-2011
Originally Posted by grumpyoldbat:
“I don't follow you. If Apple sells at the new prices, the devs get 70% of the new price. Apple's 30% is from the newer price. Both Apple and the devs would have lost out at the lower price.”

I mean that the devs who have already sold at the original price will not get any of the money they lost through the incorrect exchange rate back, but Apple will recoup these losses through the skewed rates at higher price points. Yes, the devs who price there now gain, but no app over around $5.99 sells massively anyway. Combine all the sales at these price points though, and it looks good for Apple.

The popular price points $0.99, $1.99, and $2.99 are in line with the exchange rates, so the devs there don't lose or gain anything.
tonysidaway
14-07-2011
Wait. People pay for apps?
Dark 1
14-07-2011
Originally Posted by stud u like:
“Disgusting behaviour! Talk about ripping people off!”

Yeah! Apple customers in Australia, Japan and Switzerland must feel so ripped off having to pay less for apps now. So evil!
Everything Goes
14-07-2011
Keep giving your money to the Church of Jobs and you will get into iHeaven
ACU
14-07-2011
Part of the price increase may be to do with exchange rates, some is just to increase apple coffers. Nothing wrong with that, as people have a choice on whether to buy an app or not.

I wouldnt fall for the exchange rate excuse. Not sure why apple fans will complain. They paid way over the odds for the apple device, so why should a few more pennies on apps bother you?
grumpyoldbat
14-07-2011
Originally Posted by david.boobis:
“I mean that the devs who have already sold at the original price will not get any of the money they lost through the incorrect exchange rate back, but Apple will recoup these losses through the skewed rates at higher price points. Yes, the devs who price there now gain, but no app over around $5.99 sells massively anyway. Combine all the sales at these price points though, and it looks good for Apple.

The popular price points $0.99, $1.99, and $2.99 are in line with the exchange rates, so the devs there don't lose or gain anything.”

Go and look at the Top Grossing list on the app store. The GPS apps are above £10 each and yet they're still selling in high enough quantities to be top of the charts. Quite a few of the EA brand titles go above the £5 mark too.
grumpyoldbat
14-07-2011
Originally Posted by david.boobis:
“I mean that the devs who have already sold at the original price will not get any of the money they lost through the incorrect exchange rate back, but Apple will recoup these losses through the skewed rates at higher price points. Yes, the devs who price there now gain, but no app over around $5.99 sells massively anyway. Combine all the sales at these price points though, and it looks good for Apple.

The popular price points $0.99, $1.99, and $2.99 are in line with the exchange rates, so the devs there don't lose or gain anything.”

By your reckoning. Apple lost out before and so do the devs, and if Apple are now recouping that loss from the low price so are the devs. Apps aren't sold to Apple as wholesale, they're sold direct to the customer and Apple pay the devs based on the price sold to the customer.

This isn't a traditional retail sell in.
Mozitski
14-07-2011
omg lol iphone is a load of sht im glad i didnt get it now. It keeps on advertising facetime when you can just download skype for free on my nokia?? Same goes with whatsapp, it's free on nokia but for iphone they pay lol.
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