Pricing of Universal app

[labsii]

What is your strategy (or what it would be if you don't have current universal paid apps) for pricing of universal apps?

The problem is that you sell the universal app as a pack. However, many users will use only desktop or only phone version. On the desktop size it is more or less OK - the price of the pack is probably just slightly increased (or not at all) over desktop only app and it won't influence sales much. However, the phone side is a different story - the increase of the price over the phone-only app is huge. So selling it at the same price is a huge turn off for buyers.

I have seen most of the developers have largely disproportional prices among stores. Sometimes phone version is even free. I find it unacceptable, as it is very unfair if some of your users buy and use the same pack at prices that are 2x different.

On the other hand I don't have perfect solution either. Currently I have the paid edition of the app that is priced the same on both stores, and freemium edition that has separate in-app purchases. The description of paid app says that if you want to use app as phone only you better got with freemium version and buy in-app purchases. Obviously some people don't read and complain and I've even got one 1 star rating because of this.

The other possible solution I can think of is to have the universal app and then also the phone edition of the app that is cheaper. The problem is that if user at some point decides to upgrade to full pack, there is no solution for upgrade.

All in all it would be nice to ask Microsoft to fix this and allow selling of phone only edition at different price with possibly future upgrade, but until this happen, what do you think about this?

 

[Darkays]

I have a game out on both Windows Phone and Windows Store as an Universal app. On both of the stores they are priced the same at $0.99 (USD). The reason for that is based on the content of the game and the target stores.

In my opinion, if both versions of the app are the same in terms of features then I would price the app as if it were a Windows Phone app (this is what I did with my game). This is largely based on the point that you brought up of people don't like spending a lot of money on phone apps. I think that if you really think that you can push for your app to be priced closer to the "Desktop level pricing" then you can go for it.

But if your Windows Phone version of the app is less feature rich than the Windows Store app I myself am unsure of what you should do in that situation. I know that having 2 separate apps, one listed as "Premium" and the other "Free", isn't the best idea. That is a way to confuse customers and it isn't as easy to promote the app because there are two separate links to share. Having a note saying that you should get the free version is a step in the right direction, but it is still confusing to the customer because it isn't prominent enough for them to realize this.

Anyway, long story short, if your app is the same on each platform I would suggest pricing it as if you were pricing a Windows Phone app. If your app isn't like that, then maybe hold off on making it an universal app right away and price them separately. Of course take this with a grain of salt, I am not an expert and I only have released one app. But I am just repeating wisdom from others and my own experience. Good luck with your app.

P.S. Here is the link to the game that I keep referring to for reference: Glitch in the System | Tribe Games

 

[WanderingTraveler]

Take note that there are different standards for pricing across different stores. I've seen mobile games go for $15 on the Nintendo Wii U eShop, for instance.

I'd recommend separating the Windows Phone and Windows versions of the app until the stores are truly unified (one storefront for all.)

But, yeah, price it as if it were a Windows Phone app otherwise. Add a dollar for good measure.