Why are WP apps so expensive?

defence5

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Having just moved from an Android to a WP device, I'm constantly amazed at how much more expensive the apps are on the WP marketplace. Most apps that I have paid 99c for on Android appear to be $2.99 (or more) over on Windows Phone.

At 99c I feel I can try an app for a few days, and if I don't like it, there's no real loss at 99c. For some reason $2.99 just doesn't have the same appeal to me.

Does someone want to try and justify this for me?
 

PG2G

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My guess is its because there are fewer users so they need to charge more to recoup investments and make money.

Hopefully prices will fall in line as the user base grows
 

Zumanity

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Repost from another post of mine.

Basically what the above poster mentioned.


WP7 Apps are expensive because it's a new platform. Devs want to make as much money as they are on different platforms. So for example an app might be 99 cents on Android and 2.99 on WP7. It's 99 cents on Android because android has a much larger USER BASE than WP7, so they theoretically can make a lot of money. It's 2.99 on WP7 because the Devs want to make as much money as they would on Android, but they know that WP7 has a smaller user base, so they lift the price to compensate for that (again, i'm not an employee for any dev or software team, so this is just my opinion based on study).
 

Seketh

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My guess is its because there are fewer users so they need to charge more to recoup investments and make money.

Hopefully prices will fall in line as the user base grows

Not fewer users, fewer apps. As long some apps have somekind of exclusivity, they'll be more expensive. Prices will come down with more apps.

I do recommend people look for alternative apps when coming from Android. Sometimes clones can be better than the original app, and cheaper!
 

jimski

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Of my 150 apps (not including games) 31 are more than 0.99 (many are free), averaging maybe 1.99 for the higher priced apps. Of the 31 apps, only 4 are more than 1.99, and at least two of of those had price drops since I purchased. I have found almost all of the .99+ apps are well made and worth every penny. Just my 2 cents. Games, are different story.

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steve70

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Agree, alternative apps can be better, 4th and mayor for example (top of my head). I rarely hear people complain when they overpay at a convenience stop,fast food joint, buying cigarettes, ECT. I can't explain exactly why they are more (I have only 2 apps that are or .99) but I do know I waste money on dumber things in life so I do not mind at all to support the long hours and hard work devs put in to make my life easier and more fun. Jmho.

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wp7fan2011

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Each app has it's own worth and development effort and exclusivity drives the price. Still, the prices are less than a typical lunch at a fast food joint!
 

dtboos

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Apps will get cheaper as the market gets more saturated. If you are a new app on iOS you'd better be priced at 69 cents or so or you will drown in the 1/2billion app pool very quickly lol.
 

selfcreation

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GAMES are more expensive for ONE reason on WP = Achievements so scratch your head no more!

apps are roughly the same on all platforms.

if its not a XBL game, they are same price as other platform.. if a NONE XBL game gets ported to XBL the game price goes up by 1-2$ BECAUSE of the Achievements added.
this is like the 10th thread on this topic......

it has nothing to do with quantity of apps/users or how YOUNG as OS is.. LOL!

Apps will get cheaper as the market gets more saturated. If you are a new app on iOS you'd better be priced at 69 cents or so or you will drown in the 1/2billion app pool very quickly lol.

not really.. all the apps on Ios have been the same price range for the last 6years( when they had 10k apps, and even now with the 500k apps) , and only 5% of ALL IOS apps are even downloaded... nothing to do with price...


the fact that the OS is younger and has LESS apps should make apps cheaper because your apps gets more attention and its easier to make $$ ( they tested this .. WP VS Android VS Iphone = WP was more profitable even with a smaller user base because it got mroe attention)

having less apps on a OS is actually an Advantage for the DEV.
 
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dtboos

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Unfortunately its a demand/supply issue. Developers think they can charge more if there is less competition. If there are 1500 apps just like yours you probably wont' be looking for $4.99 if the rest are 99cents.

There are apps on other platforms that literally cost 2-4x more here. Would it be better for them to charge less and get a fanbase? Yes. But they don't seem to be doing it yet.

Whatsapp is one of the exceptions that I think gets it. Its free on Windows Phone. They want to get in early and get people used to them being the go-to sms/mms replacement alternative as the platform grows.
 

selfcreation

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Unfortunately its a demand/supply issue. Developers think they can charge more if there is less competition. If there are 1500 apps just like yours you probably wont' be looking for $4.99 if the rest are 99cents.

There are apps on other platforms that literally cost 2-4x more here. Would it be better for them to charge less and get a fanbase? Yes. But they don't seem to be doing it yet.

Whatsapp is one of the exceptions that I think gets it. Its free on Windows Phone. They want to get in early and get people used to them being the go-to sms/mms replacement alternative as the platform grows.


MS confirmed the Achievement are the reason. it has nothing to do with supply or the Dev ( for games)

MS forces you to up the price on XBL games cause MS considers them to be *PREMIUM* games.

this is a fact!
 

dtboos

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I realize achievements are the reason for Xbox live games. But there are many non live games and regular apps that the devs charge a bit much. This will change in time. Even the live ones may end up going down a bit while still having a slight premium.

If a dev posts his live game for $5.99 and its not selling well, he may find its more profitable to well 5x more of his app for 1/2 the price. Making 2.5x the profit.

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ray.ackley

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From an app developer's point of view:

One thing to consider is a lot of the apps that show up as $1.99 or $2.99 have perpetual ad-supported trials - so if you are willing to deal with the ads they are essentially free.

But like other people said, with the small user base, if you pump a good 80-120 hours into an app to make it good and relatively bug-free, selling a thousand paid apps at $0.99 means after the marketplace cut you're looking at $700. That's TOTALLY not worth even writing the app for. At $2.99 that roughly $2000. That's still totally not worth the number of hours invested, but it at least means you can justify the coding hobby to the wife.

Another thing - if you try an app and like it and use it frequently, $1.99 or $2.99 is really NOT that much money. And if you don't offer trials in your app for a test drive, basically nobody is going to download your app anyhow so it doesn't matter.
 

Fleon

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not really.. all the apps on Ios have been the same price range for the last 6years( when they had 10k apps, and even now with the 500k apps) , and only 5% of ALL IOS apps are even downloaded... nothing to do with price...



Actually, we track these things and you're way off on that. The average price of any individual app on iOS has dropped considerably on iOS as competition has gone up. Particularly in niche apps (automation apps are a great example), the prices often started at ~10 or even ~25 and - as these apps found they couldn't compete with similar apps at ~5, dropped to match.

The age of a platform makes a huge difference. Early adopters always pay more: it's a rule of business modeling.
 

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