Apparently Apple thought 'The Race To The Bottom' was taking too long.

el_bo

Just received an email from Appsliced:

ervin

Introducing 700 pre-determined price points instead of simply letting developers set their price is tight.

Samu

The lower price tiers will most likely start to pop up in games that rely heavily on IAP consumables to progress...
...when the barrier gets lower some may be tempted more easily than with the previous higher tiers.
(Most game developers keep an hawk-eye on player behavior and who's getting the IAPs and who's not).

el_bo

@ervin said:
Introducing 700 pre-determined price points instead of simply letting developers set their price is tight.

Been feeling this frustration recently, in another area. Having bought some nice little ear-buds that are just a tad bass-light, I once again ran right up against Apple's prohibition of custom EQ adjustment by the consumer. So I ended up throwing my entire iTunes library into VLC Player

el_bo

@Samu said:
The lower price tiers will most likely start to pop up in games that rely heavily on IAP consumables to progress...
...when the barrier gets lower some may be tempted more easily than with the previous higher tiers.
(Most game developers keep an hawk-eye on player behavior and who's getting the IAPs and who's not).

Yeah...I didn't think it would really affect this side of the industry. if anything there seems to be an upward-trend in music app-pricing

Samu

@el_bo said:
if anything there seems to be an upward-trend in music app-pricing

Yepp! For me it's a good things as I'm no longer tempted to get every single new music-related app that pops up
The current currency exchange rates don't help here either...

My latest purchase was Twin 3 (4th app of the year). The two others were the AudioThing 'Things' (Bubbles And Texture) and 3rd Brains IAP for TeraPro. I don't count the 'free' apps...

For some strange reason with fewer (but very well and carefully chosen) options it's at least for me way easier to focus.

But yeah, I could see some kind of 'Ala Carte' sample-shop-app (IAP based) pop up for iOS.
Instead of getting entire collections you only pay for the sounds you actually need...

This could be either 'consumable' IAPs ie. you pay per download with no restore option, or regular IAP with restore option at a higher tier.

But now the options for pricing are there so time will tell what happens.

Philandering_Bastard

@ervin said:
Introducing 700 pre-determined price points instead of simply letting developers set their price is tight.

Barely an inconvenience?

ExAsperis99

@ervin said:
Introducing 700 pre-determined price points instead of simply letting developers set their price is tight.

Perfect.
This is how I feel every time I enter my address in a form online that is willing to let me improvise whatever crazy town spelling or post code I feel like but — whoa! whoa, there! — puts the brakes on when it comes to letting me choose the state I live in. You must choose from this maddeningly impractical list of these choices exactly, and no, there is no autofill, New Yorkers, you now live in Brooklyn, NEbraska.

ervin

@Philandering_Bastard said:

@ervin said:
Introducing 700 pre-determined price points instead of simply letting developers set their price is tight.

Barely an inconvenience?

Please and thank you. You saw what I did there. 🤝

NeuM

@Samu said:
The lower price tiers will most likely start to pop up in games that rely heavily on IAP consumables to progress...
...when the barrier gets lower some may be tempted more easily than with the previous higher tiers.
(Most game developers keep an hawk-eye on player behavior and who's getting the IAPs and who's not).

That’s probably a good guess, but I also have to imagine that with Apple redirecting some of their attention away from China and towards India, they’re going to need far more price tiers to serve new and growing markets. In India, Apple will be competing directly with dirt cheap Android phones and largely free/cracked software. That’s a tough market, so lower price points will help them there.

bygjohn

@ervin said:
Introducing 700 pre-determined price points instead of simply letting developers set their price is tight.

I suspect the tier approach actually helps developers. Once you’ve set the tier, Apple then looks after international pricing, including making adjustments for variations in exchange rates, taxes etc.

It’s fashionable to regard the App Store as some sort of huge drag on devs, but if you consider how things were before it, it’s an improvement. Pre-iPhone, mobile devs had to sell through the likes of Handango, who took a bigger cut (if I remember correctly), and app prices were higher for less capable apps. And boxed software for desktop OSes would have an even bigger cut going to the retailer (usually at least 33%), plus the cuts going to wholesalers, manufacturers and distributors.

With the App Store, Apple handle servers, bandwidth, sales taxes, currency conversions, anti-piracy measures etc. For which they charge 15% now for smaller devs, 30% for big companies. And consumers get a degree of security and privacy checks, secure payments etc. Hence more people pay for apps on iOS than other platforms.

Is everything in the garden rosy? No. But as monopolies go this one is relatively benign, particularly for consumers.

Fear2Stop

I personally don’t see what the issue is…like, I literally don’t understand…maybe if it was in dollars I’d understand what was going on lol

attakk

@NeuM said:

@Samu said:
The lower price tiers will most likely start to pop up in games that rely heavily on IAP consumables to progress...
...when the barrier gets lower some may be tempted more easily than with the previous higher tiers.
(Most game developers keep an hawk-eye on player behavior and who's getting the IAPs and who's not).

That’s probably a good guess, but I also have to imagine that with Apple redirecting some of their attention away from China and towards India, they’re going to need far more price tiers to serve new and growing markets. In India, Apple will be competing directly with dirt cheap Android phones and largely free/cracked software. That’s a tough market, so lower price points will help them there.

It’s that old chestnut but no matter how cheap an app is, if a consumer can get it for free then they’re most likely going to continue to get it for free.

Tough market as you say.

BiancaNeve

For the true arcade game experience- put another quarter in the slot now ……