Paid App Prices on Steady Decline

[Jeff Campbell]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.businessinsider.com/iphone-app-prices-tanking-2009-2' target='_blank'>http://www.businessinsider.com/ipho...-tanking-2009-2</a><br /><br /></div><p><em>"Apple (AAPL) is famous for keeping its gadget pricing steady. But the iPhone app store is a much different market: App developers have cut prices significantly in the last few months. And the market for $10 premium apps seems to have evaporated."</em></p><p><em><img src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/600/at/auto/1235512679.usr105634.jpg" /></em></p><p>Two months ago the average price for one of the top 100 paid apps was $3.15 USD, but over the last two months it has dropped to an average price of $2.55 USD. The average price of a top 50 paid app dropped even lower to $2.39 USD from $3.63 USD two months ago. The drops are 19% and 38% respectively. Per the article, its not clear on why developers are doing this as none have responded to the request for information, but it sounds like basic economics to me: supply and demand. That may be why the $10.00 USD prices have all but disappeared from the top 100 lists too.&nbsp;</p>

[Jason Dunn]

Honestly, I think it's a shame. Developers have bills to pay too, and yeah the guys in the top 10 are making great money with $1.99 games, but the rest of the playing field probably isn't. It's not like $4.99 or even $9.99 is a lot of money to ask for really great software...

[Vincent Ferrari]

Honestly, I think it's a shame. Developers have bills to pay too, and yeah the guys in the top 10 are making great money with $1.99 games, but the rest of the playing field probably isn't. It's not like $4.99 or even $9.99 is a lot of money to ask for really great software...

The flip side, of course, is that many developers have based their entire lifestyle on over-pricing their software. $9.99 isn't a lot to ask, but how many WinMo apps are $9.99? (I'm not bashing WinMo, just picking an analog) I remember many WinMo apps that I bought were upwards of $20 and many games were in the $15 range. Sure developers have a right to make money, but the market has ben skewed in their favor for so long already that it's about time it went the other way for a bit.

I have a feeling it's cyclical. Right now developers are competing on price, but I don't think it'll be that way for long.