My Crackberry Storm Fair Application Pricing
| January 29th, 2009
Currently, many apps available for my crackberry storm are priced anywhere from $1 all the way up to $10. With the recent
t announcement that the Blackberry App store is on it’s way, it will be interesting to see how prices will begin to moderate.
Obviously, $10 is a lot to spend on a smart phone application and currently there is speculation on many boards that developers that are releasing applications are jacking their price up before the Blackberry store opens so as to maximize profit. If the crackberry app store will be like the Apple iphone store, then prices will being to moderate and you will see the higher priced apps drop to more reasonable levels.
Of course, some developers can justify their price, since making an app for my crackberry storm usually takes a team, project management, beta testing, updates, etc. even if it is a two man shop.
So what is a good price for an app? Take for instance the Urban Spoon app for the iphone. Quite possibly the most widely talked about app (at least in San Francisco) and people love to use it because it’s cool factor is so high. Shake the phone and then go dine. The interface is slick and there are tons of options to customize your food choices. I asked some friends the other night how much they thought the app cost. Most said somewhere in the $5 to $10 range. They were shocked (yes non of them had iphones) when I told them it was free.
Now of course Urban Spoon can use their app as a loss leader, since eventually you will go visit their site with something other then your phone and then they have you.
Of course most app developers don’t build apps as loss leaders. They build apps to make money. It is just right now is kind of the wild west for apps here in crackberry land. Just about anyone who can program is releasing apps of various qualities. Since the developer sets the price of the app, they can monkey with the price until it hits the sweet spot. This of course can vex early adopters of the app or those who think the app should not have even made it out of BETA.
In time when the crakcberry store kicks in and some sort of quality control is instilled upon the developing masses, there should be an uptick not only in affordable apps, but also a better quality crop of applications.