How about pricing increments decided on by the developer, not by Apple. Personally I’m surprised this structure hasn’t turned up in a restraint of trade case.

As far as I am concerned, creating for iPhone at this stage is a total waste of time. Very few people can make money in a cesspool of half a million 99 cent or free apps.

To those who want free trials of apps. Get a freaking life – you ipidimize the freeloading nature of the Internet culture, no developers will Embrace that. it’s simply a pitch for more free stuff.

It’s sad how people even bitch about free apps so easily. You can’t please teenagers who’s parents pay their cell phone bills anyhow, and they’ve never washed a sink load of dishes, or had a real job ever. The advocates of trials are just kids who are even too lazy or stupid to jailbreak. If you want free, invest some time into it and jailbreak… You can get anything free that way.

Enough said, I sick of the whiners out there wanting more free, when their intent is to never pay for anything. This debate is over.

From the buyer’s point of view, you do get to the point where you feel ripped-off if an app doesn’t deliver. I bought some real losers in the early days and I’ve never used them. That experience moved me to be more careful when I’m thinking of actually purchasing.
It’s not the money, though there is a psychology behind the willingness to throw away $0.99 versus $2.99. We’re not talking big money here so clearly something else is at play.

From the programmer’s point of view, the urge to choose a price point based on the cost to develop the app or what others are charging for similar apps must be strong – but not necessarily smart. The app can be appropriately priced and have to compete with inferior apps priced at next to nothing.

A very valid point is made in this article and asking Apple to step up and think of ways to help developers keep Apple’s customers happy is not too much to ask. The pressure should not only be on the developers.

Ultimately, consumers can set their own rules, as well. From my point of view, I have decided to be more willing to support the development efforts and to stop expecting something for nothing.

For the apps that were unsatisfactory I have decided to just shrug it off and consider the price a donation (easier to take this view at $0.99, to be sure). I may rate the apps if I think it is particularly bad.

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If they want to maintain a competitiveness they should try to make a way for things to become cheaper, if anything….. Because I’m pretty sure when more people take notice to jailbraking an iPhone they can kiss there working class ppl, without a dollar to spare after buying a 400-500 dollar phone, goodbye…

That is true that that Top Grossing list would give a better idea of what apps have earned. I was just using the Top 25 list as a way to know which apps were the most popular or being downloaded most often. Good point though.

I write and test code, build interfaces, and do systems integration for a living (in a different industry). I can assure you, every second I spend gets charged to a task for the job it belongs to. I can absolutely guarantee you that any dev employing more than 5-10 people and working in office space is doing the same. Overhead costs money. Dev accounts cost money. Dev machines and devices cost money. Advertising costs money. EVERYTHING costs money.

In opening the App Store, Apple brought mobile smartphone software to the masses, and they responded. Devs, especially indie devs who wanted to stand out or who were able to supplement their apps with ad support, lowered prices to stand out and generate demand. If devs had know how widespread and permanent the deflationary effects would be, I think they might have approached things differently. Hindsight is 20/20, I guess.

I hope Apple doesn’t get greedy and hurt or kill the golden goose. They have already shaken things up a bit with the addition of the iPad. It has become acceptable for HD apps to be priced higher. I know that high-end games with lots of content will often debut in the $6-$10 range. I think that is more than fair.

Also, some apps that have proven their worth have been able to justify charging a premium price. GPS apps are quite popular, and quality ones with on-board maps start at around $30 and go as high as $80 with all of the extras added in. Others, such as World of Goo HD, Pocket Informant HD, Pages, Numbers, Keynote, Docs To Go Premium, and several PDF apps have been able to charge $9.99 or more and still sell well. However, these are the exception and not the rule.

I don’t think that the quality has been destroyed by low prices, but I think they make it harder for small devs to be profitable long-term. The top apps in the App Store are usually very polished and provide a great experience. However, I’m sure smaller devs could stand a dollar or two more per sale to encourage more polish and refinement in their apps, while still making money. Also, let’s hope the Lodsys situation resolves in the devs favor, so that the very profitable option of in-app purchases doesn’t get hamstrung in litigation and licensing fees.