The Art of the App Store: The Business of Apple Development

POTENTIAL RISK AND REWARD

As you'll see in Chapter 8, one of the several reasons to create an app that's a bit more expensive (such as at $1.99 and above) is that you can count on successive price-reduction updates or promotions to lift a potentially sagging sales curve. If you start with your app at 99 cents, for example, there's nowhere to go but free.

Well, there used to be nowhere to go. Back before in-app purchases became available, creating a free app had some definite points against it — among them, how to properly upsell your associated premium app, or how best to utilize in-app advertising. Now that all apps can use this functionality, it's becoming a dominating factor in app design. Free apps not only are downloaded more often, but now have the potential to earn big revenue through in-app purchases in addition to the tried and sometimes true ad payouts.

In summary, creating a free app presents much less risk if you're planning on using in-app purchases, or have another version you want people to buy, because it will likely get viewed more often. Why, then, would you want a low priced, 99-cent app? Should you charge more? Let's take a look at the considerations you'll need to work out before deciding on a price point, whether 99 cents or more.

Paid Apps Are Seen as WYSIWYG

There's an expectation from customers that if they pay for an app, little to no additional payment will be requested post purchase. What you see is what you get (WYSIWYG). The value should be built into ...