AppStore, AppStore, AppStore… It seems to be one of the hottest topics at the moment. There is no day, where I do not read something about the AppStore. Is the iPhone / iPod the new CD-Player of the present: an almost must have to consume media?

Anyway, at coding horror I read something about the sensible area of “software pricing“. The layout of the AppStore has some special flaws, that set cheaper applications in advantage over “high priced” applications for, i.e. 9.99 dollar. They sell in masses and therefore dominate the “most downloaded” lists – an subtle effect. A bad thing? Not for Jeff Atwood, at Codinghorror. He writes: “the idea that software should be priced low enough to pass the average user’s “why not” threshold is a powerful one”. He argues, that lowering the price can have an tremendous effect, not only in the number of sales, but also in the total amount of money coming in. He gives an example and figures about Left 4 Dead. So better don’t leave now, without reading this article about software pricing.

Research and Theory - Date published: August 7, 2009 | 4 Comments

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  1. […] if you use it professionally, it is available for a really nice price below 10 dollars (read about software-pricing […]

  2. Hi.. Your post got me thinking… What is more valuable for a software company (like facebook or flickr). 1,000 paying users or 100,000 non-paying users? What are your thoughts? View my blog post here: http://www.purlem.com/blog/?p=57

  3. […] buying stuff be rewarding for the customer? At really seems so. The unlike the theory of the “sell more for less” having a higher price can be a good fit under certain […]

  4. […] AppStore is bringing math back again to game developers. Lately there we had Jeff Atwood thinking out loud, why setting the price to the lowest, like 0.99 cent, is the best way to go for iPhone-developers. […]