Mac App Store developers aim for low prices, high volume
With Apple's Mac App Store scheduled to open in just two days, developers are reporting enthusiasm and cautious optimism, hoping to repeat the success of the iOS app market for iPhone and iPad.
Apple announced its intention to launch a Mac App Store less than three months ago at its October "Back to the Mac" event, which centered upon iLife '11 and the forthcoming release of Mac OS X 10.7 Lion.
The company clarified that its Mac App Store was such a priority that it planned to have it up and operational within 90 days, well ahead of the release of Lion. In December, Apple announced that its Mac App Store would open to users in 90 countries starting January 6, a couple weeks ahead of schedule.
The new Mac App Store will, like its iOS counterpart, offer easy shopping with customer reviews, one click downloads and software installation, and automatically notify users when updates are available.
Looking for clues on App Store pricing
Since its first demo, the Mac App Store has generated interest in how it will differ from the mobile iOS version, where most apps are a dollar or two, and very few are more than $5 or $10.
In its own initial presentation of the new App Store, Apple portrayed its iLife apps as listing for $15, and iWork apps being sold individually for $20, roughly the same as those apps currently sell for together in their existing suite packages, but much higher than the $5 version of iMovie for iOS, or the $10 versions of iWork apps available for iPad.
The company also listed a few fictitious titles to fill space, priced between $3 for a utility, $5 for a game, and $30 to $40 for more apps that appeared to be more complex. Those figures were significantly higher than typical iOS titles, but generally lower than existing retail Mac software.
Existing iOS apps likely to remain cheap
An informal survey conducted by Markus Nigrin of the Pocket Cyclone blog suggests that many developers are actually hoping to clone the success of their iOS apps using similar prices, gunning for volume sales that can get them noticed in app popularity charts.
Four game developers Nigrin interviewed: Dave Frampton of Majic Jungle Software(Chopper 2); Bryan Duke of Acceleroto (Air Hockey); Matt Martell of Mundue (reMovem) and Craig Kemper of Little White Bear Studios (Compression) each said they planned to price their new Mac titles at or within a dollar of their existing, and successful, iOS titles.
Bringing iOS apps to the Mac App Store will be easy because, as Nigrin points out, "Apple made the code re-use for a native Mac app very straightforward. Every dev I talked to mentioned porting times of less than four weeks. Which were mostly spent on all types of adjustments, like keyboard and HD support."
Nigrin noted that most iOS game developers create their graphical assets at higher resolutions than currently necessary on iOS devices in order to future proof their work in anticipation of "HD" devices on the horizon. That makes bringing their titles to the Mac easy and cheap, supporting their ability to offer Mac apps at similarly low price points.
Mac vs iOS developers
On the other hand, some Mac developers are stuck in the mindset that programs should be priced at $50 to $100. "I heard some stories from classic Indie Mac Software developers," Nigrin wrote, "who think their whole strategy will be to determine if they add the 30% Apple cut to their old price or if they should just keep their price levels."
Apple charges developers a flat 30 percent cut of the software sold through its App Stores; although that fee is less than most retailers charge for any product, it's something app developers could sidestep by selling their own work directly. The problem is that setting up a digital store and finding buyers yourself is challenging and potentially expensive to do.
Nigrin also described a 'technical battleground' between existing Mac developers and iOS shops, with Mac devs trying to "push the notion that 'ported iOS' apps are somehow inferior to native Mac apps."
That is a "very questionable claim," Nigrin said. "We are not talking about a cross-platform approach with ugly design elements, a meta compiler and three daisy-chained interpreters to get these apps to run. This is as native and as natural as it can get and Apple did a great job paving the way."
Apple announced its intention to launch a Mac App Store less than three months ago at its October "Back to the Mac" event, which centered upon iLife '11 and the forthcoming release of Mac OS X 10.7 Lion.
The company clarified that its Mac App Store was such a priority that it planned to have it up and operational within 90 days, well ahead of the release of Lion. In December, Apple announced that its Mac App Store would open to users in 90 countries starting January 6, a couple weeks ahead of schedule.
The new Mac App Store will, like its iOS counterpart, offer easy shopping with customer reviews, one click downloads and software installation, and automatically notify users when updates are available.
Looking for clues on App Store pricing
Since its first demo, the Mac App Store has generated interest in how it will differ from the mobile iOS version, where most apps are a dollar or two, and very few are more than $5 or $10.
In its own initial presentation of the new App Store, Apple portrayed its iLife apps as listing for $15, and iWork apps being sold individually for $20, roughly the same as those apps currently sell for together in their existing suite packages, but much higher than the $5 version of iMovie for iOS, or the $10 versions of iWork apps available for iPad.
The company also listed a few fictitious titles to fill space, priced between $3 for a utility, $5 for a game, and $30 to $40 for more apps that appeared to be more complex. Those figures were significantly higher than typical iOS titles, but generally lower than existing retail Mac software.
Existing iOS apps likely to remain cheap
An informal survey conducted by Markus Nigrin of the Pocket Cyclone blog suggests that many developers are actually hoping to clone the success of their iOS apps using similar prices, gunning for volume sales that can get them noticed in app popularity charts.
Four game developers Nigrin interviewed: Dave Frampton of Majic Jungle Software(Chopper 2); Bryan Duke of Acceleroto (Air Hockey); Matt Martell of Mundue (reMovem) and Craig Kemper of Little White Bear Studios (Compression) each said they planned to price their new Mac titles at or within a dollar of their existing, and successful, iOS titles.
Bringing iOS apps to the Mac App Store will be easy because, as Nigrin points out, "Apple made the code re-use for a native Mac app very straightforward. Every dev I talked to mentioned porting times of less than four weeks. Which were mostly spent on all types of adjustments, like keyboard and HD support."
Nigrin noted that most iOS game developers create their graphical assets at higher resolutions than currently necessary on iOS devices in order to future proof their work in anticipation of "HD" devices on the horizon. That makes bringing their titles to the Mac easy and cheap, supporting their ability to offer Mac apps at similarly low price points.
Mac vs iOS developers
On the other hand, some Mac developers are stuck in the mindset that programs should be priced at $50 to $100. "I heard some stories from classic Indie Mac Software developers," Nigrin wrote, "who think their whole strategy will be to determine if they add the 30% Apple cut to their old price or if they should just keep their price levels."
Apple charges developers a flat 30 percent cut of the software sold through its App Stores; although that fee is less than most retailers charge for any product, it's something app developers could sidestep by selling their own work directly. The problem is that setting up a digital store and finding buyers yourself is challenging and potentially expensive to do.
Nigrin also described a 'technical battleground' between existing Mac developers and iOS shops, with Mac devs trying to "push the notion that 'ported iOS' apps are somehow inferior to native Mac apps."
That is a "very questionable claim," Nigrin said. "We are not talking about a cross-platform approach with ugly design elements, a meta compiler and three daisy-chained interpreters to get these apps to run. This is as native and as natural as it can get and Apple did a great job paving the way."
Comments
I wouldn't expect photoshop to appear in the app store any time soon, but perhaps Adobe will get the message that lower prices can often result in higher revenues. I love Photoshop, but even keeping up with the upgrade cycle is painful.
Adobe is at the upper end of the Laffer curve and would almost certainly experience far more robust sales at lower price points, enabling them to broaden their base and improve their bottom line.
(developer - developer - developer) AND MAKE BUCKETS of M-O-N-E-Y
The title, of the link below, is 10 Worst Tech Predictions
and the gist of the story is "do whatever it takes to get in on the App revolution"
and the guy only wants $US79.00 for the whole story
yeah - right!
or buy an App? - or invest in one - or MARRY A DEVELOPER !!
http://blogs.marketwatch.com/cody/20.../?mod=yahoo_hs
I don't own an iPad. That $$ would go to a Macbook Air. Drool.
I can see Angry Birds......right now, flying across my 20" iMac screen........yahoooooooooo !!
Well - good point, however, I've seen some dumb stuff flying across users screens.
What about Flying Toasters - that'd be a GREAT IDEA ?
deleted
Well - good point, however, I've seen some dumb stuff flying across users screens.
What about Flying Toasters - that'd be a GREAT IDEA ?
Talking about dumb ideas... a hospital that will remain nameless has all of their computers displaying a screen saver after a short period of inactivity ... the text of the screen saver encourages everyone to 'THINK GREEN' and has some web address for information on how each employee can do their part.
I just giggled... THINK GREEN?!?!!? how about PUT THE SCREEN INTO POWER SAVER MODE?!?! Thousands of computer screens all burning energy to promote the idea of thinking green.
Errr! Help me with the math, Solipsism!
Best
The "low cost, high volume" strategy is really smart because now that there's an app store there will no doubt be a hundred times more Mac users than there were last month.
Way to completely miss the point.
Scenario: Acme developer makes a useful little app that he sells for $5 on his site, but his site doesn’t get much drive, he’s never high in page hits for the task his app performs because it’s such a clever app people don’t even know this would help them. He sells a few on his website but most are stolen because he doesn’t have the resources to go out of his way to protect it from piracy with an excessive number of individual licenses. He also knows that many users don’t want to give the CC to some unknown website even though he and the service he rents is on the up and up. He has PayPal as an option but that isn’t a very common way to pay for good for the people the app is geared toward. He’s a in pickle.
This is where the MAS comes in. There are innumerable devs who fall under one or more of those exaggerated things I mentioned above. They can sell their at the price they want (in intervals of $1). They can make it easy for users to search various app types. They can make users feel assured that using the CC Apple already has on file won’t be a potential issue it could be from an unknown site. Finally, developers get to sell protected apps that can and will be hacked, but that will require more effort from the user and therefore be done less often.
And dev can see wheres their room for growth like FTP servers, god i'd like a good ftp server like filezilla ftp server, but for mac. Maybe a dev with some time will be looking for their next project and know they can do better and BAM we win with more choices.
just like ios, theres plenty of chat apps cause each dev thinks they can do better. so either way we win. we'll have a native library of .dmg to search and web. HURRAY!
If I could write an App and charge a $1 and I sold a million of them. I'd make.....uh!
Errr! Help me with the math, Solipsism!
Best
$1 x 1,000,000 = $1,000,000 x 70% = $700,000
That makes me want to become a developer.
Ballmer is thanking Apple's R&D department and recognizes them as an excellent method to provide product R&D outsourcing at zero cost.
</sarcasm>
Do apps that need access outside the user be allowed? For example, iStat Menus? How about apps like Senuti for recovering data off iDevices?
$1 x 1,000,000 = $1,000,000 x 70% = $700,000
That makes me want to become a developer.
With Apple providing all infrastructure support for Apps, hopefully that will lower the cost of all software now that the developer / company does not have to deal with Brick & Mortar headaches.
And yet... there will still be folks thinking that Apple is ripping-off the developer with the 30% hit. Like they know what is involved in product marketing and distribution.
Do apps that need access outside the user be allowed? For example, iStat Menus? How about apps like Senuti for recovering data off iDevices?
$1 x 1,000,000 = $1,000,000 x 70% = $700,000
That makes me want to become a developer.
Thanks...I didn't have a pencil and paper at hand!
Best
With Apple providing all infrastructure support for Apps, hopefully that will lower the cost of all software now that the developer / company does not have to deal with Brick & Mortar headaches.
And yet... there will still be folks thinking that Apple is ripping-off the developer with the 30% hit. Like they know what is involved in product marketing and distribution.
Hit the nail on the S. Now all we need is a good idea for an App!
Best
I wouldn't expect photoshop to appear in the app store any time soon, but perhaps Adobe will get the message that lower prices can often result in higher revenues. I love Photoshop, but even keeping up with the upgrade cycle is painful.
Adobe is at the upper end of the Laffer curve and would almost certainly experience far more robust sales at lower price points, enabling them to broaden their base and improve their bottom line.
Interesting comment... Replace Adobe software with Apple computers and see if you still agree with your own comment.
Interesting comment... Replace Adobe software with Apple computers and see if you still agree with your own comment.
The only problem with this is there is not comparison (or replacement) of Adobe and Apple.
Apples to oranges....
II wouldn't expect photoshop to appear in the app store any time soon, but perhaps Adobe will get the message that lower prices can often result in higher revenues. I love Photoshop, but even keeping up with the upgrade cycle is painful.
Would most of there software even qualify if they wanted to sell them on the MAS? I assume that apps can?t use installers and put files all over your system the way Adobe and MS? products do. I think the only apps from each company that would work are Flash and Silverlight since they?re browser plug-ins.