[Imayam]

Seriously??? DOnt the developers realize there might be 50 sales at 99 cents, than 2 sales at $10??

I am not surprised developing for the iphone is more popular and the programs are more downloaded. Its so much cheaper! I dont have to think hard at all about paying a buck or two for an app, but an *ok* app should not be worth more than 2 bux, especially since I wont be using it everyday. (This includes games, even I am not big BB gamer)

Thoughts??

[gt500driver]

2.99 is the lowest appqorld allowa for currently...

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[Shao128]

First off, you are just guessing that at 99c it will sell 50 copies vs 2 copies at $10.

What if it was 10 copies at 99c or 1 copy at $10, the developer has made the same money then.

More copies sold also means more support, the developer then has to answer more emails and support more people, the more complex the app, the more questions they are going to get. Selling a high volume at a low cost adds to this.

You are viewing this from the point of view of a consumer but trying to make it sound like the view of a developer.

Also developers do not get 100% of the sale. The Crackberry app store for example (Im not giving away any secrets here, its information readily available on Mobihands site), Crackberry gets 20% of the sale and Mobihand gets 20%, so the developer is left with 60%.

As a consumer speak with your wallet, if you don't like the price dont buy it. And if you are still going to complain put your money where your mouth is, learn to program and start selling apps for 99c.

[Kellina]

The only app I've ever paid for is Berrybuzz everything else was free. I have tried/kept several apps.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[Imayam]

Yes, but havent they heard of a a supply /demand equilibrium??? Supply doesnt shift as the price goes up (rolleyes).
regardless, I am in aw if some devs think their garbage apps are worth $15+. I forgot which one, but theres an app going for like $70, and I tried it out (trial Ver), and found it to be utterly useless!! (not mentioning the flood of $20-$30 apps out there)

[thejgeffect]

Its pretty easy to get by only buying a few paid apps. All I ever bought was BerryBuzz and TipCalculator, everything else was free. I don't have a problem with the prices, basically just keeps me from trying anything that I will most likely not like anyway. Themes **** me off though, so hard to judge.

[cherryjuice]

Yep I stick pretty close to the free train.. In fact I've never paid for a bb app yet.

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[Imayam]

I was devastated when I found out my 8900 came without the today theme, when my 8100 had it! I was lucky enough to find it online, and free too, but I all im saying is that I think nearly every crackberry user would be more inclined to trying new things if they were much cheaper, as opposed to sacrificing their firstborn for an app, game or a theme.

[mbs]

I have an iPhone as well as a Tour. The nice thing about cheap iPhone apps is that I'm far more tempted to buy an app and not worry if I don't like it.

With $20 BB apps, I'm way more cautious. A buck or two for an iPhone app - sure, why not. Hate it, no big loss. Hate a $20 Blackberry app? $20 big down the drain.

[darethas]

Shao, what you say is very true, but the fact of the matter is, price is always going to be a deciding factor, and all these developers are trying to say "well all this hard work and this and that goes into my app and I have to pay this cost and that cost"

... it doesn't matter. Me personally, unless there is an app that I GOT to have (like I have been considering purchasing the full version of vLingo for awhile) then I might consider paying a high price tag, but with the constant updates and current instability of most platforms I just don't trust buying an app for 20$ (much less want to spend that money) when the next day or week an OS update could come out and render my app perfectly useless.

I myself have never paid more than 3$ for an app. I take a look at apples app store all the time, the average price of an App is 99 cents. The high dollar apps (and in apple's world, high dollar is 10$) do amazing things, like for 10 dollars you can have a microsoft word doc reader/composer. thats well worth it if you ask me, especially since with the wifi connection that connects to my school, you can actually print off the schools computers as well. (Sorry long example)

but anyways long story short, the cheapest one always wins. Just a random example here, playstation 3? So much better than xbox 360, faster processing and blue ray and free online gameplay, but the fact of the matter is more people have an xbox 360 because an xbox is 199.99$ instead of 399.99$

[CARTEEUSMC]

I just wanted to say I am from Earth too. And I will pay for an App no matter what it cost if it does me a service. I love stormslider and berry buzz but my favorite is quickpull

[chris85fb]

I have an iPhone as well as a Tour. The nice thing about cheap iPhone apps is that I'm far more tempted to buy an app and not worry if I don't like it.

With $20 BB apps, I'm way more cautious. A buck or two for an iPhone app - sure, why not. Hate it, no big loss. Hate a $20 Blackberry app? $20 big down the drain.

I agree, hopefully in the not so distant future they will lower the price for BB apps!

[Fire-Detention]

How Many Apps Do You Really Need.

[boomhower1820]

If the app is worth it I'll buy. So far the only app I have bought is berryweather and it was well worth the $8 I paid for it. I would like the SMS app but its not worth $15 to me, and from other threads a lot of other people too. I don't have a problem in the world paying good money that works well and performs a function that no other app does, and that function I want bad enough to pay for it. With the case of SMS I would gladly pay $15 for it if RIM wasn't putting it in 5.0 which will be coming along later this year for free.

[godzilla07]

I don't know why BB apps cost more. Beejive is an example. It costs $30 for the same license that the iPhone gets for $12. (App Store lets you have one app tied to your account forever IIRC). And Beejive has been neglected save for the FB chat update ever since the iPhone app came out. I also have StudentDocket which cost me $20 but it was worth it. However, weather apps for $8 is a joke. The Weather Channel app on the iPhone was better and it was $5 if you wanted no ads. Plus the weather data on BerryWeather is terrible compared to BBWeather. It was raining and in the mid-70s one time when I was trying BerryWeather out and BerryWeather said the weather was in the low 90s and it was sunny outside. The WeatherBug app for iPhone costs $1, but it's $5 for the BlackBerry.

BB apps are all a matter of value; do you use the features in app x that make it worth x dollars to you?

[rockerdon]

First off, you are just guessing that at 99c it will sell 50 copies vs 2 copies at $10.

What if it was 10 copies at 99c or 1 copy at $10, the developer has made the same money then.

More copies sold also means more support, the developer then has to answer more emails and support more people, the more complex the app, the more questions they are going to get. Selling a high volume at a low cost adds to this.

You are viewing this from the point of view of a consumer but trying to make it sound like the view of a developer.

Also developers do not get 100% of the sale. The Crackberry app store for example (Im not giving away any secrets here, its information readily available on Mobihands site), Crackberry gets 20% of the sale and Mobihand gets 20%, so the developer is left with 60%.

As a consumer speak with your wallet, if you don't like the price dont buy it. And if you are still going to complain put your money where your mouth is, learn to program and start selling apps for 99c.

So as a developer you'd only sell 1 copy to save on support? Also, part of the success of apples system is the fact that most people will blow a dollar on an app like its nothing.

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[cavingjan]

I have an iPhone as well as a Tour. The nice thing about cheap iPhone apps is that I'm far more tempted to buy an app and not worry if I don't like it.

With $20 BB apps, I'm way more cautious. A buck or two for an iPhone app - sure, why not. Hate it, no big loss. Hate a $20 Blackberry app? $20 big down the drain.

While cheap apps are conducive to buying them to try, I have to ask why should you buy them in order to try them? While BB apps tend to be more expensive, I would hazard to say that your typical BB user spends less as they take advantage of the free trials offered on a lot of apps. I think to date, I've only purchased one app blindly between my BB (and previously with my PalmOS phone).

[Shao128]

So as a developer you'd only sell 1 copy to save on support? Also, part of the success of apples system is the fact that most people will blow a dollar on an app like its nothing.

No you are missing the point, if a complex app which people are going to need help with is sold at a lower cost, there are going to be a lot more emails for support, the developer could spend hours a day just answering emails, with a higher price the developer can still make their money and not get drowned in emailed.

Im not saying all apps are worth $10+, many developers offer free trials so try it out first and if you see value then buy the software, if not then dont buy it.

There are 3 very simple choices here if people don't like the prices of an app.

1. Dont buy it.
2. Buy another brand of phone that has cheaper apps.
3. Learn to program yourself and release 99c apps for the rest of us


From the sounds of this thread a lot of people make it sound like the majority of the apps for BB cost large amounts. Have a look through the Crackberry App store, youll find most apps cost less than $5.

And since you mentioned Apple. I'll bring up another point here, how does Apple justify selling computers with the same parts as a regular PC at 2 - 3 times the price (the case isn't worth that much)? I'll tell you how, its called capitalism.

[Xopher]

Something else to consider....

When developing for an iPhone, the developer only needs one device for testing.... an iPhone.

In the Blackberry world, you can test apps in the emulator, but if you really want to test out the app, you sometimes need the actual device for testing. This means a developer may need a Bold, Tour, Storm, Curve, Pearl, and any other device they want to support. They may even need the GSM and CDMA versions to make sure the apps work properly.

There was an app on the front page of Crackberry in the last week. The app worked fine on GSM carriers, but wouldn't work at all on CDMA devices. The company only tested the app on German BBs (GSM).

So, not only does the developer have to create different versions of the application for different screen sizes (ar at least account for that in the app), they have to purchase multiple devices to test on. An iPhone developer may have to shell out $200 or so for an iPhone. A Blackberry developer may have to shell out $1,500 or more to make sure apps work properly. That is a lot to try to recoup at $3 per sale (Especially if you only receive $2 from a $3 sale).

Each time RIM comes out with a new device, the developer may have to purchase one (full price) to be able to support it.

Just something to think about.

[Devlyn16]

I've always heard with iPhone apps you get what you pay for. Which is you spend 99 cents alot and tend not to use theose aps verymuch for verylong.

IMO the BlackBerry apps I've spent more $$ on (Vlingo, Quick Launch) I use much more than the "cheaper" apps I've paid for.

I can't speak for "Free Apps" in the iPhone, but I know that the Free Apps I use regualrly like socialScope, Viigo are worth far more than 99 cents.

[chezhed]

I'm in agreement with how many apps does one need anyway... I've looked at all these app offerings and just can't find why I would buy most of them. I don't even touch games.... But I have bought two, In The Know with Slider and Quick pull, both of which I got for a few bucks each and are well worth the price. I am going to purchase one more, Adorno Multi Alarm, because it does what I need...more than one alarm clock.

Beyond that, I've got Weather Channel Mobile, NFL Mobile & TeleNav (thanks Sprint) and a few free ones like Poynt, Viigo.

I'll continue to watch for new ones that may "help" me but otherwise they are like a six year old in the toy department....just how many can you play with or will play with before you get bored or outgrow them

[Williexwhip]

Coming from a jailbroken ipod touch with tons of "free" apps, it was a major shock when I started browsing for Blackberry apps and seeing the prices. I have yet to find a paid app that was worth the price. Yeah, you may not NEED these apps, but you really dont NEED anything on your phone other than the phone. The rest is pure luxury. And even BerryBuzz, paying 6 dollars for something the phone should be able to do anyways is dumb. 3 dollars to reset your phone? Seriously? It's ridiculous.

[hossra]

Considering the amount of investment and sweat equity people are putting into development, I laugh (with respect) when I hear folks b!tch about $2.99 or even $5.99 being expensive.

PLEASE, people.

Most of us waste more than $2.99 a day on a cup(s) of coffee.

Perspective.

[sniffs]

What I dont get is let's say you have a fart app on the iPhone App Store for 99 cents.

You want to put that on the Blackberry App World, but cant charge 99 cents, you have to charge 2.99, so who honestly would buy that app vs the iPhone app?

If I have both a BB and an iPhone and the iPhone version is cheaper? (usually is), I will buy the iPhone version ANY DAY OF THE WEEK.

It was stupid for RIM to put the lowest price point at 2.99