1. pinkert11's Avatar
    With all the new apps hitting now are we on the BP paying more. I know that in the Devcon day one RIM was more then happy to announce that their devs make way more then any other platform. Is this because Rim bleeds us more? If I think of smartphones look at apps like shazam - free for I and A, but a paid service for BB. I also read on another post on CrackB that the BP games released from Gameloft are lower on other platforms. For example Lets Golf 3 is free on the ipad and on Android. Another example is UNO - 2.99 on A, 4.99 on PB? Last example Asphalt 6: adrenaline hd - Ipad - .99, PB - 6.99.

    Don't get me wrong, I like that we are getting apps and I like that major devs as well as small or one person devs are arriving and I fully support this. However, at the same time I don't like being fleeced. I also have to wonder what this will do to PB future sales. Why would someone want to buy into a platform where everything is simply more expensive?

    Any thoughts on this?
    Last edited by pinkert11; 10-20-11 at 10:01 AM. Reason: Removed the Dunky rant as this was a pricing error
    10-20-11 09:19 AM
  2. narci's Avatar
    it's simple.

    appworld isn't saturated with, to a degree, a crap load of apps. If you were a developer and see there's demand for your app and no competition, you'd want to charge more for it.

    as well, the user base for pb is much smaller then ios.

    once more quality competing apps come online, app prices should fall.
    10-20-11 09:40 AM
  3. schnitzes's Avatar
    I guess its true that pricing tends to be little bit higher on certain items, however what you have to aknowledge is that these games are out on the ios and android plattform for quite some time. Initial pricing was at least the same. Furthermore It is hard to compare Iphone Android pricing vs. a tablet. All game developers have charged higher prices for their games and some apps on the Ipad.
    So bottom line I dont think the pricing will differ a lot in the end. Why developers make more money on BB platform is due to the fact that here are less apps on BB plattform, so the average developer makes more money (as there are less developers). Furthermore you get on the playbook software for free included which you have to pay for on other plattforms (prime exampe is whats app - free on blackberry - did cost something until recently on Ios (not sure how now, they had a promotion running)).
    Eg. NFS was also for free on playbook and if you would wanted to have that on ıos you would also have to pay.
    Finally you will get quite some software free from rim due to the outage, ı dont think this will ever happen on the ios plattform.
    10-20-11 09:43 AM
  4. pinkert11's Avatar
    But there is competition, from the same vendor in-fact, just on another platform. If I was aware that most apps, or half the apps were more expensive and I was looking at total cost of ownership I would not be looking at the PB. I think this is in part where Android is beating Apple. This could also be the next headline "RIM's app world growing and offering thousands of apps, but is it worth paying more, sometimes 3 or 4 times as other platforms"? I hope in time the prices stabalize, and I even posted this in other threads, but at the current time I hope it is not a deterrent.
    Last edited by pinkert11; 10-20-11 at 09:48 AM.
    10-20-11 09:45 AM
  5. notfanboy's Avatar
    Pricing is of course dictated by supply and demand.

    In the iOS and Android markets, there is intense competition for the consumer wallet share. There are so many choices for a given app, and it is common for the less popular developers to give their apps for free, which drives prices down.

    When you have one or two choices available to the consumer, then there is no incentive to lower the price. In the Android or iOS appstores, you can see this happen with apps where there is a monopoly. Slingplayer for example costs $20 or $30 because there is no other option to access your Slingbox.
    10-20-11 09:50 AM
  6. pinkert11's Avatar
    As an update, I did email the vendor for Dunky Dough Ball, and they did not intend for the upgrade to cost any monies. The vendor is contacting RIM and having this fixed right away.
    10-20-11 09:51 AM
  7. narci's Avatar
    But there is competition, from the same vendor in-fact, just on another platform. If I was aware that most apps, or half the apps were more expensive and I was looking at total cost of ownership I would not be looking at the PB. I think this is in part where Android is beating Apple. This could also be the next headline "RIM's app world growing and offering thousands of apps, but is it worth paying more, sometimes 3 or 4 times as other platforms"? I hope in time the prices stabalize, and I even posted this in other threads, but at the current time I hope it is not a deterrent.
    sadly, nothing is equal in life.

    just do the math, if ios has 70 million users worldwide and the playbook has less then 100,000...of course you'd make more money at a cheaper price point on ios.

    I don't mind paying for certain apps on the pb. Actually, I only bought the more expensive apps...well games...most of the lower price stuff is garbage.
    10-20-11 09:58 AM
  8. BuzzStarField's Avatar
    In the iOS and Android markets, there is intense competition for the consumer wallet share. There are so many choices for a given app, and it is common for the less popular developers to give their apps for free, which drives prices down.
    Most pb devs fall into this category as well. There is a huge gap between the haves and have-nots on this platform. Top names have no problem asking for top dollar but small developers like me are suffering from very low revenue flows. Even at $0.99 I am not able to sell many copies of my app - and I don't believe for a minute that low sales are in any way related to quality. The average earnings for BB are high because the top 5% vendors take 80% of the revenue. The small developer can make a reasonable ROI only if the user-base is huge. The problem for us is that there are not enought PB owners - it's as simple as that.

    Time will tell if the influx of Android apps will be good for native AIR developers or a complete disaster. There is no doubt that more low-cost and free apps will increase the downward pressure on prices. Will the potential increase in customers offset this trend? I'm not optimistic but will keep an open mind.
    10-20-11 10:21 AM
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