1. localbin's Avatar
    I'm wondering why equivalent apps are so expensive on the blackberry playbook.

    I love the kit, but can't help but feel ripped off when buying the same apps for my wifes iPad at half the price

    I thought the model was sell many and often to get the revenue.

    and to top it off RIM don't seem to be able to do their maths $5 =/ �5
    cranky_berry likes this.
    03-05-12 12:37 PM
  2. BBThemes's Avatar
    the price is set by the developer, not RIM. so its greedy devs if it costs less on another platform.

    of course if it costs less on another platform but is advertisement based then thats a whole different scenario i guess
    03-05-12 12:53 PM
  3. localbin's Avatar
    Thanks for the insight; I didn't expect you to be quite so candid

    So the dev still sets the price at �5 when its $5 in the US store, or is that a conversion setup by RIM?

    If its the devs then they are literally shooting themselves in the foot.

    I have nearly pressed the button to purchase a number of apps that I've bought for the wife, but paused and still haven't bought them.

    I want to support the devs, but ....
    03-05-12 02:08 PM
  4. Me2's Avatar
    I wouldn't have thought devs would be doing the currency conversions. Surely that's up to the store, and you're right, RIM is ripping UK users off with its 1:1 $ exchange rate.
    03-05-12 02:27 PM
  5. glasgowguy's Avatar
    I do agree and have decided not to buy some apps due to the 1-1 conversion rate by rim. If they used a proper conversion rate so everyone pays the same I am sure there would be more UK based sales.

    I hope that they sort this out.
    03-05-12 03:22 PM
  6. c4v3man's Avatar
    It's particularly bad when you own an android app for your android device, then spend the same amount or more on the playbook app, just to find out it's the exact same app, running in a vm. I'm glad it's available for the playbook without sideloading, but when your development costs are practically 0, it would be nice to either see a discount, or make it a naitive app...
    03-05-12 03:26 PM
  7. BBThemes's Avatar
    It's particularly bad when you own an android app for your android device, then spend the same amount or more on the playbook app, just to find out it's the exact same app, running in a vm. I'm glad it's available for the playbook without sideloading, but when your development costs are practically 0, it would be nice to either see a discount, or make it a naitive app...
    i do see ya point, but the development cost of the original app is still there, playing devils advocate if they made it cheaper on PB than on android, people on android would then say `its the same, why`s it cheaper for them` so i think the same price is the only real way to be fair across all platforms.

    and yes the exchange rate is set by appworld, the devs dont have a say in that sadly
    03-05-12 03:38 PM
  8. wuulfy's Avatar
    Who pays for apps?
    You will be telling me you pay for porn next.
    pacoman03 likes this.
    03-05-12 03:53 PM
  9. localbin's Avatar
    It's particularly bad when you own an android app for your android device, then spend the same amount or more on the playbook app, just to find out it's the exact same app, running in a vm. I'm glad it's available for the playbook without sideloading, but when your development costs are practically 0, it would be nice to either see a discount, or make it a naitive app...
    I agree and its hardly the way to get to a thriving ecosystem of playbook apps.

    At least the VM apps should be identified as such, as they do not run nearly as well as the native apps I've used.
    03-05-12 05:01 PM
  10. BBThemes's Avatar
    Who pays for apps?
    guess the people who are in the top paid section in appworld gonna be disagreeing with ya lol.
    there are plenty of apps that are very worth the money, if im honest the one that first springs to mind is blaq. but hey people see things different, but when an app costs less than a can of red bull or a cup of coffee, and you have a $200+ device, seems a bit silly to suggest people shouldnt pay for apps.
    03-05-12 05:01 PM
  11. yllus's Avatar
    When I made my first foray into mobile app development - my day job is as a web developer - I was actually shocked at how low the cost of apps were. It's a heck of a gamble considering you may have little or no sales for what can easily be a month or more of work. And heaven help you if you're not soloing the project and need to split the revenue with a partner or two...
    03-05-12 08:23 PM
  12. kevinnugent's Avatar
    the price is set by the developer, not RIM. so its greedy devs if it costs less on another platform.

    of course if it costs less on another platform but is advertisement based then thats a whole different scenario i guess
    I'm pretty sure you will find that it's RIM that sets the currency conversion of the Apps in their App Store. Even though it's a gross rip off to charge the same number of, say, Euro for a USD price.
    03-05-12 08:43 PM
  13. smartie88's Avatar
    btw,does anyone know how many percent Developer share the revenue?
    03-05-12 09:28 PM
  14. BBThemes's Avatar
    I'm pretty sure you will find that it's RIM that sets the currency conversion of the Apps in their App Store. Even though it's a gross rip off to charge the same number of, say, Euro for a USD price.
    as you can see from my post (post #7) i cleared up any confusion. however i only said when you quoted me that devs set the price. which is totally true. i did not mention currency conversion at all in the post you quoted.

    btw,does anyone know how many percent Developer share the revenue?
    70% is now i think pretty much the industry standard. appworld is definitley 70%, so is mobihand (last i looked at least) and so far as i remember so is itunes. iv never looked at the android market.
    03-05-12 10:53 PM
  15. localbin's Avatar
    I guess the first thing then is how to best inform RIM that they are just being lazy or greedy with the conversion rate and slowing the purchase of apps in non US regions.

    Secondly I feel developers should discount android ported apps as they must be less work than developing a blackberry OS app. Using the notion that they merely have to tweak their app to play with the vm and any non api references be converted to be compatible.

    In my opinion of course.
    03-06-12 02:07 AM
  16. Me2's Avatar
    as you can see from my post (post #7) i cleared up any confusion. however i only said when you quoted me that devs set the price. which is totally true. i did not mention currency conversion at all in the post you quoted.
    Boulderdash. As far as the customer is concerned, the price is what gets charged at the store, so outside of the USD, it's totally untrue to say that is set by the devs.

    70% is now i think pretty much the industry standard. appworld is definitley 70%, so is mobihand (last i looked at least) and so far as i remember so is itunes. iv never looked at the android market.
    And here is the reason developers are not complaining about RIM treating non-US customers as mugs by charging more than 1:1 for UK purchases. Taking Paperplane as an example, $0.99 in the US, �1.00 in the UK. Rounded up to their favour, and with 70% of $1.57 being more than 70% of $0.99, it's not just RIM who's benefiting from the scam, is it?
    Last edited by PDAMad; 03-13-12 at 05:09 AM.
    03-13-12 05:06 AM
  17. twdawson's Avatar
    I am UK based and use IM+ on Android which is free, but its �8 for the playbook.

    No thanks.
    03-13-12 05:35 AM
  18. BearSnout's Avatar
    About UK and US conversions... I can't blame RIM. Maybe we could? I don't know. What I do know is that it's very widespread. If I buy a music CD or book or whatever, it's usually the same in pounds as it is dollars. We haven't given ourselves the name "rip off Britain" for nothing.
    03-13-12 07:24 AM
  19. localbin's Avatar
    Mmm, seems other companies (Apple, HP, Google) can do the maths and realise what an exchange rate is.

    A 1:1 conversion is just being lazy or greedy.
    03-13-12 07:36 AM
  20. Tomcat_Alley's Avatar
    Is it legal to proxy to the US store and buy your app for $5 instead of �5?
    03-13-12 07:39 AM
  21. BBThemes's Avatar
    Boulderdash. As far as the customer is concerned, the price is what gets charged at the store, so outside of the USD, it's totally untrue to say that is set by the devs.
    ok, maybe i should reword it to `devs set the price in appworld in $` just to appease the politically correct out there.

    either way as the dev sets a price (no matter what currency) to say its totally untrue that a dev sets a price is going a bit ott.
    03-13-12 07:48 AM
  22. glasgowguy's Avatar
    And here is the reason developers are not complaining about RIM treating non-US customers as mugs by charging more than 1:1 for UK purchases. Taking Paperplane as an example, $0.99 in the US, �1.00 in the UK. Rounded up to their favour, and with 70% of $1.57 being more than 70% of $0.99, it's not just RIM who's benefiting from the scam, is it?
    I do think that developers should be complaining as I am sure they would see an increase in the amount of downloads if rim were to be fair across the world with pricing. I for one do not buy anywhere the amount of apps I would have as I feel that being ripped off due to rims laziness is not on.

    Maybe it's about time for the UK market place to vote with their wallet then see if rim puts in a currency exchange programme in place.
    03-13-12 12:35 PM
  23. BBThemes's Avatar
    Maybe it's about time for the UK market place to vote with their wallet then see if rim puts in a currency exchange programme in place.
    i disagree. definitley ask for change (i know i have many a time) but to say `shut out devs to make appworld listen` will NOT be productive for anyone. only devs visting this thread would know why, others will just go `meh, low sales` and leave BB, then you have no apps to complain about lol.

    as i say, i agree with the objective but not the execution. doing it in a way that harms devs will only harm users down the line.
    03-13-12 12:47 PM
  24. Me2's Avatar
    Maybe it's about time for the UK market place to vote with their wallet then see if rim puts in a currency exchange programme in place.
    I could have accepted that the 'discrepancy' was simply due to lack of a currency exchange mechanism had there been a straight translation from $0.99 to �0.99.

    But that fact that UK price units are 'converted' from $0.99 to �1.00 proves that the hike is done deliberately within their catalogue / store.

    It's simply a scam and as we've seen above you won't get the devs to complain on your behalf as the diffference goes into their pocket as well as RIM's.
    04-02-12 11:11 AM
  25. BuzzStarField's Avatar
    ok, maybe i should reword it to `devs set the price in appworld in $` just to appease the politically correct out there.

    either way as the dev sets a price (no matter what currency) to say its totally untrue that a dev sets a price is going a bit ott.
    There are many other threads about this issue - but I will attempt to explain this again anyway.

    Developers set a price tier (not a price) for their apps. RIM (and only RIM) decides what actual price is charges in various regions.

    For example, I have chosen Tier 1 pricing for my app. RIM charges 1 U.S. dollar for U.S. customers, $ 1 Canadian dollar for Canadians, 1 pound for U.K customers and $.75 USD for customers in Columbia. By RIM's design, prices vary from place to place according to some formula that is not public knowledge. Note also that the price differentials have nothing at all to do with currency conversion rates and there is no "bug" in the pricing system - the charges are based on RIM's own unique pricing policy.

    As stated above, developers have no say in the actual price charged - they only set a tier. Developers receive 70% of the net price as determined by RIM for the particular tier that they have selected.
    04-02-12 11:39 AM
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