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Apple announces ‘upgrade’ to App Store pricing, adding 700 new price points

9to5mac.com

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Re: Apple announces ‘upgrade’ to App Store pricing, adding 700 new price points

#261

Post by awinder »

pasc1878 wrote: post #154
kybernetyk wrote: post #90

Will this solve the issue that the $49.99 tier equals to a 59.99 EUR price? I get a ton of messages every week by would-be Euro customers complaining why the fuck I am fleecing them with a 59.99 EUR price when the US price is $49.99 and the exchange rate is currently roughly 1:1.

The EUR price includes VAT, Americans have this odd thing of quoting prices without tax which tends to be illegal elesewhere. OK the US does not have a sales type tax on digital goods,

Digital goods are taxed and my apple app receipts all have a tax line on them (US-based).

Re: Apple announces ‘upgrade’ to App Store pricing, adding 700 new price points

#262

Post by SllX »

Strom wrote: post #260
SllX wrote: post #239

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There’s a reason for that: we don’t have VAT like you do. Here’s an example: a base model iPhone 14 is $799. If I go to the Downtown San Francisco Apple Store, it is $868.12; if I go across a bridge to the Berkeley Apple Store it is $880.90; if I go from there across a different bridge to Corte Madera it is $870.91; if I go back through San Francisco down to the neighboring county to the Hillsdale Apple Store it is $…

European states have different VAT rates too. A company advertises 999€ and then depending on the state it can be either 832,5€ + 166,5€ VAT or 839,5€ + 159,5€ VAT or 799,2€ + 199,8€ VAT etc. In the case of Apple they sometimes do this and other times not. So for example the iPhone 14 is 999€ in both Germany and Austria, even though they have 19% vs 20% VAT rates. However in Finland which has a 24% rate the iPhone 14…

And does Apple have one Apple Online Store and App Store for the Eurozone or do they have separate Online and App Stores for each EU member they operate in in the local languages and currencies (for the EU and Eurozone are not even perfectly aligned)?

Almost every example I gave was within one State: California, except for the two I tacked on at the end from California’s nearest northern neighbor in Oregon. All of the California examples were within the same metro area (the San Francisco Bay Area) but different counties. There is one US website, and one US App Store.

It is not the same situation, only seemingly superficially similar until further inspection.

Re: Apple announces ‘upgrade’ to App Store pricing, adding 700 new price points

#263

Post by Strom »

SllX wrote: post #262
Strom wrote: post #260

Earlier quoted context omitted.

European states have different VAT rates too. A company advertises 999€ and then depending on the state it can be either 832,5€ + 166,5€ VAT or 839,5€ + 159,5€ VAT or 799,2€ + 199,8€ VAT etc. In the case of Apple they sometimes do this and other times not. So for example the iPhone 14 is 999€ in both Germany and Austria, even though they have 19% vs 20% VAT rates. However in Finland which has a 24% rate the iPhone 14…

And does Apple have one Apple Online Store and App Store for the Eurozone or do they have separate Online and App Stores for each EU member they operate in in the local languages and currencies (for the EU and Eurozone are not even perfectly aligned)? Almost every example I gave was within one State: California, except for the two I tacked on at the end from California’s nearest northern neighbor in Oregon. All of th…

Local municipality taxes exist in Europe too. Some cities have an extra 1% tax for example and Apple isn't exempt from that. The price still remains what they advertise for the larger region.

Re: Apple announces ‘upgrade’ to App Store pricing, adding 700 new price points

#264

Post by Wowfunhappy »

armchairhacker wrote: post #252
dang wrote: post #165

We changed the URL from https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2022/12/apple-announces-bigge... to a third party article I just googled. If there's a better third-party article, we can change it again. Yes, HN has the rule "*Please submit the original source. If a post reports on something found on another site, submit the latter" ( https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html ), but corporate press releases are so awful…

I see your reasoning but I disagree. HN articles don’t need to be unbiased. The reason being, if you want a more neutral take, just take a look at the HN comments. HN submissions are usually primary sources, and the HN comments are where you have the discussion. Sometimes even the top voted comment is just a summary of the actual submission, but rephrased to be less biased or more clear. If HN can’t point out the bur…

This is my feeling. The article is the reference material for what we discuss in the comments; the comments provide interpretation.

Re: Apple announces ‘upgrade’ to App Store pricing, adding 700 new price points

#265

Post by crystaln »

darth_avocado wrote: post #150
JonathonW wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple uses price points rather than having developers explicitly specify prices because they're currency-independent: you specify a price point and Apple chooses appropriate prices for each of the ~175 different storefronts where your app could be available. Apple then periodically adjusts the international prices as exchange rates fluctuate, to keep them in parity with the US prices at the same tiers. The alternativ…

Not to be that guy, but isn’t that like, what computers are for?

Knowing that Apple is pretty smart, I'm sure they use computers, but only update occasionally so prices aren't constantly fluctuating.

Apple loves design and beauty. Crisp numbers and stability are more user friendly and aesthetic.

Re: Apple announces ‘upgrade’ to App Store pricing, adding 700 new price points

#266

Post by earthnail »

intrasight wrote: post #138
howinteresting wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

According to the Epic v. Apple decision: * The vast majority of app store revenue is from games. * A small number of "whales" spend almost all of the money -- presumably rich kids and adults, and people with an unfortunate gambling addiction.

This is why I find it so baffling that there are so many devs/companies chasing the golden ring of app revenue with sincerity when clearly is a very warped marketplace. What types of useful, non-scam apps do people look for and buy that lead devs to believe there's some opportunity? Why create it as an app and deal with all that BS when you could just make a nice web site/PWA?

Some products are designed to make use of the iPhone as a form factor. Then you can’t make a PWA.

But yes, the market is warped and Apple has a lot of work to do to make it a better marketplace.

This is a step in the right direction though. Maybe more steps will follow.

Re: Apple announces ‘upgrade’ to App Store pricing, adding 700 new price points

#267

Post by mynameisvlad »

slg wrote: post #244
mynameisvlad wrote: post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

7.39 should be possible as part of the 10c price step, but how would you get 37.40 out of the system? You could do 37.00, 37.90, 37.95, or 37.99 via the "X." ones, and the first category would all end in X9.

They say .50 price steps are possible in the 10-50 range so X.90 + .50.

So the way I read it is as two separate systems:

Developers can go in 10c price steps from $0.29 to $9.99 (0.39, 0.49, 0.59, etc), or in 50c price steps from $0.49 to $49.99 (0.49, 0.99, 1.49, 1.99, etc), etc OR developers can use the 4 supported conventions for any price in those ranges, as long as you fit within the convention.

But you cannot start at a supported convention and then use the price steps.

Re: Apple announces ‘upgrade’ to App Store pricing, adding 700 new price points

#268

Post by Strom »

chongli wrote: post #209
CameronNemo wrote: post #193

Earlier quoted context omitted.

??? If taxes are included in price, the consumer can just look at the price and compare rather than jumping through the additional mental hoop to determine if one item is subject to sales tax, and what its price is in tgat case.

If you have two items and sales taxes are included in the price of one but not the other, the only way you can know which one has the taxes on it is to go look at some government website that lists all of the categories the tax applies to and those it does not. On the other hand, if the taxes are not included in prices then you will see which one has taxes at checkout and elect not to purchase the item with taxes, pr…

> the only way you can know which one has the taxes on it is to go look at some government website

In Europe the tax is listed separately on the bill by law, no need to visit any website.

The amount of tax charged isn't hidden in Europe, it's just that the most prominent number is the total sum. The pre-tax part and all the taxes are also available separately for your information.

Re: Apple announces ‘upgrade’ to App Store pricing, adding 700 new price points

#269

Post by jw1224 »

simonw wrote: post #169
hitpointdrew wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You would think a company like Apple could easily build a system that updated exchange rates daily and could do the simple math on any price. Having "price points" seems arbitrarily and stupid.

They could do that, but then users in some countries would have to pay 0.693 of their local currency or whatever. Why should the US be the only country that gets friendly looking prices?

The point is that price points already are friendly-looking in every country. Price points are adjusted in each country, they’re not a 1:1 match with $USD.

Re: Apple announces ‘upgrade’ to App Store pricing, adding 700 new price points

#270

Post by crystaln »

So much Apple cynicism here.

Apple loves design and beauty. Crisp numbers and stability are more user friendly and aesthetic. Also some numbers have implications in certain markets. Seeing numbers like or $69.42 or $444 or $7.23 is just bad all around.

International price conversion while maintaining those is also challenging.

Before attacking Apple policies, it's worth considering why their extremely deep design process might have led to that choice.

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