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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

#311

Post by error503 »

eYrKEC2 wrote: post #290
pasc1878 wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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,

"quoting prices without tax which tends to be illegal elsewhere" Cui bono? Personally, I like that US citizens are constantly reminded how much flesh the State is extracting.

Consumers, who don't have to know the ins and outs of local tax policies and exemptions to understand what the product they want to buy will cost them.

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

#312

Post by yreg »

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.

How do you not know the difference is in VAT if you say you answer a ton of support requests regarding this?

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

#313

Post by darth_avocado »

crystaln wrote: post #265
darth_avocado wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Knowing apple, more likely scenario is that the systems are old and allowing such flexibility would be a Herculean task that needs a lot of investment with not a lot of upside.

TLDR; if it works don’t touch it.

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

#314

Post by willnonya »

JonathonW wrote: post #97
black_puppydog wrote: post #66

So, never having bothered with Apple hard-/software I am a bit confused... A developer can't just set a price for something? But then out of the first 10000 natural numbers, Apple semi-arbitrarily select a set of 900 "known-good" numbers that work well for prices? Like, as if the other numbers are somehow bad prices? If you charge someone $7,43 for something, the ghost of Steve Jobs will start haunting you? That's, l…

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…

The alternative would be to have developers set their price point and currency then allow Apple to still do the international conversion rates. There is zero benefit in these conversions to only having preset price points.

Your answer may be factually true but it is logically flawed.

Unless there is some marketing value here I suspect it has more to do with making sure they don't lose a half cent of commission rather than benefiting anyone else in any real way.

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

#315

Post by crystaln »

postalrat wrote: post #276
crystaln wrote: post #270

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 pro…

But take your choice: x.99, x.90, x.95. Beautiful design.

There's a reason most retail stores use price points and not random numbers.

Pricing like this:

$7.23 $5.48 $9.21

is just ugly and feels cheap. It's the same reason they have UX standards generally.

Why does anyone care about 1 cent on a $5 purchase? Does anyone here care? The new price points seem to provide enough flexibility with less disadvantage.

From a business perspective, if I had to guess the increased cognitive load would decrease shopping time and increase decision fatigue. I'd also guess that the retail industry has studied this endlessly, and that Apple is basing their pattern partially on this.

This also decreases opportunities for useless psychological price competition and focuses people on quality. Do I want the $1.82 product or the $1.93 product? You probably want the BETTER product.

I think you're probably better off having your prices at $0.99, $2.99, and $5.99 rather than $0.84, $2.72, $5.63, even tho the latter is cheaper, particularly if you are in a large store that has thousands of prices.

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

#316

Post by willnonya »

zinekeller wrote: post #191
parker_mountain wrote: post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the main North American market is subsidizing the apps being produced and sold worldwide I think you'll find that this has been the practice for many decades. A stark example is medicine pricing.

It's not really. The US medical system has this tendency to inflate pricing in a cat-and-mouse system where drug companies and insurance companies try to duke out what is the "correct" price of a drug. Setting it too high and the insurers won't cover it, too low and the pharmaceutical companies are "losing" profits to insurers. It's a terrible feedback loop that hampers those who can't afford insurance because the pr…

I think youre missing several inputs into your feedback loop. The original statement about the US system bearing the brunt of development stands. It's also true that insurers influence the market. Both are true. There are also government inputs into the market, political inputs a d supply chain elements that all feed into this. The one stakeholder will little real input in the end consumer who gets stuck paying whatever the others have decided they'll allow...

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

#317

Post by musicale »

> The 100 highest price points, however, are only available upon request as part of Apple’s efforts to reduce the potential for scams.

Fortunately it doesn't seem to apply to IAP so apps will still be able to sell $99 barrels of smurfberries.

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

#318

Post by willnonya »

pavon wrote: post #248
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…

Thanks for that explanation. Is that why the price point ranges overlap - does the increment you select tell Apple how much they should round by when converting currency? For example, on the surface it seems redundant to have overlapping prices bands $0.29-$9.99 in $0.10 increments $0.49-$49.99 in $0.50 increments Since 10 cent increments include 50 cent increments, so why not say: $0.29-$9.99 in $0.10 increments $9.…

"does the increment you select tell Apple how much they should round by when converting currency?"

Not in anyway beyond simple math...thisnwhole scheme likely has more to do with ensuring and determining commissions that anything else.

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

#319

Post by willnonya »

hitpointdrew wrote: post #149
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…

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.

It is stupid. The exchange rates are a rehearing here. It's likely just a marketing aspect, setting the last digits etc or wlensrluring they don't lose out on a half cent of commission somewhere.

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

#320

Post by twblalock »

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,

The US does not have a national sales tax or VAT. Every state has their own tax, and some don't even have one.

Even within a state, sales taxes can vary at the county and municipality level.

To tell an American the full price plus tax they will pay for something, you need to know where they live. For expensive items like computers and phones, the price could vary by tens or hundreds of dollars.

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