Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

We're not paying enough for apps

news.cnet.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

71–80 of 121 posts

Re: We're not paying enough for apps

#71

Post by jgarmon »

chime wrote: post #9

I've had the exact same experience with respect to my iOS app: https://zetabee.com/tip-of-my-tongue/ No matter what price ($0.99 - $9.99) I set, I make the same gross revenue. Reviews tend to be nicer when people buy it for $2.99 - $4.99.

I would be extremely curious if this holds for content as well as app. We've trained users that content is free, while apps can occasionally cost money. This has led to all kinds of price distortions in music and, most especially, ebooks.

As a content producer who works closely with engineers, I can vouch that good content requires no less training and effort than good apps. A novel-length ebook probably takes more time and effort to produce (for any level of quality) than an app. I'd imagine an album of music requires even more. Yet we we never hear stories about perfect price elasticity in content.

I'm genuinely curious if price elasticity holds true in content and, if so, why we haven't heard as much about it.

Re: We're not paying enough for apps

#72

Post by jgarmon »

6ren wrote: post #16

Those examples of elastic pricing are for consumer purchases (e.g. games). The app in question is free for home use; but paid for corporate. Corporate customers have an unbelievably different concept of "expensive" from you and me. I experimented with different prices for a corporate product, and found charging too little or too much reduced profits. (Sadly, this experiment seriously irritated at least one developer.…

I don't in general disagree, except to say that the consumerization of IT departments means that enterprises are using consumer-oriented stuff, so you get the best of both headaches these days.

And if you think the neterprise is bad, just try selling into the government channel. Jeebus frak, those guys are hideously cheap and supremely demanding. If it weren't for scandalously longterm lock-in due to high switching costs -- when everything is reviewed forever, almost nothing ever changes, including product selections -- no one would sell to the public sector EVER.

Re: We're not paying enough for apps

#73

Post by k00k »

20 years ago, when I worked at CompUSA, we used to have this bin of budget software. In it, you'd find things like "3D Home Design" software, game clones, and Pagemaker wannabes. People used to ask all the time, why do I need to pay $200 for X when I can buy this one in the bin. They'd of course be cheapos, buy the one in the bin for $9.99, and then one of two things would happen, either they'd realize, wow, this is crap, and come back and buy the $199 "real" software, or they'd come back and ask a thousand annoying support questions on how to make the crap software do what they need. Some things never change.

Re: We're not paying enough for apps

#74

Post by luriel »

When you are used to apt-get (or equivalent packaging systems, or download.com or whatever on Windows), the concept of paying for apps when using the App Store is baffling.

I borrowed a friend's iPhone a while ago, and I could not even find a decent free IRC client, I'm sure there might be one somewhere, but most were at best badly crippled. It was very depressing.

And I thought we dealt with the whole "it costs too much to build this software" issue ages ago, how much did it cost to build most open source projects? And who cares? The point is that people has good enough reasons to build software without needing to charge directly for it.

Re: We're not paying enough for apps

#75

Post by Tloewald »

cageface wrote: post #32

But I still wasn't ready to part with my $50 for this little utility when the price point in my head was $0. And when there's so much great stuff in the App Store for $4.99. This is exactly the problem with the app store. People have an idea in their heads of what an app is worth, no matter how much work it took to produce it. Price is completely decoupled from cost and from sales volume. This is like saying a Lambor…

And of course before the app store there was no low quality junk.

Frankly the problem with the app store is app discovery (something apple clearly understands). The emphasis is on (a) stuff that makes money, (b) stuff that gets downloaded a lot, (c) stuff that lots of people like. Once you go into niches it's insanely hard to FIND things. And if something looks intriguing but is expensive, there's no free trial mechanism.

If the app store fixed the discovery problem (and supported free trials) I think most of these issues would go away.

There's nothing wrong with a flood of free stuff, much of which is crap, and a ton of good cheap stuff aimed at broad markets ... This is actually a sign of progress.

Re: We're not paying enough for apps

#76

Post by yabai »

luriel wrote: post #74

When you are used to apt-get (or equivalent packaging systems, or download.com or whatever on Windows), the concept of paying for apps when using the App Store is baffling. I borrowed a friend's iPhone a while ago, and I could not even find a decent free IRC client, I'm sure there might be one somewhere, but most were at best badly crippled. It was very depressing. And I thought we dealt with the whole "it costs too…

Colloquy is one of the better irc apps for the iphone.

Re: We're not paying enough for apps

#77

Post by cageface »

Tloewald wrote: post #75
cageface wrote: post #32

But I still wasn't ready to part with my $50 for this little utility when the price point in my head was $0. And when there's so much great stuff in the App Store for $4.99. This is exactly the problem with the app store. People have an idea in their heads of what an app is worth, no matter how much work it took to produce it. Price is completely decoupled from cost and from sales volume. This is like saying a Lambor…

And of course before the app store there was no low quality junk. Frankly the problem with the app store is app discovery (something apple clearly understands). The emphasis is on (a) stuff that makes money, (b) stuff that gets downloaded a lot, (c) stuff that lots of people like. Once you go into niches it's insanely hard to FIND things. And if something looks intriguing but is expensive, there's no free trial mecha…

Before the app store everybody was comfortable with the idea that software was not a generic commodity sold at a fixed price. Discovery is also a big problem in the app store, but it's orthogonal to price expectations.

Re: We're not paying enough for apps

#78

Post by cageface »

luriel wrote: post #74

When you are used to apt-get (or equivalent packaging systems, or download.com or whatever on Windows), the concept of paying for apps when using the App Store is baffling. I borrowed a friend's iPhone a while ago, and I could not even find a decent free IRC client, I'm sure there might be one somewhere, but most were at best badly crippled. It was very depressing. And I thought we dealt with the whole "it costs too…

When you're used to the polish and quality of commercial applications, the appeal of the rough and amateur GUI-centric apps available via apt-get is baffling. Linux is a great server OS but there's a reason its irrelevant on the desktop.

Re: We're not paying enough for apps

#79

Post by bartelsmedia »

wccrawford wrote: post #47

The title doesn't match the content at all. The content is correct in that pricing apps is complicated and there are factors that people don't often consider. And that support costs should be a factor. But nowhere does it prove the should be paying more . Maybe the developers could charge more, but it doesn't even prove they should do that. It just opens up the possibility. And I think that ShareMouse is overpriced.…

> And I think that ShareMouse is overpriced. $25 per computer?

Don't hesitate and make a suggestion. We have everything from "it should be free" to "It works so well, I'd paid $100" so far.

Re: We're not paying enough for apps

#80

Post by graeme »

rmk2 wrote: post #66

To be fair, I think some people might not have this problem, but from nought to fifty is quite a steep rise. If I find a free app that does what I need, that is very nice. However, at a pricepoint of 50$, I have to think twice. Whatever I pay (I am a student) basically goes out of my monthly living allowance, which means out of my food money. I have around 400$ (300€ really) a month for food and everything else after…

An app is more like a capital expenditure. You pay once, and never again.

You definitely should think twice, but the $400 monthly figure seems like the wrong comparison. You likely spend most of that on monthly expenses that recur.

I have the same issue of a limited budget. But for some purchases (software, books, furniture, etc.) I consider them on the basis of "does this provide X$ of value to me?"

If the item does provide enough value, then I use money I've set aside for that purpose, and I buy it.

Setting money aside for this sort of one-off value purchase is part of my monthly budget.

(Of course, I also have to weigh a $50 app purchase against other uses for my saved money.)

edited to add: I'm not saying you should be buying $50 apps of course, that is a lot of money on your budget. I'm just saying the reference point should be long term rather than monthly.

Post reply on HN