App Store Pricing (it’s not a free market!) (2008)

This past week I came across this old post by David Barnard from 2008 and ended up reading it several times (I didn’t really start reading dev blogs until ~2013, so I’m sure I missed many gems like this). Between this and all of the discussion about how Marzipan may negatively affect users’ pricing expectations, I feel…well, I feel fired up, actually.

More than ever I realize that it’s futile to try to compete on price. So if you’re an indie dev, and your non-subscription-based app is priced under $5, I want you to go into App Store Connect and bump that baby up to the next price tier. See what happens. If the world doesn’t end and your sales don’t nosedive, bump it up again. What you’re doing is not evil or greedy, neither is it comparable to Adobe doubling the price of their Photographer bundle. That’s apples and oranges. And if someone says, “I was planning to buy your app at $3.99, but there’s no way I’m paying $4.99,”…forget ’em.

$5 should be the absolute rock bottom price for a quality indie app, full stop. So, for whoever might need to hear this: stop kidding yourself, you’re not going to make it up in volume, raise your dang prices, thank you and good night.