Let me make my point clearly and quickly.
Apple's App Store has spoiled me.
Let's get this straight. I pay 99 cents for an app on my iDevice, and the same app may cost me up to five bucks on a Windows, Android, Nokia, or Palm device?
Now, to be fair, a lot of this comes from the fact that the App Store is so competitive that price cutting is the only way to get your name out there; the coverage ranges from a few blogs advertising the price cut to making the "Featured Apps" section of the App Store. If you've got a pretty decent following, and you make your app free for a few days, you just may climb up the "Top Downloaded Apps" chart as well. The 99 cent price point is the cheapest an app can be without being free, and with so many apps to choose from, sometimes a company's only advantage is making the price cut- and even then, success in the App Store isn't assured.
If your really think about it, a lot of popular 99 cent apps out there are worth a lot more than that. Consider Angry Birds, a sure first-round ballot pick for the App Store Hall of Fame, if there ever was one. The iPhone app has been 99 cents since day one, and yet they keep adding content to increase the playability of the game. Even Angry Birds Seasons and Angry Birds Rio have the same price point and constantly add new content.
Right now, considering that the original Angry Birds is inching closer to its 200th level (and probably 300-400 for the entire series), it could be a $5 game and be worth its weight. But why doesn't Rovio up the price- especially considering that the iPad version of the game costs $5 and still stays near the top of the Paid Downloads list? There are two answers to that- one, Rovio sees the original Angry Birds as a gateway drug of sorts. You buy the demo, then you're willing to spend a stupid buck on the game. You buy the dollar game, then you buy the other two games. Rovio basically gets $3 a user on the iPhone/iPod Touch, and all they have to do is rearrange some blocks here and there, and test the level to make sure its beatable- a process that probably doesn't take much time and effort.
Two- Simply put, As long as Angry Birds keeps its cheap price point, it stays at the top of the boards. As long as it stays there, iOS users can see how highly revered it is. How many times have you tried an app just because it was in the Top Downloads section- especially if it was a free or a buck?
Let's also take a look at Flipboard, a free news app that was dubbed the iPad App of The Year in 2010 by Apple. Flipboard also stays near the top of the free app pile, and is featured prominently in Apple's "Gotta Have Apps" and "App Starter Kit" categories, as well as one of Apple's iPad commercials. Very quickly, Apple saw the value of Flipboard, and what it could do for the iPad. But what is an app like Flipboard doing not even selling itself at a buck or two? Well, the same reason Angry Birds only sells for 99 cents- the coverage. People will take a chance on a free or cheap app, especially if they see that others are doing the same and have come to like the app. Besides, more coverage means that the Flipboard team can branch out and do other work for high pay based on the success of the Flipboard app. I'm sure other tablet manufacturers have reached out to Flipboard about porting the app over.
I've mainly talked about Apple up to this point, but it's for a reason; other app stores don't have this sort of competition swirling. Ovi (Nokia), the Windows Marketplace, and even, to an extent, Android, don't have to undercut competitors to stay relevant because their app stores are so much smaller than Apple's. Thus, they can charge $5, the app's true worth, for an app that's 99 cents on the App Store.
That, ladies and gentlemen, is why Apple's got such a stranglehold on the industry. If not a stranglehold, then at least a half-nelson.
Half Nelson. Heh heh. My last name is Nelson. Get it? See what I did there?
Oh, forget it.
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