The $0.99 App Devaluation You Should Reconsider

What is a reasonable price for an app? $0.99 or maybe $0.00? These are prevalent app store prices, excluding the freemium model. This is something that I think needs to stop. Developers are worth more than that.

Developers take time to develop even the simplest of applications. It takes skill, time, and tools. These should be rewarded! The app stores have generated the impression that these are the prices you should be charging, arguing more downloads and exposure for the price. This is ultimately an unsustainable pricing structure over time for most people wanting to make apps and will eventually lead to more substandard applications or a smaller developer pool per platform. I believe it will also increase the in-app advertising, already seeing an increase in angry customers.

Consider this: you train to be a doctor or teacher. Becoming good at what you do takes years of time and money. Do you then start charging customers $1 per visit or lesson? I did not think so, so why is it acceptable to charge that for your application? I have heard the argument that maybe you will sell enough copies to make it all worthwhile, but once you lose those first two days where you might get featured or appear on the new app page, you are now just one of millions of apps hoping to appear in a search.

To play Devil's Advocate, I will offer the counterargument.

‘But at $0.99, I am seeing a ton of downloads, and I can put a big number up on my app web page'. OK, that is fair, but wait until you try to charge for the next version or raise the price. Your customers will give you a bad review, and those are hard to come back from.

What happens when a new version of iOS is released and breaks your application? You will get bad reviews until you take the time to fix it or be accused of abandoning it. Maybe you thought you would release the app, take the money and run. You could do that, but don't expect to be forgiven when you release another app!

There are companies out there that are charging what I think are reasonable prices for their apps. I have paid prices across the board up to $60 because it was worth it to me and because it tells me that the authors care enough to value their work and time. A couple of examples are Fantastical 2 and OmniFocus. They believe in what they are producing and plan to be around long enough to keep embracing this industry as it matures along with their customer base.

You, the developers, are in a position to do something about this and force a change before it is too late. Stand up and set a price that says, ‘Our work and our skills are worth more than $1'. So this is my call to action before it is too late and customers expect $1 for everything.

Should you learn Swift or React-Native?

Think of it this way: at $1 for your application, you are saying your work is only worth the $1 bin just inside the entrances of most stores rather than being on the shelves with premium products.

Consider that briefly: what if $1 is considered too much one day? Where do you go from there?

As with all industries, your skills and time have value; do not let it be $1.

What about content? I read recently that a paid Podcast player plans to strip adverts from your shows.