So, some interesting news has come out of India, where it seems that Apple has introduced a new pricing tier that could make premium apps more affordable for Indian iOS users. Normally, tier 1, the lowest tier for App Store apps and IAPs, is $0.99 (USD), which is priced at Rs 60 in India. Two new pricing tiers will be available in India, allowing developers to price their apps in the country at Rs 10 and Rs 30. Some other countries have these pricing tier choices, including China and Mexico. India is just the latest country to have these alternate, lower-minimum prices available for apps on the App Store. You can see how the pricing tiers work on Angry Birds (Free):
I imagine some westerners are going to react like “Wait, India is getting games at a much cheaper price than us? That’s garbage!" To which I say that you have to understand that a game that costs $0.99 is proportionally more expensive to someone in India than it is to someone in the United States. Without these alternate tier adjustments, premium games have apparently been a hard sell in India, where Tier 1, the $0.99 tier in the US, was Rs 60. Now consider that the GDP per capita in the US is $53,041.98 compared to $1.498.97 in India, and you can see where a $0.99 game is actually really expensive in India. So, knocking the price down to Rs 10 with the new Alternate Tier A pricing might be beneficial to all parties involved. Premium apps just became more affordable to Indian App Store users, and developers might have a better shot at selling to a country of 1.252 billion people.
Think about that: 1.252 billion people. That’s more than the population of North America and Europe combined. So yeah, if India becomes a lucrative market to developers across the world, then that’s more people that could make mobile games viable and lucrative, ensuring there’s more quality games to come in the future. And if premium games have to be priced a bit lower to sell to Indian residents, that might just be a necessary concession to help support developers trying to make money off of their apps and games. The Indian market is one to keep an eye on over the next couple of years, for sure.
