The relevant question with the above is 'Is it sustainable?'. The answer: Yes it is, if you're happy feeling entitled for cheap crap. You get what you pay for.
You aren't helping the market nor the industry. Raise your prices to at least $2.99 for the iPad. You claim that your product is better than the competition, but you aren't actually competing in the same league until you have similar pricing. Right now, your competitor is most likely winning the battle.
Yep got both of those and they are great. Love goodreader and storing my entire ebook pdf collection on it with the USB transfer. Also SmallWorld $5 and Pages $10. Read the other two Keynote and Numbers can't export ppt and .xls respectively so avoiding those. And that Pocket Legends free (with DLC) That's pretty much it for my iPad purchasing for now till I see the good $1 ones come out. If it takes 6 months then it takes 6 months but I can wait till then. Charge $10 or $25 ..but I am not gonna bite. If I see a great game for $5 I might snag it if quality. So far most $5 ipad games aren't even worth $1 at least for me.
Thank you for so eloquently saying what I've been thinking. Well I've said it too, but not as clear and concise as you have.
Hi, Hallelujah! The voice of reason is a welcome and unfortunately, rare sight around here. I think we all like to save money but Big Albie nailed it here. David
I'm surprised when people act like 0.99 is a big deal. Whatever happened to "WT*, it's only a buck"? My babysitter spent hundreds on her iPhone, but has pains over buying any app for it. I don't get it. In her words, "I mostly use free apps. If I'm gonna pay a buck, it [the app] has to do a lot of stuff."
Hmm... How much does games for Nintendo DS or PSP cost? 14.99 average? or higher? Some games on iPad are totally worth paying the price or even more But sadly there is a bad side here when Devs do just update in screen size w/o any new stuff, or even worst when some send tons of puzzle games with one puzzle in it... But in my opinion 4.99 is a good price for a well made game
I strongly disagree with engadget's article. I think even the iPhone game pricing is too low. I can't believe people are complaining about $14.99 games. That's ridiculous! If the iPhone games were correctly priced, this wouldn't be a complaint in the first place. It's extremely sad that the iPad is getting beat up over the prices. The more expensive iPad games are still only half the price of DS and PSP games. I think the people that wrote that article should feel lucky that there are enough indie developers generous enough to price their games at that low price!
That really pisses me off too. These developers [most] spend time and work hard on their apps, and people just b*tch and moan about an app that costs $.99. They say "it better be the one hell of an app for this price." yet if they were to create an app and try to sell it, they would want people to spend $3-$4 on it and expect people to buy it without question. Hypocrits. Although I would love to buy an app for more if it came on a physical storage device and was fairly priced (e.g. Real Racing, Broters in Arms 2, or any other app that has a large size.)
I think some apps are rip offs. Word for friends for example, I am not paying $7.99 for an app that I already bought and works just as well. I understand raising the price for premium content but when companies increase the price more then 2 dollars from the original app I becomes a problem with me. Some apps are well priced though.
Some iPad games warrant the high prices, some don't, simple as. Some like the keynote, pages and numbers apps are well worth the $9.99 price tag in my opinion, it's a mobile Office. Buying Microsoft Office for my laptop would cost me around $150 which is a whopping lot more than $30. Yes, it isn't as 'amazing' as Microsoft Office, but they still function well, so in my opinion, most iPad apps are perfectly priced. The iPhone market is the one underpriced and some of us complain too much about a few bucks (I used to underappreciate the hardwork done by devs too). The market economics of the App Store is oh so intruiging.
I hate to be callous, but that's kind of the point. The iPhone store has been flooded with crud due to this pervasive "get rich quick" mentality. In result, the really good games are getting lost in a flood of crap. Users may be buying more games, but all they're really accomplishing is to spread the purchases so thin as to drive good developers away. Developers need to stand up for themselves. If their games are good, price them appropriately. If we do that, $0.99 games will get a reputation as shovelware. Consumer expectations will rise and they will mostly ignore the lowest price point. If we all play our cards right, consumers will see a correlation between price and quality. That correlation will benefit everyone. Consumers will be able to find software that they're happy with while quality developers will make more money. It's a win-win for everyone. We just need to stick to our guns, resist the gratification of turning the price knob, and see how the market actually develops. I bet you that the market will weed out the poorly priced HD "upgrades" to existing iPhone games and consumers will start thinking of the iPad software costs in terms of Desktop/Laptop computers. I think this is a very important point. One that is well supported by economic theory. Ask any MBA and they'll tear you a new one for underpricing your product without a reasonable strategy for doing so. For better or for worse, we tend to assign value based on price. In fact, a recent scientific study proved this long-standing theory of the market. Several groups of participants purchased a bottle of wine. The bottles were exactly the same, but each group paid a different amount for it. When the opinions on the wine came back, there was a strong correlation between the price paid and how much a group favored the wine. The more they paid, the more they liked the wine. If you really want to compete, you need to convince your customers that your software is better. Price is easily one of the most effective ways of doing that.
