'Premium' App Store Rumors Revived

[MacRumors]

http://www.macrumors.com/images/macrumorsthreadlogo.gif (http://www.macrumors.com/2009/03/14/premium-app-store-rumors-revived/)

Wired revives (http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2009/03/post.html) rumors of a "premium" App Store dedicated to applications for the iPhone and iPod touch priced at $20 or more. The move could provide a means for more sophisticated apps to be featured and protected from the downward pricing pressure seen in the App Store.We're hearing rumors that Apple could introduce a "premium" section in the store, in order to sell more expensive third-party programs. The premium section would largely be focused on games, giving game makers a channel to offer more in-depth (and pricier) titles without getting lost in the clutter of free and $1 apps.Wired also speculates that a "premium" store could be popular with business-oriented software companies.This "velvet rope" section of Apple's store could feature software programs that cost $20 or more, making it friendlier to publishers whose products are too complicated to be created in one developer's spare time. That change would make the App Store more friendly to game publishers, as well as enterprise software companies such as SAP that would otherwise prefer to focus on the more business-user targeted BlackBerry phones.PocketGamer.biz reported on similar rumors (http://www.macrumors.com/2009/01/29/apple-to-open-19-99-premium-games-section-in-app-store/) in late January. While PocketGamer.biz had no information on a possible release date for the new App Store, they speculated that Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference this summer would be an obvious opportunity, but that a special games-focused media event could also be a possibility. Apple's iPhone OS 3.0 media event (http://www.macrumors.com/2009/03/12/apple-to-preview-iphone-os-3-0-on-march-17th/) scheduled for next Tuesday provides yet another opportunity for such an announcement.

Article Link: 'Premium' App Store Rumors Revived (http://www.macrumors.com/2009/03/14/premium-app-store-rumors-revived/)

[macaco74]

not sure any iphone app is worth $20, we shall see!

[themoonisdown09]

not sure any iphone app is worth $20, we shall see!

I would think mostly medical and enterprise applications would be in this section.

[Vandam500]

not sure any iphone app is worth $20, we shall see!

Beejive IM is 15.99 and its worth every penny. If it were 4 dollars more I would have still bought it :cool:

[kornyboy]

Wirelessly posted (iPhone: Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 2_2_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/525.18.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.1.1 Mobile/5H11 Safari/525.20)

I'm all for this. The more full featured Apps should have their place. This is not to take away from the really great less expensive apps out there.

[Lesser Evets]

I haven't seen an iPT app worth more than $6 to me, and I have hundreds. Especially the games.

When I first saw the title of this article I thought it was some store with pure download versions of their OSX apps. If they ever did that I wouldn't be disheartened, unless it becomes a hassle to get the program again when a HD crash occurs.

[fastbite]

As long as we getter deeper stuff, why not?

[AngryApple]

Ehh. I wouldn't spend $20 on an app even if it was awesome.

[=MuLti-CeLL=]

I'm interested to see what will be popping up in this new section.

As a gamer myself, I'll ask other gamer's out there...Would you pay 20 bucks for even one of your favorite iPhone/Touch games right now? (and if not just one, how about your top 5 games) Which leads me to add, How much better can it really get to make you wanna spend 20 bucks?!

[BJWanlund]

Maybe this is the chance for Astrolabe or some other astrological software company to get on the horn regarding charting software. I don't know.

BJ

[mkrishnan]

As a gamer myself, I'll ask other gamer's out there...Would you pay 20 bucks for even one of your favorite iPhone/Touch games right now? (and if not just one, how about your top 5 games) Which leads me to add, How much better can it really get to make you wanna spend 20 bucks?!

This kind of gets back to what's been said by the side of people who are willing to see $20 games nurtured on the iPhone in all the past threads on this topic...

Are there games on the market worth $20 now? No. That's the whole point. I wouldn't pay $20 for any game I have on my iPhone now.

But there are games which, had they received more development and been longer, I would've considered paying $20 for. If Hero of Sparta had 3x as many levels and they had taken more time to put in more animations / kill sequences and so on of comparable quality, I would've paid $20 for it. If Brothers in Arms likewise were 3x as long, and they had spent more time ironing out the issues with some of the controls in the game (e.g. driving the tanks and jeeps), I would've likewise considered it easily worth $20. If Spore went through several of the stages of development instead of just having the microbial segment, then I think it likewise would've been worth $20. I don't know if I'd care for Rolando being a lot longer than it was, but I do think it shows that ngmoco has the skills to make an iPhone game that takes on the PSP or DS in quality.

So my argument is that this small number of developers (Gameloft, EA, ngmoco, etc), at least, already have shown that they can make games that compete with $20-35 games on the PSP and DS in terms of graphics/sound/animation quality, and at least sometimes in terms of play quality too (for instance, in BiA, it's really only driving the tanks and jeeps around that isn't great... gameplay quality on foot is quite good). So if those same games scaled up to the length and plot sophistication of DS games, I think they might be worth $20.

OTOH, I'd still want to see enough pricing pressure to push these games down, rather than have them come out and still sell for the same $20 six months later. I like that the App Store pushes developers to titer their price down over time to boost sales -- it makes sense, since they can pay off their amortized development cost early and then allow gamers to get products at discount. It makes up also for the fact that these games will not have a used marketplace.

[plumbingandtech]

not sure any iphone app is worth $20, we shall see!

As others have said, enterprise apps easily have this value and more, to say nothing of the fact that DS and PSPportable games are $30-$60 and those sell plenty well to people who seem to think it's worth it.

[SydneyDev]

I would prefer a smaller app store with stuff you know is going to be good. Just compare the current iPhone apps with Mac apps. The Mac apps are way superior.

[txhockey9404]

Although I don't like the idea of spending $20+ dollars on an iPhone or iPod app, I think this will inevitably bring big name developers to the platform. This will be for the best in the long run. Personally, I would pay $20+ for a good iWork and Office compatible office suite for an iPod or iPhone.

[stefk]

"Premium" appstore?


AppStorePro.



Puuuurlease :D

[Michael CM1]

not sure any iphone app is worth $20, we shall see!

If Sirius XM works like one of their devices, I would think it's worth $20 since the standalone players are more like $100+.

[alexlovesmacs]

Apple should call it the App Store Pro.:p

[anubis]

Speaking particularly about games....

I think the free market has decided that complicated games (i.e. games that take a development team to code and have a steep learning curve for the user) don't belong on the iPhone. No one bought their iPhone to use primarily as a gaming console. People want quick, simple games that can be learned in a few seconds, can be played for a few minutes at a time, and generally provide a quick (albeit short-lived) burst of entertainment before moving on to the next game. Nothing wrong with that.

The problem I have is that "larger" game publishers are upset because their $20 games aren't selling well and think the reason why is because they're getting squeezed out by 99 cent games and need their own "special" store to get noticed. The reason the big, complicated $20 games aren't selling well is because NO ONE WANTS TO BUY THEM. They don't fit the profile of the kinds of games people want to play on their phone. This special store won't lift their sales and will eventually be a flop (for games, anyway).

As far as a special store for premium productivity apps and so forth, again, if a doctor wants to spend $20 or $100 or $500 on a specific specialty app, it isn't like he or she is going to not buy it because it's surrounded by 99 cent "pull my finger" apps. They're going to buy those apps if they need them, regardless of the price of the app relative to all of the 99 cent apps.

Apple is just doing this because they're tired of hearing from all of the large game and app publishers complaining about not having enough sales, and blame the app store itself rather than looking at their own apps' low value to iPhone users.

[Stella]

Sounds like a good idea.

The app store is going to be killed by the 'wont pay more than 99c for an app' crowd. Companies and developers are going to think twice about making their potential 'killer app' if they can't recoup their costs in the knowledge that the 99c mentality is around.

There are great applications on other smartphones that the iPhone could do with - but these aren't going to be ported unless people, once again, are prepared to spend more than 99c on an app. Developers ( not the hobbyists) are not cheap.

The iPhone will become the cheap and nasty smartphone application platform.

No application worth more than $20? I've bought applications for my Nokia for $20, and they've been worth every dollar.

[Kilamite]

$20 is way too much. We're talking Apps for a phone here.. especially when we pay this much for the phone and a contract.

Depends what sort of applications we'll see, if they are "worth" $20 - and if they are consumer or professional oriented.

[Chupa Chupa]

Sounds like bull to me. The concept makes .00 cents and is very un-Apple like. What is the logic of having two different stores that are then divided again in various categories (utilities, games, business, etc). That just creates consumer confusion.

Look at it this way... Apple just released an iPod with NO buttons. They like things simple over there at One Infinite Loop.

App pricing thus far has been a model of Free Market enterprise. The establishment of a new "premium" store is not going to suddenly add value to even the best of apps. Each app stands on its own merits. Calling Wal-Mart a premium reseller of fine goods doesn't make it so.

[plumbingandtech]

$20 is way too much. We're talking Apps for a phone here.. especially when we pay this much for the phone and a contract.

Depends what sort of applications we'll see, if they are "worth" $20 - and if they are consumer or professional oriented.

:rolleyes:

People pay just as much for plans for their blackberry and nokias and spend $20 and more for apps.

The culture of cheapskate 99 centers if continued will lead to developers not even bothering to build iphone apps any more.

Butt.... buttt....buttt... if everyone on earth with an iphone buys their 99 cent app then they can retire in luxury!!
:rolleyes:

To which I say, take a business course.

[Kilamite]

People pay just as much for plans for their blackberry and nokias and spend $20 and more for apps.

What's your point? That makes it okay for apps to be $20 does it? And I'm not really in the BlackBerry/Noka loop - what apps are $20?

[plumbingandtech]

What's your point? That makes it okay for apps to be $20 does it? And I'm not really in the BlackBerry/Noka loop - what apps are $20?

The point is your perception of value is and can be different then others. And value is in the eye of the user, and to make blanket statement like:

$20 is way too much. We're talking Apps for a phone here..

is laughable.

And what of PSP portable and DS games, which are $30-$60, should they be 99 cents too?



as for the $20 apps..

google it.

[Lepton]

This makes me want to raise the price of the app I'm working on from $9.99 up to $20 to get it out of the ghetto and into the penthouse, so to speak. Is that a good thing? I'm not so sure...

[fleshman03]

I'm shocked!!! I thought most people on here would be loving the chance to throw money away for some not great apps.

You know, those who claim that .99c apps are killing the opportunity for better apps to come out

NVM- look above........

[kas23]

Good. I'm glad this is coming and is not just for games. I'm looking forward to some extremely well done, serious apps.

Maybe this is why a good Office Suite hasn't appeared yet.

[mkrishnan]

I think the free market has decided that complicated games (i.e. games that take a development team to code and have a steep learning curve for the user) don't belong on the iPhone.

Is there data to back this up? My impression is that a number of the most complex iPhone games, such as Rolando, BiA, Hero of Sparta, more recently Zen bound, etc, did quite well sales-wise.

[dubhe]

I think this is a good idea, there is so much c**p in the app store. Not sure if the price alone makes an app worthy though, and there are probably cheaper apps that are still 'professional'. We are only looking at a handful of apps that will qualify each month, maybe apple just needs a 'by invitation only' section where the apps inside are vetted.

[dagamer34]

I would think mostly medical and enterprise applications would be in this section.

They already cost that much. I'm thinking they're talking about premium games.

[plumbingandtech]

I think this is a good idea, there is so much c**p in the app store. Not sure if the price alone makes an app worthy though, and there are probably cheaper apps that are still 'professional'. We are only looking at a handful of apps that will qualify each month, maybe apple just needs a 'by invitation only' section where the apps inside are vetted.

This may not be popular around here but I think the price of the iphone dev program should be raised from $99 to $599 with the 3.0 SDK. There needs to be a higher barrier to entry to raise the quality of the apps. A higher price dev fee would do much to do that IMO.

And If a dev balks at this then he's not serious enough for me to waste my time and money on.*

(Why do I feel like one of those field runner guys after saying this? :D;) )


*maybe except for the free apps, maybe keep it at $99 for that so hobbyists and people learning can still ship product. maybe.

[Shookster]

I think this is a good thing. It's hard to take the App Store seriously when it has hundreds of fart and "flashlight" apps.

Although I do think $20 is a bit steep as a minimum price. I can well believe that there are apps worth this amount, but I don't think this should be the minimum price for entering the store. Maybe $12-15.

[KingYaba]

$20 for copy and paste. :rolleyes:

[BenRoethig]

I agree. There should be separate section for "commercial" quality apps to separate them from the community free apps. That being said, there should also be different approval standards on these apps. Canning one of these apps in the approval process can have a big impact on future development from that and other high profile developer.

[Bevz]

Surely the simplest solution is to allow users to see apps by price category? People can then make up their own mind what is "premium" and what isn't.

[Chupa Chupa]

And what of PSP portable and DS games, which are $30-$60, should they be 99 cents too?



1) The majority of PSP or DS games are under $30, and many are under $20. They also generally offer deeper playing experience and offer more content than your average iPhone game. People play DS and PSP games for hours. Most people play iPhone games to pass time while waiting in line.

2) PSP and DS developers pay a licensing fee AND a royalty fee to Sony and Nintendo, respectively. That is a large reason why they cost as much as they do. Developers also have to pay licensing fees to other IP owners for many branded games as well, like Madden.

3) PSP and DS Developers also have to cover the cost of media, packaging, & distribution. That also increases the cost of titles for those platforms.

My point here is that comparing iPhone apps to PSP, DS, or other hard media platforms isn't all that neat and tidy.

[plumbingandtech]

Good points. all of them..

Devs do pay 30% back to apple though.. (which is still probably less then the factors you state to be fair.)

media $7? license $5?

is PSP on CDs? much cheaper then, DS is on Carts I believe, much more $$$

$30 game

$18 after costs,

but they get $20 after paying off apple as well...
:o

oops, forgot the whole retail cut thing... never mind.

no wonder Nintendo is rumored to be going solid state with an app store with their next handheld.

[coolsoldier]

The price for "real" apps seems to have settled at $9.99 (i.e. apps with full-time developers published by established companies), and my hunch is that it's not because people can't find the $20 apps. Instead, there are just more than twice as many people willing to pay $10 for an app than willing to spend $20, so $10 apps make more money...

As far as the comparisons to $20 blackberry apps, keep in mind that the blackberry is marketed to businesspeople, meaning that blackberry owners often (a) have the cost of the phone/data plan subsidized by their employers and/or (b) use the apps on their blackberry to actually make money. iPhone is a consumer device whose users have to work within consumer spending limits.

[koollectablz]

Why not just make the present app store more appealing by removing the tripe.

Most peeps could get rid of 80% or so without breaking a sweat.

Good start would be to dump everything with an 'i' preifx.

[okrelayer]

Beatmaker was worth 20

[bdkennedy1]

I won't even spend $10 for a game on my iPhone.

[mkrishnan]

To add to my claim above that some of the longer, more complex games on the App Store have been big sellers...

Rolando passes 700,000 sales (http://forums.toucharcade.com/showthread.php?t=7069)

[manu chao]

Why not just make the present app store more appealing by removing the tripe.

Most peeps could get rid of 80% or so without breaking a sweat.

Good start would be to dump everything with an 'i' preifx.
What stops you from only looking at the Staff Picks in the App Store? Or maybe macrumors.com should clean out the less appealing commenters, that for sure would improve things here.:rolleyes:

[=MuLti-CeLL=]

Are there games on the market worth $20 now? No. That's the whole point. I wouldn't pay $20 for any game I have on my iPhone now.

Yea, that's the point I was trying to get across, that and I'm kinda excited to see what will be coming that's worth $20!

I'd like to see some more 'developed' apps like the ones you listed.

[mrr]

This is one of the stupid-ist and GREEDY-ist ideas I have heard in a long time!

iPhone apps have been selling like hot cakes - because they have been priced EXACTLY RIGHT!

Premium apps should be so called because of QUALITY and NOT by price.

STUPID IDEA APPLE - VERY STUPID IDEA

[=MuLti-CeLL=]

To add to my claim above that some of the longer, more complex games on the App Store have been big sellers...

Rolando passes 700,000 sales (http://forums.toucharcade.com/showthread.php?t=7069)

Wow! :eek:

[mkrishnan]

Yeah, wow... Rolando changed prices several times, so it's hard to extrapolate what ngmoco made off it, even if they had sold all the copies at the current US figure of $4.99, their pre-tax take would be about $2.5M USD. Considering it previously sold for substantially more, their take is probably something like... $3-4M (just a guess).

I don't know exactly what this game cost ngmoco to make, but I have a hard time imagining the business case on it wasn't good. This certainly was not a game like a Final Fantasy installment that has a $20M budget.

In this case, Rolando launched at $9.99 and sold quite briskly, with sales sustained by the price drops. Rolando has modest length but excellent quality. Whether the next step up is a game that's 75% longer and costs $15 or a game that's 150% longer and costs $20, I'm not sure, but I'm less than convinced that the App Store has proven that only very brief and poorly conceived games can sell.

[$BPM$]

Beatmaker was worth 20

Definitely! Was one of the first apps I bought, at £11.99 I was apprehensive but worth every penny. Then again, at 59p so was iFart... :D

[panoz7]

Yeah, wow... Rolando changed prices several times, so it's hard to extrapolate what ngmoco made off it, even if they had sold all the copies at the current US figure of $4.99, their pre-tax take would be about $12.2M USD.

Am I missing something here? $4.99 * 700,000 is about $3.5M, right? Where did the $12.2M number come from? I'm guessing I'm just missing something obvious.

[mkrishnan]

Am I missing something here? $4.99 * 700,000 is about $3.5M, right? Where did the $12.2M number come from? I'm guessing I'm just missing something obvious.

Sorry, I was doing two things at once... I fixed it.

[Darkroom]

$20 iPhone apps will be an excellent new addition. it's quite sad, and embarrassing, to read comments about how that's too expensive...

A) you bought a product of apple, you can no make claims that things are too expensive, especially if things are for said apple product.

B) software developers are technical workers and not your personal slave. if you want free stuff go troll the torrent sites.

[Dmac77]

I think that this would be a good idea. In adition to this, Apple needs to purge the App Store of the junk apps (farting apps, etc).

Don

[mrr]

Now we are going to see $20 fart apps.

[designgeek]

All I really want is more organization in the app store, spliting by price point sounds fine. And yes, $20 is acceptable for an app, not all of us can live on iShoot lite...

[jbernie]

I am not too bothered by this concept so long as entry to the "premium" store for the developers requires a certain level of support/commitment. I would expect companies like SAP, Microsoft (yes even them), Apple, Oracle, Adobe to be the ones providing the content, along with the major game creators and such.

Too many of the apps out there really aren't worth more than 99c, yes you may spend your time and your money creating them but when you look at the value the app provides to the consumer many could be viewed as nothing more than a simple experiment with little to no future support/patches etc.

This being said, Apple takes 30% of the sale price of an app, I wonder how many of the top tier mainstream developers are willing to pay Apple for every sale. Lets be honest, many of the software companies are buddy buddy as little as possible as none of them really like each other. I could see some of these companies, especially in the Enterprise arena, wanting to sell you licenses for X copies for install on a normal system and then Y copies that can then be pushed out to the iPhones through the corporate agreement setup Apple has for companies to push there own apps out.

The Premium App Store should still work well for the independent/non aligned developers but for quite a few giving Apple $ doesn't work for them and this will restrict what they are willing to develop.

As to the appstore in general, the iPhone & iPod Touch are both more mainstream consumer orientated than Blackberry, although Blackberry is appealing to consumers as well there is massive amount of support aimed purely @ the business market, as a result the majority of the apps are aimed at the consumer and not the business.

[11800506]

I agree that this sounds like a great idea. The race to the bottom has been a bit ridiculous, and undoubtedly we would see some better and more full featured apps if there was a premium app store. Such things like more full featured games or word processing apps would likely be more popular if there was a premium store.

[commander.data]

Personally I think a $20+ premium section is a great idea if it encourages more big name developers to develop more full featured applications. I certainly can't see Microsoft selling an Office Touch for less than $20, and no matter how much people dislike Microsoft or Office, having a fully compatible version of Office for the iPhone and Touch would certainly be useful for a great many people. I think even Apple would be adverse to selling an iWork Touch for only $10. Similarly with games, the $20 price point would encourage developers to make games that are comparable in scope to those on the PSP and DS, instead of the more bit-sized games that are common now.

I don't follow the logic that setting up a $20 premium section would encourage developers to overcharge for their applications. It's not like having a $20 premium section will prevent people from offering their apps at lower price points. And market conditions still remain, if premium apps just aren't worth $20 then don't buy them and developers would be forced to drop the price accordingly.

Perhaps people prefer smaller, more focused applications and games at a cheaper price point, but there is certainly a niche for applications and games of larger scope and higher price points. It's just a matter of how big that niche is. I think it's great that Apple is moving to push the iPhone and Touch platforms in all directions to see how far it'll go.

[kas23]

This may not be popular around here but I think the price of the iphone dev program should be raised from $99 to $599 with the 3.0 SDK. There needs to be a higher barrier to entry to raise the quality of the apps. A higher price dev fee would do much to do that IMO.

And If a dev balks at this then he's not serious enough for me to waste my time and money on.*

(Why do I feel like one of those field runner guys after saying this? :D;) )


*maybe except for the free apps, maybe keep it at $99 for that so hobbyists and people learning can still ship product. maybe.

That may be a good idea, but you can also make a pay scale too. Developers who pay $99 can only charge no more than $1.99 an app and developers who pay $999 fee can then charge greater than $20 per app.

[kas23]

Now we are going to see $20 fart apps.

I'll pay it if it programs my phone to emit a foul smell at the same time. :p

[leandromp]

Apple is the one to blame on this one!
They accepted all this crappy apps and now they have to make another section for the real ones. It should be backwards.

How many fart apps do we have?
Is it really necessary? Does it really offers real features?

Shazam for me was the first REAL app that i got for the iPhone..., with good functionality/features and easy to use..

This app store is a mess, you cant even find a decent one from those 25,000. Looking for a new app? Your gonna have to spend 10 hours for you to find it.

[kas23]

I won't even spend $10 for a game on my iPhone.

I agree with this. The iPhone just isn't a good gaming platform, no matter how hard Apple tries to pound it into our heads. If I was heavy into gaming, I would just buy a PSP.

I tried out the Rolando Lite version and it had the opposite effect on me. What a horrible game. I wouldn't even pay $0.99 on the full version. Maybe it's a great game (it certainly looks fun), but just not on the iPhone.

[jayducharme]

Apple is just doing this because they're tired of hearing from all of the large game and app publishers complaining about not having enough sales, and blame the app store itself rather than looking at their own apps' low value to iPhone users.

That makes a lot of sense. I don't like this "premium" idea. There are a lot of great apps out there for up to $5 (like Ocarina). Having a "velvet rope" section implies that the less expensive apps aren't as good or exclusive. And that seems like a slap in the face to all the programmers who have developed great apps but simply don't charge big bucks for them. I mean, is "I Am Rich" better than "Aqua Forest" simply because it costs more?

[iOrlando]

apple will make alot of changes to the app store...

i like this idea though....separate the filet mignon from the chop suey.

[apple101]

Could some of these games been delayed for this reason?? Need for Speed: undercover, and the Sims 3 because they are like a premium game.

[Bye Bye Baby]

If they can make apps that are worth $20 then it could work. I would not like to try and guess at this stage.

[firewood]

not sure any iphone app is worth $20, we shall see!

Worth is in the eye of the individual buyer. Lot's of apps priced $20 and over sell, don't have any better alternatives, and get at least one good review. The app was worth it to that customer, even if it's not you or the masses.

imho.

[fastbite]

This is one of the stupid-ist and GREEDY-ist ideas I have heard in a long time!

iPhone apps have been selling like hot cakes - because they have been priced EXACTLY RIGHT!

Premium apps should be so called because of QUALITY and NOT by price.

STUPID IDEA APPLE - VERY STUPID IDEA

No, it is not. If a developer is going to spend a huge amount of money and time developing -- then the last thing we want to hear is : "2 dollars?!!! They must be crazy!"

[Mr. Giver '94]

The idea of a premium App Store is a good one but doing it by price is ridiculous. Developers can charge whatever they want even if nobody buys their app.


Remember I Am Rich anyone??? :rolleyes:

[firewood]

This makes me want to raise the price of the app I'm working on from $9.99 up to $20 to get it out of the ghetto and into the penthouse, so to speak. Is that a good thing? I'm not so sure...

I released a $20 app. Does it sell as many as my $1 app? Nope. Does it have at least 1/20th the sales volume of my $1 app? Actually far better.

Draw your own conclusions.

[leandromp]

....

[leandromp]

Beejive is kinda expensive and has sold very well.
Cause is quality, offers a lot of great features and a cool interface.
This is an example of an premium app!
A lot of people bought it cause is as a great idea and they did an amazing job with it!

I hope this new "premium" store offers apps like that one!
Can't wait for ichat tho.. maybe for march 17?? :)

[macharborguy]

I agree. There should be separate section for "commercial" quality apps to separate them from the community free apps. That being said, there should also be different approval standards on these apps. Canning one of these apps in the approval process can have a big impact on future development from that and other high profile developer.

What determines "commercial quality"?

The price?
The company or group or individual that made the app?
The overall rating?
The number of downloads?


Final Fantasy Crystal Defenders is a commercial game on cellphones, iphone, xbox live arcade, wii and DS AND is made by SquareEnix, a huge gaming company. However, Field Runners is FAR BETTER when it comes to visuals and playability. Which one would you consider "professional or commercial quality"

[nagromme]

I paid $25 for Jaadu VNC... and I would have paid $26 :)

The race to the bottom in pricing has been very cool in a way (and a new premium section wouldn't change that) but it's also a barrier to getting big, sophisticated games and apps made.

I approach the concept with cautious optimism. If the games aren't good enough to justify the price, I'll be sticking with the non-premiums of course.

[sharkinfested]

Maybe this gives credence to a tablet/netbook/eBook device. Many new book titles are in the $20 range. Also applications and games for a netbook-like device might well be offered for 20+ bucks or so. Just a thought.

[twoodcc]

makes sense. though i hope it's $10 and up compared to $20 and up

[MacFly123]

Apple should call it the App Store Pro.:p

Haha, nice! I think this is a great idea though. I am now a developer but will not be making high cost apps like that, but I think it would be very beneficial to the app store and the platform as a whole to take some actions like this.

I also think Apple needs to lax on the SDK just a little bit and get true turn by turn gps in there and push or some other solution!!!

[Master Chief]

I would gladly pay more for a good iPhone application, at least when it is a solution to a problem I am facing while using my iPhone; saving me time and money in the end.

[SocomDude23]

I Had A Idea Mabye Its For A Subscription To Some1 Who Makes Apps So Whenever They Make A New App U Get It.

Socom

[manu chao]

It was a little bit on the expensive side but then I might easily spend that much at Starbucks.

[kas23]

It was a little bit on the expensive side but then I might easily spend that much at Starbucks.

Very interesting comment, kind of puts things in perspective. However, the difference being that you know EXACTLY what you are getting at Starbucks with that amount of money. It would kind of suck if you spent $15 on an app, screwed around with it for 2 weeks because it wasn't exactly what you hoped for, and then a couple days later you find an app that is much better and cheaper. Makes you feel like you paid to be a beta tester, when you actually had more important things to do with your time.

My point being, I'll certainly pay $20 for an app. But, I better know exactly what I am getting and it better save me time (not waste my time) - none of this "It's v1.0, it'll get better" nonsense.

[paja]

If people are willing to pay $20 for a iPhone app then so be it.

There had better be a way for people to download a demo to try first.

[Trajectory]

If the app is great, I don't think people would be reluctant to pay $20 for it, as long as the developer kept it updated and fixed bugs quickly.

However, I've yet to buy or see an app worth more than $4.99 so far. Most are garbage and stupid.

[anubis]

Is there data to back this up? My impression is that a number of the most complex iPhone games, such as Rolando, BiA, Hero of Sparta, more recently Zen bound, etc, did quite well sales-wise.

My data is the Top 25 paid application list in the app store. Lots of 99 cent games and not many $20+ games on the list. It's always been like this

To add to my claim above that some of the longer, more complex games on the App Store have been big sellers...

Rolando passes 700,000 sales

If you read your own source that supposedly backs up your claim that expensive apps do very well in the app store, you would have read that the 700,000 sales count includes the lite 99 cent version of the app as well, which I would bet sold 10 times as many copies as the $5 or $10 versions.

Anyway, all I'm saying is that there is no REASON to have a separate app store for expensive apps. If a game or app is REALLY GOOD and has VALUE to the iPhone audience, people will purchase it. What I'm NOT buying from these game and app companies is that they're blaming their poor sales on the fact that consumers simply can't find their apps among a sea of 99 cent apps, which is a bunch of bull.

[stewacide]

not sure any iphone app is worth $20, we shall see!

I have a French-English dictionary (Collins IIRC) that's easily worth the +$20.

Although beyond heavy-duty reference apps I agree it's hard imagining what'd be worth +$20.

[TuffLuffJimmy]

I have a French-English dictionary (Collins IIRC) that's easily worth the +$20.

Although beyond heavy-duty reference apps I agree it's hard imagining what'd be worth +$20.

I would pay $60 for mobile pages, keynote and numbers if they could also edit their Microsoft counter parts.

[jpine]

$20 is way too much. We're talking Apps for a phone here.. especially when we pay this much for the phone and a contract.

Depends what sort of applications we'll see, if they are "worth" $20 - and if they are consumer or professional oriented.

Agreed. There are medical apps for Blackberry that sell for more than the Blackberry itself.

[automan98]

Setting a price tag of $20 by no means makes it premium. I can't see why Apple would want to segregate strictly by price. That would need a mechanism to make sure an application was "premium". I don't think Apple wants to be in that business. The challenge related to the pricing is that this is a new market place and everyone is still trying to figure out price point to sales volume. Pretty interesting to watch. I can see how people who are only exposed to Free or $.99 apps may not think the application space provides enough value. In some ways and some apps you pay for what you get. I would expect a higher correlation between price and quality, but that's not always the case. Will be interesting to see what happens.

[Trajectory]

Setting a price tag of $20 by no means makes it premium. ... I would expect a higher correlation between price and quality, but that's not always the case. Will be interesting to see what happens.

Excellent point. Just because an app will cost $20 doesn't mean it's a quality app. Especially with how easy it is for developers to change the price from, say, $4.99 to $19.99.

[leRiCl]

The App store is getting a bit too crowded so I do think more segregation is a good thing... I'm just not sure if doing it by price point is the wisest though.

I think adding a new column on the app store next to 'popularity' would be nicer. That new column would be "Revenue Last 30 Days", called "Revenue". This way quality niche applications which deserve every cent of their $20 price wouldn't be buried beneath everything.

[Randman]

I think $9.99 as a cutoff for premium apps is more reasonable. Even $7.99.

[BenjyD]

What's your point? That makes it okay for apps to be $20 does it? And I'm not really in the BlackBerry/Noka loop - what apps are $20?

Documents to Go (http://www.dataviz.com/products/documentstogo/iphone/notify/index.html) is $30+ on other PalmOS, Windows Mobile etc.

[manu chao]

My point being, I'll certainly pay $20 for an app. But, I better know exactly what I am getting
You illustrate the point that below a certain price people are willing to spend the money regardless of whether they really know the app.
Most people have bought numerous software titles costing much more then $10, nowadays almost everybody offers trial versions but not so long ago that was not that common. People bought software anyway (I bought Aperture 1.0 without a trial version at a time when it did cost me $300).

You buy these 'expensive' software titles because you have read about them, because you feel confident that you know pretty much what can do. There is no reason why this should be any different for iPhone apps. Sure, you don't browse the AppStore, see a $30 app, read the description and say, yhees, that sounds like a cool app, let's buy it. But you would not do this for any app. You buy a $30 app because you have read or heard about it somewhere else.

But the key element to atone the critics would be trial versions, which was were you were heading with your post.

[parcvisitation]

If people are willing to pay $20 for a iPhone app then so be it.

There had better be a way for people to download a demo to try first.

Few Mac/iPhone app developers provide trial version for the Apple fans. Miserable fact!:(

[question fear]

Documents to Go (http://www.dataviz.com/products/documentstogo/iphone/notify/index.html) is $30+ on other PalmOS, Windows Mobile etc.

And Iambic's Pocket PC offerings (http://www.iambic.com/products/?windowsmobile) all come in around $20.00 as well.

Frankly, there are some great productivity programs that I've paid $20-30 dollars for on other platforms, and they've been worth every penny. Personally, I try to use trials where available, and keep myself to certain standards, such as:

-Do I need this program to greatly improve my device?
-What are other programs that offer similar functions selling for?
-Is this a program that is likely to either not require much support or is backed up by a reputable software house that isn't going to drop support anytime soon?

If what I want satisfies those requirements, I don't mind dropping the cash.

Maybe this gives credence to a tablet/netbook/eBook device. Many new book titles are in the $20 range. Also applications and games for a netbook-like device might well be offered for 20+ bucks or so. Just a thought.

Applications, yes, books, no. There's no way Apple would go into the ebook business and not be price-competitive against the Kindle book prices, especially with the Kindle app available for the iPhone. Why pay $20 for a book from Apple instead of $9.99 from Amazon?

[sharkinfested]

There's no way Apple would go into the ebook business and not be price-competitive against the Kindle book prices, especially with the Kindle app available for the iPhone. Why pay $20 for a book from Apple instead of $9.99 from Amazon?

Admittedly the idea of a netbook/tablet/eBook is probably just wishful thinking on my part but I’m not sure you can rule it out based on this rumor.

I mean, we are assuming that the $20 price point in this rumor is accurate. It is a rumor after all so the price might be $10 or it might not be based on pricing at all. Rather than a premium iTunes store it could just be a new section that encompasses products for this new device. Books titles could be competitively priced with Amazon, and I would hope that there would be apps under $20 for it as well.

I also don’t think you can rule out an eBook simply because there is a Kindle app for the iPhone. I’m pretty sure Apple didn’t write that app so if they wanted to make an eBook reader there would be nothing stopping them.

Oh, I know a netbook/tablet/eBook probably won’t happen but, dang it I want one!

[EvanLugh]

The iPhone gets more expensive by the month.

[question fear]

There's no way Apple would go into the ebook business and not be price-competitive against the Kindle book prices, especially with the Kindle app available for the iPhone. Why pay $20 for a book from Apple instead of $9.99 from Amazon?

Admittedly the idea of a netbook/tablet/eBook is probably just wishful thinking on my part but I’m not sure you can rule it out based on this rumor.

I mean, we are assuming that the $20 price point in this rumor is accurate. It is a rumor after all so the price might be $10 or it might not be based on pricing at all. Rather than a premium iTunes store it could just be a new section that encompasses products for this new device. Books titles could be competitively priced with Amazon, and I would hope that there would be apps under $20 for it as well.

I also don’t think you can rule out an eBook simply because there is a Kindle app for the iPhone. I’m pretty sure Apple didn’t write that app so if they wanted to make an eBook reader there would be nothing stopping them.

Oh, I know a netbook/tablet/eBook probably won’t happen but, dang it I want one!

I'm not ruling out an ebook reader entirely...just pointing out a $20+ price point on books wouldnt make sense.

We'll see, but I could see Apple using Amazon as a clearinghouse for books if they ran an ebook store. Why go through the trouble of negotiating with publishers when Amazon's done all the legwork AND are already willing to share with Apple?

[sharkinfested]

I'm not ruling out an ebook reader entirely...just pointing out a $20+ price point on books wouldnt make sense.

We'll see, but I could see Apple using Amazon as a clearinghouse for books if they ran an ebook store. Why go through the trouble of negotiating with publishers when Amazon's done all the legwork AND are already willing to share with Apple?

Good point

[pubwvj]

Speaking as a developer, programmer and publisher I see a fundamental flaw in the thinking here. A lot of developers see the price of packaged software and think they should be getting $20, $40, etc for their downloadable software. Wrong.

With software sold in stores here is how it breaks down:
Retailer gets 25% to 45%.
Wholesale distributor gets 5% to 20%.
Packaging $5 to $15.
Sell through rate on product run is about 50% and you're doing well, then it's all to the discount bin or the trash heap.

So with a $40 product the retailer takes $10, the distributor took $3, the packaging cost you $10 and you had to produce 10,000 to sell 5,000. That's using middle of the road numbers and a great sell through rate. For all that risk you get:
$7 = $30-$10-$3-$10x2
$7 x 5,000 units = $35,000

Now you have to pay the bank for the interest on the loan. At 10% interest (you didn't use you Credit Card but got a real loan and a great rate) on a two year note you're paying $7K just for the product so that comes out of the $35K bringing your take down to $28K over a two year period.

This means that an equivelant product that costs $10 on Apps Store is making more money for the developer than a packaged $40 product. Developers need to stop whining about the low Apps store pricing and start producing great products and then market them better.

Reality check: downloadable software makes a lot more money for the developer at a lot lower price point than packaged software. Downloadable software should cost a lot less. As you decrease your software price you increase your sales. Studies show it over and over. Of course, it helps to have a good product.

[Brother Michael]

This really kinda ruins the whole app store on many levels.

The App Store functions under an almost perfect free market model. downward pricing is actually a GOOD thing. It means that a true equilibrium is possible. The reason why their aren't $20 apps in the store is because no one has made an app that is worth $20, or if they have someone else has made one similar and cheaper.

The idea of an app store that sells applications with a price floor, means that there isn't a true market equilibrium and therefore consumer surplus has been taken away by producers.

[Randman]

This really kinda ruins the whole app store on many levels.

The App Store functions under an almost perfect free market model. downward pricing is actually a GOOD thing. It means that a true equilibrium is possible. The reason why their aren't $20 apps in the store is because no one has made an app that is worth $20, or if they have someone else has made one similar and cheaper.

The idea of an app store that sells applications with a price floor, means that there isn't a true market equilibrium and therefore consumer surplus has been taken away by producers.

It also means we have 183 fart applications and tons of garbage ones that keep many people from finding the good stuff. There's a place for both.

[vvebsta]

It also means we have 183 fart applications and tons of garbage ones that keep many people from finding the good stuff. There's a place for both.

I agree, I check the appshopper.com updates and price changes sections and I always see a tone of the same kind of apps just remade with different names, its kind of annoying. I know equal opportunity and all but come on... do we really need all the knockoffs?

[bryantsiphone]

The point is your perception of value is and can be different then others. And value is in the eye of the user, and to make blanket statement like:



is laughable.

And what of PSP portable and DS games, which are $30-$60, should they be 99 cents too?



as for the $20 apps..

google it.

But Those Are Dedicatet Gaming Systems, This Is A Phone, Not That I Dont Love Every Minute Of It But How Productive Can These Apps Be For $20?

[ChrisA]

This idea will not work. Let's say I make an app theat does something usful and I place it in the premium store prices at $20.

What's to stop some one from making a copy of my program and placing it in the non-premium store.

As soon as Apple said they'd have an app store I predicted here that it would be a "race to the bottom" and no one would invest serious money in developing an app. And sure enough no one is spending the bucks to do major development on the iPhone.

For those not in the software development business. A "medium" size project might have 10 or 12 people working ful time for a year to get the first revision out the door. These people all make "normal" middle class salaries (These people have kids, house payments and so on) and then you add overhead (office space, administrative suport, phones, vacation and medical insurance and so on...) which i typically about 100% of salary. Ten people will burn though at least $1.5 million per year. Likely more. Large projects require lots more than 10 people.

No one is building even medium size projects for the iPhone when the final product sells for $1.