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TheBritishBloke

macrumors 68030
Original poster
Jul 21, 2009
2,532
0
United Kingdom
Fieldrunners: £1.79 on iPhone, £4.99 on iPad.
Paper Toss: £0.59 on iPhone, £1.79 on iPad
Angry Birds: £0.59 on iPhone, £2.99 on iPad.

Why the hell do they charge so much more? It can't cost them that much money to develop some higher res graphics and change a few lines of code..
 

sportster

macrumors 6502
Jul 7, 2010
271
0
Katy, TX
My guess is they figure since the iPad cost more to buy they you are more willing to pay higher prices for an app. I've wondered the same thing, thats the best I can come up with.
 

bluedog3401

macrumors regular
Sep 4, 2008
178
0
First, you DON'T have to buy their product if you feel its overpriced.
Second, it does take more time. There are layout differences on interface and considerations (some apps/games would require significant updates to LOTS of assets/elements of the game, others may not need as many things updated).
Third, often there are promotions that discount apps/games. If you watch for them you may get items back to the lower prices or even free!

http://www.appshopper.com/ has a great way to look for new items in the app store that have discounted/cheaper prices than their previous listings. I look at that regularly and you can have it watch items for price drops.

In my opinion as a consumer of the apps, the $0.99 app was awesome. I would buy 10 apps to try them with NO QUESTIONS. But at $2.99 I'm not going question buying it until I know it fits my needs/wants.

As a developer I think $0.99 was really underselling their work. Even if they were making a lot of money, it takes a lot of time and the reward/cost should reflect that. I think an app that is useful (not a one trick pony or 'entertainment flatulence app') could easily be $2.99 and I'd be willing to pay for it.

Anything over $4.99 and I'm weighing all the variants of apps to see which may be the best of the bunch or best fit my needs.
 

MisterMe

macrumors G4
Jul 17, 2002
10,709
69
USA
Fieldrunners: £1.79 on iPhone, £4.99 on iPad.
Paper Toss: £0.59 on iPhone, £1.79 on iPad
Angry Birds: £0.59 on iPhone, £2.99 on iPad.

Why the hell do they charge so much more? ...
Why are these three iPad versions more expensive than their iPhone siblings? You cannot generalize on three examples. There are many other iPad applications that are free if you purchase the iPhone version.
 

iFerd

macrumors 6502a
Jul 20, 2007
927
0
When the app store first appeared for the iPhone there was a kind of race to the bottom at $0.99. There were so many apps costing a dollar or two that users came to expect that.

My guess is that with the new iPad developers are trying harder to hold the line at a price that better reflects the value of their efforts and provides the kind of return they need to persist. If the market sustains them at current levels, they will stay there, but if sales fall off, I wouldn't be surprised to see prices fall. Some iPad apps already have.
 

fizzler

macrumors member
Jul 5, 2010
34
1
I don't know why everyone feels the need to pounce on the OP, yes he has only quoted 3 examples- but he does have a point.

The reason that I believe the iPad apps are more expensive, is simply down to the competition in the app store. The are hardly any quality apps in the iPad app store (in comparison to the iPhone app store), therefore the lack of competition allow developers to charge more. There is undoubtably a bit of the 'new device' novelty factor that developers are trying to tap into, but I firmly believe that as more quality apps are developed, prices shall fall.

It may take time, but it will happen.
 

dejo

Moderator emeritus
Sep 2, 2004
15,982
452
The Centennial State
I don't know why everyone feels the need to pounce on the OP...
Part of the reason might be making statements like "It can't cost them that much money to develop some higher res graphics and change a few lines of code", something which the OP is in no position to claim.
 

HairyPotter

macrumors regular
Jul 4, 2007
197
0
I think it has to do with projections of sales x cost of development.

There are 80 million iPhones out there and about 3 million iPads.
iPhone's market is almost 30 times larger, so the chance of selling is 30 times larger and in theory you will sell 30 times more.

An app costs X to produce and is expected to sell Y copies during its life.

X/Y = how much the product has to cost to match costs
don't forget that it is

(x/y) + profit

So, apps have to cost more, because you expect to sell less.

But this is not always true. All my apps have the same price in both platforms. :D:D:D
 

anime3DSFX

macrumors newbie
Jul 24, 2010
6
0
Inevitable?

Yes, it takes a little extra work to adapt to iPad, however...
The overall trend seems to be to sell apps twice to 3x the price on iPod touch and iPhone; surely converting to iPad isn't starting over and spending 300% of the original dev time on the conversion?

I bought my iPad with excitement because I was expecting I could stuff 3 times more (3D) graphics in my app; the bottom line being, the iPad is about 4 times faster than an iPod Touch 2nd gen (for practical purposes); however the screen is something 3x bigger, so practically it's very hard to say how much more can be added - what's all obvious is that games look better on iPad.

Apart from hard-core pixel masters, I also wonder where we can find artists that don't have 'HD' (sigh) versions of their artwork to begin with.

What it boils down to is that there aren't so many apps out there for iPad (compared to iPhone/iPod Touch). The overhead for studios isn't that big, but the profit they can make on iPad is, I suspect, marginal.

So finally, I hope lots of devs are as excited as I am to develop on iPad, but many companies may decide it's not worth it, and there isn't all the competition that causes iPhone apps to be, imho, under-priced.

I don't mind paying more for iPad apps - but my iPad is craving for apps that justify the price, and I still download 3 to 4 times more apps for my iPod touch.
 

spinedoc77

macrumors G4
Jun 11, 2009
11,374
5,222
dejo said:
Part of the reason might be making statements like "It can't cost them that much money to develop some higher res graphics and change a few lines of code", something which the OP is in no position to claim.

Yeah but at the same time does it really take them 3x as much effort to make the iPad version? At the absolute worst the iPad version should be the SAME price as it's iPhone equivalent. But I bet in most cases it's less work to port an iPhone program to the iPad than it is to write an iPad program from scratch.
 

Dooger

macrumors 6502
May 4, 2009
402
0
I think it has to do with projections of sales x cost of development.

There are 80 million iPhones out there and about 3 million iPads.
iPhone's market is almost 30 times larger, so the chance of selling is 30 times larger and in theory you will sell 30 times more.

An app costs X to produce and is expected to sell Y copies during its life.

X/Y = how much the product has to cost to match costs
don't forget that it is

(x/y) + profit

So, apps have to cost more, because you expect to sell less.

But this is not always true. All my apps have the same price in both platforms. :D:D:D

Like the look of your tactics board app dude. Great idea!
 

MRU

macrumors Penryn
Aug 23, 2005
25,368
8,948
a better place
At first it was because they had bumped up the resolution and could charge X3 for the HD moniker that they tack on to the app.

Now with iPhone 4 'retina display' updates to the same App on the iphone - it strikes as even more of a rip-off that the same app on the iPad albeit with HD tacked on is still x3 the cost.
 

brendenmartin05

macrumors newbie
Nov 26, 2012
1
0
Supply and Demand

It is simple really as to why ipad apps are more expensive. There are far more apps for iphones than ipads, so to get your app downloaded in the iphone market you have to compete with far more apps. However, in the app store, we can see that the market is not as large and not as many apps (only about 300,000). So when supply is lower, demand increases meaning price increases. If you have spare time grab a economics 101 book and it will explain this concept.

I do see other influences in the market though as well. With the ipad mini coming out and more and more people getting ipads, I predict the market to become more competitive and developers will begin to lower prices. But, until then, if you can afford an ipad, you can probably afford $3 for an app.
 

dancj

macrumors 6502
Mar 15, 2012
295
16
My guess is they figure since the iPad cost more to buy they you are more willing to pay higher prices for an app. I've wondered the same thing, thats the best I can come up with.
I don't know about America (or wherever you live) but here in Britain, iPads are cheaper than iPhones.

I think the main reason is the lower number of iPads - and therefore the need to charge more to make the same money.

It's not something I go along with though. I'm reluctant to pay any money for a game that isn't universal - unless it's an app like Magic 2013 that really is only suited to one form. This is the reason I still haven't got Angry Birds Star Wars or Bad Piggies. (What's even more irritating for those two games is that their free on my wife's Nexus 7).

I second the AppShopper recommendation. With patience, practically every game comes down to 69p or free in the end.

----------

Oops - I just noticed this is a 2 year old thread.
 

Lukkee24

macrumors 6502a
Sep 20, 2011
669
355
London
My guess is they figure since the iPad cost more to buy they you are more willing to pay higher prices for an app. I've wondered the same thing, thats the best I can come up with.

Here in the UK; for 16GB an iPhone is £130 more expensive than an iPad (latest models). I also hate how games like Angry Birds sell the iPhone and iPad versions separately, and not as a universal app.

Oops - I just noticed this is a 2 year old thread.

Oh yeah lol. Didn't notice.
 

BRyken

macrumors 6502
Jul 17, 2008
266
0
I think since iPad is bigger, apps demand more quality. I can't say all iPad apps have higher quality than there iPhone counterparts, but I'd imagine a bit more time was spent in making sure they look good on the iPad as it would be easier to find the flaws...:rolleyes:
 

MisterKeeks

macrumors 68000
Nov 15, 2012
1,833
28
It costs more to make the extra pixels...

But really, there are a couple reasons that they are more expensive. I think one of them is the type of use that the iPad gets. We use ours for work apps, and many people use it to game. These people will be using the app more then someone who uses their iPhone just for internet when not at home, and so these people might be able to justify the extra expense.
 

nutmac

macrumors 603
Mar 30, 2004
6,043
7,287
There are 80 million iPhones out there and about 3 million iPads.
iPhone's market is almost 30 times larger, so the chance of selling is 30 times larger and in theory you will sell 30 times more.

Well, I think you sorta have the right idea but your numbers are grossly incorrect. To date, Apple sold over 100 million iPads (in over 2.5 years), compared to over 300 million for iPhones and iPod touch (in less than 5.5 years).

So I think there are 3 main reasons. (1) The market for iPhone apps is roughly 3 times bigger, so developers can charge 3 times more to offset development effort. (2) iPad apps generally have a bit more features and/or higher resolution artwork, both of which requires additional development efforts. (3) iPad users are more accustomed to paying more.
 

dancj

macrumors 6502
Mar 15, 2012
295
16
Well, I think you sorta have the right idea but your numbers are grossly incorrect. To date, Apple sold over 100 million iPads (in over 2.5 years), compared to over 300 million for iPhones and iPod touch (in less than 5.5 years).

The figures might have been accurate when that post was made in 2010
 
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