Lower Prices on Mac App Store....Why?

[Resist]

I'm noticing many applications are much less expensive on the Mac App store, than buying them from Apple.com or my local Apple store, even Amazon. I realize downloading the application reduces Apple's cost for packaging and paper documentation, but the Mac App store prices are significantly lower. Aperture 3 and the iLife applications come to mind.

If I had an issue with an application and needed to reinstall it, this could be a problem if my Internet was down, using the Mac App store version. Having the actual disk would eliminate this issue, but not sure it's worth paying a lot more money for. But I guess from a Global warming view point, it makes sense to eliminate the carbon foot print caused by shipping and packaging.

 

[Mal]

Apple did it with their software to push the new store. They didn't need to charge $199 for Aperture before, but the market would bear it, it was reasonably competitive and sold plenty of copies at that price. With the MAS now, they wanted to really push it, so they dropped the price to draw in some of those customers who were put off by the price or just couldn't bring themselves to try it at that cost.

It's just to bring attention to the store. Not saying it's temporary and will go back up, but it's not because of how much money they're saving. It's all about the marketing.

jW

 

[marshallbedsaul]

maybe
cause
no store interaction
no customer interaction
no fancy apple packaging

 

[iMacBoy]

It is lower on some applications.. but i would say the prices on third party applications has shot up!

Some applications that were available free on the web are now £59 - £2.99 on app store, and i know it's nothing huge but still.

 

[ufkdo]

It is good for us actually. I really hate buying CDs for applications.

I think, Mac Os X lion will be on sale on Mac App store

 

[nick9191]

Let's say hypothetically, Aperture sells 10,000 copies a year at $199.

At $79, they sell 100,000 copies.

10,000 * 199 = $1.9m
100,000 * 79 = $7.9m

Simple really They make more money by charging less.

There is a problem with this however, let's say Aperture costs $10. And they sell 10 million copies a year. Sure, that's $100m, however people would not be expecting a pro level app for $10, Apple would be aware of this and sit on their $100m without pushing new updates.

 

[gks]

It is good for us actually. I really hate buying CDs for applications.

I think, Mac Os X lion will be on sale on Mac App store

Lion will not be available on the Mac App Store. Sorry, but no. You will still need a CD to install this, particularly if you want to install fresh.

No, just no. Not going to happen.

 

[gks]

It is lower on some applications.. but i would say the prices on third party applications has shot up!

Some applications that were available free on the web are now £59 - £2.99 on app store, and i know it's nothing huge but still.

I hope you realize something... and everyone needs to realize this. Developers have to pay $100/yr to put an app on the app store. You need to be a registered Mac Developer. If you wanted your app on the app store you need to pay this fee. Even if the app is free to download on the app store, the developer still had to pay that $100/yr to put it on there.

That said, why is it you feel a developer should pay to put their free app on the store and NOT make any money on it? They should be able to at the very least recoup their costs for the developer fee. Some free apps are pretty simple, others took a fair amount of time and effort to make. Maybe they didn't charge before because it was difficult to justify trying to manage an online store? I'm not a web server admin, I don't want to pay someone to do that for me, so I'd just make the app free if it was simple enough and was mostly a side project. If I had an easy way to collect payments (Mac App Store) then why shouldn't I try to make a little money on what a could be hundreds of hours of work?

 

[ufkdo]

Lion will not be available on the Mac App Store. Sorry, but no. You will still need a CD to install this, particularly if you want to install fresh.

No, just no. Not going to happen.

Really? Is there any news about it?

 

[Darth.Titan]

Lion will not be available on the Mac App Store. Sorry, but no. You will still need a CD to install this, particularly if you want to install fresh.

No, just no. Not going to happen.

Really? Is there any news about it?

There doesn't have to be news on it. Major point upgrades for OS X require booting to external media. The App store will not be able to sell Lion...

...unless they do something weird like installing an app that burns a DVD or creates a bootable flash drive, but I can't see that happening. It would be a HUGE download.

 

[ufkdo]

There doesn't have to be news on it. Major point upgrades for OS X require booting to external media. The App store will not be able to sell Lion...

...unless they do something weird like installing an app that burns a DVD or creates a bootable flash drive, but I can't see that happening. It would be a HUGE download.

But this is Apple They do always what we see "impossible"

 

[gks]

But this is Apple They do always what we see "impossible"

Forget about it, it won't happen.

 

[ufkdo]

Forget about it, it won't happen.

OK, I forgot. It was just a thought.

 

[Aatos.1]

Let's not forget this is Apple we are talking about.

These are "teaser" prices. Don't believe it ? Just wait a few months to a year and suddenly Apps on the Mac App Store will not be the deal they are today.

Deny it all you want but there is a hidden Apple Tax about to be applied.

 

[lee14160]

Answer to second part of question: What if the internet is down?

No big deal; give it time and it should be back up. Are you really worried about something that small. What it might be down for a day, again so what. Think about it this way if you are using a Cloud base application and the internet goes down wouldn't that be more of a worry then redownloading a silly little application.

 

[Mackilroy]

Let's not forget this is Apple we are talking about.

These are "teaser" prices. Don't believe it ? Just wait a few months to a year and suddenly Apps on the Mac App Store will not be the deal they are today.

Deny it all you want but there is a hidden Apple Tax about to be applied.

Why are you so certain about this? What proof do you have?

 

[Resist]

Answer to second part of question: What if the internet is down?

No big deal; give it time and it should be back up.

It wasn't a question, it was a statement that could be a concern for some. Not everyone in the U.S. has a fast or even stable Internet connection. And not everyone uses cloud based applications.