Major League Baseball App to Sell for $4.99

[levitynyc]

yes it is... MLB.com espn.com etc. etc.

this had potential but **** $5 - $10 a year... nah... they are supposed to be trying to lure people more into baseball ... not have less people checking up on it... the money is in the tickets, beer, parking, clothing, hats etc. get them hooked and its all yours... i have been a sucker for years... going to games and spending hundreds.

Actually, the real money is in the TV and website advertisement revenue.....not tickets and beer. Real big money is made from MLB.tv and MLB Extra Innings and ....GASP.... iPhone programs.

MLB is not going to give away MLB.tv or MLB Extra Innings just to lure people into enjoying the sport.

 

[theRick119]

A "casual" or "quasi" or "potential" baseball fans dont give a **** about this program and wont use it. Charging 5 bucks for it shows that its a quality serious program and not some piece of shovelware. Hardcore and real baseball fans will buy and enjoy this program for 5 MEASLY dollars.

shows the narrow mindedness of of the hardcore fan and you contradicted yourself in your next post.

The money is in the advertising and advertising is based on audience. Want to build baseball and increase advertising revenue? increase the audience.

Make the app free, get it installed on 8 to 10 million iPhones and stream ads to it while simultaneously building your audience.

Or cater to the baseball purist who will follow you over a ledge even if your product is shovelware and don't grow.

Unfortunately the second has been baseball's way and is a big reason why football has surpassed it as America's true sport in the last 20 years.

 

[skier0178]

I think the point people are missing is that this is all available for free on mlb.com gameday (yes even the in-game highlights). To take something freely available, repackage it and charge for it seems a little off....

 

[Teh Don Ditty]

I think the point people are missing is that this is all available for free on mlb.com gameday (yes even the in-game highlights). To take something freely available, repackage it and charge for it seems a little off....

I've said that multiple times already. lol.

 

[riversky]

Price???

Cracks me up to see people who think $4.99 is expensive. People it is a 5 dollar bill! Wow some people are cheap!

And to those who think because it is free somewhere it should be free everywhere, well I have one thing to say, bottled water! People will pay for something in another package even if it is "free" somewhere else.

 

[skier0178]

Cracks me up to see people who think $4.99 is expensive. People it is a 5 dollar bill! Wow some people are cheap!

And to those who think because it is free somewhere it should be free everywhere, well I have one thing to say, bottled water! People will pay for something in another package even if it is "free" somewhere else.

"will" does not directly translate to "should". I'm not arguing that $5 is a lot, it's not in the big scheme of things. The point is that I don't think something should be repackaged and sold at a cost when the same features in a different package are available for free on the same device!

I've said that multiple times already. lol.

then we're on the same page

 

[themanfromvlad]

Let's get real here: This MLB App will most likely not include the Montreal Expos, making it completely useless.

 

[dual64bit]

Yeah $4.99 sounds good, but like previous posters mentioned, I hope it stays $4.99 for next season. Sounds exciting, just have to figure out excuses to tell the wife when she questions what I'm looking at on my phone during dinner

 

[quinney]

Let's get real here: This MLB App will most likely not include the Montreal Expos, making it completely useless.

most likely, since they moved to washington dc in 2005

 

[havenhamilton]

just have to figure out excuses to tell the wife when she questions what I'm looking at on my phone during dinner

after reading the board for years i'm shocked to find out how many people are married to shrews. it seems like every post theres someone whose trying to figure out how to convince their wife or gf to let them use/buy it. why do you people marry these people?

 

[macfan881]

hey im not surprise people are whining on 5 bucks being expensive people whined on how they had to pay 2 frickin bucks for the 8021n enabler for the imac

 

[TemeculaMac]

hey im not surprise people are whining on 5 bucks being expensive people whined on how they had to pay 2 frickin bucks for the 8021n enabler for the imac

My father has been fairly wealthy his entire adult life. When I was younger, it used to bug me that he would complain about a buck or two here and there. He wouldn't even buy soda when we went out to dinner, since water was always cheaper.

Now that I have my own family, I can see why he was like that. There are millions of ways to get "nickled and dimed". Although $5 isn't much, it adds up very quickly.

Just because someone complains about $5, doesn't mean they can't afford it. I suspect many on this board that claim people are too cheap, are young single people still living at home.

 

[boomchip]

$4.99 is a great price for half of a season. I am going to pay for it when I get the 3G for sure... and IF the full season price is $9.99, I will pay for that too. I will just get that instead of paying $15 for the whole season of AUDIO only from mlb.com that I do for this year. Either way, this app is the best thing that's happened since sliced bread Of course, I love baseball, so I'd probably end up paying $20 for this app!

 

[smak]

I think the point people are missing is that this is all available for free on mlb.com gameday (yes even the in-game highlights). To take something freely available, repackage it and charge for it seems a little off....

It's all available on mlb.com gameday with highlights on your iphone?

 

[Harley05]

If you own and Iphone 3G and can't afford $5 bucks... that's like buying a H2 Hummer and bitching about gas prices. If you can't afford it, don't buy it, but crying about it just makes you look stupid.

To the developers reading these forums, I think most of the people complaining on these (and other) forums are such a small minority of the user base they don't mean anything to overall success of the product as a whole. They just like to complain about everything.

 

[gceo]

For the video content, $4.99 isn't bad.

For scores and re-caps, it's pretty lame because MLB has a great WAP site for all that stuff... and it's free ninety free.

 

[macduke]

You don't need an NFL app.
You just don't move from the TV on Sundays in the fall.

I wish I could do that. But that's usually when I'm stuck in the darkroom, the art annex, or working downtown in the studio at my university. Then there's also work. Its just too busy on the weekends during the semester for me to try to keep up with everything. That's why it would be nice to get some videos and such on the go, like when I'm waiting for the film to dry or the prints to develop. Safari on the iPhone helps, but additional stuff would be nice.

 

[Zadillo]

Baseball? Who watches baseball? Give me NFL.app!! I'll pay $20! Or maybe an ESPN app which could have everything.

ESPN actually had a pretty cool app, which was originally available when ESPN was doing their mobile phone service; after that shut down ESPN got the rights to it and now offers it as ESPN MVP (which I think you get included if you pay the $15/month for Verizon's vCast service).

It would be cool if ESPN made a similar iPhone app, although I wonder if the exclusivity with Verizon would prevent them from doing something similar to ESPN MVP.

-Zadillo

 

[Zadillo]

I think the point people are missing is that this is all available for free on mlb.com gameday (yes even the in-game highlights). To take something freely available, repackage it and charge for it seems a little off....

MLB runs ads on mlb.com though. I am guessing this app won't be ad supported.

As for the general point, there are plenty of mobile phone apps that do basically what you describe (take something freely available on the web at large and charge for it), usually because the app is something customized....... again, take ESPN MVP; nothing it offers isn't available on the main ESPN.com site, but you can only get it as part of a $15/month Verizon VCast subscription.

It's obviously up to each developer/company to decide whether they want to give their iPhone app away for free, or charge some amount for it to justify doing it.

I think in this case, the point is that it is an app and service optimized for the iPhone, and does require some additional developer support and infrastructure beyond what they already offer - especially with the stuff like the video highlights optimized for the iPhone. If someone doesn't want the specific functionality or find it worth $5, then of course there are other options...... and I wouldn't be surprised if we do see some free sports score apps/etc. (just as we have already see iphone-optimized websites like sportstab that do a lot of this).

-Zadillo

 

[ManUtd08]

Baseball?Football?...I would rather have the English Premiership and Champions League

 

[jzuena]

That's really the difference maker here. Are nearly instant video highlights worth it? I think so, but for most people they would rather just see the score. In this case, I think MLB should release a "Scoreboard" only app for those you don't want to pay $4.99.



In the article, Macworld compares the $4.99 price tag with MLB’s Team Alerts product which costs $3.99 per month.

I really think this $4.99 price and the rest of the season will be a trial run for MLB. I can't see them issuing a price per month system simply because you would be forced to download a new version of the app every month.

Any price upwards of $9.99 is far too much considering games cost roughly that much.

Obviously you haven't been to Fenway Park recently. Even upper bleachers (meaning crammed in under the centerfield scoreboard) are $12. Standing room is $20 and everything else goes up from that.

 

[Zadillo]

Obviously you haven't been to Fenway Park recently. Even upper bleachers (meaning crammed in under the centerfield scoreboard) are $12. Standing room is $20 and everything else goes up from that.

My sarcasm detector seems to be busted right now, but just in case that wasn't sarcasm above, I think he meant $9.99 was the going rate for most iPhone games, not tickets to actual baseball games.

If you were just joking, I apologize...

-Zadillo

 

[Dorfdad]

how about giving it free this year since the seasons almost half way done? Get people in the door fix the issues and charge next year!

Seems like a good deal..

 

[Chupa Chupa]

how about giving it free this year since the seasons almost half way done? Get people in the door fix the issues and charge next year!

Seems like a good deal..

Yeah, but why give it away when people already have their $ out of their wallet. I know I'm not going to sweat the $5, and judging from posts on this board I don't think I'm alone. $5 is pretty reasonable for near "as it happens" video updates if it works as advertised.

 

[rockosmodurnlif]

No time to watch the telecast or listen to it on the radio but there's time to watch it on the iPhone? Oh wait, this isn't even the game, this is highlights. Highlights. Highlights you can watch on Sportscenter with the 15 times they replay that show or ESPNews or your local news or for free on the web. Thanks MLB but no thanks, I'll take my free postgame emails. I don't need to make the rich players and owners any richer by making me $5 poorer. I love baseball but this isn't even a game. It's highlights. Highlights.