Major League Baseball App to Sell for $4.99

[jptelthorst]

If it were exactly like ESPN's gamecast that'd be perfect.

Ditto, gamecast is great.

The thing about it being $5 vs. checking it free on mlb.com, etc, is that mlb.com and the other sites have ads all over them.

There is much less space to put ads on an iphone app where screen space is limited. Someone mentioned ads before and after highlights, which isn't a bad idea, except maybe the fact that network bandwidth is precious for these devices--a lot of the users are still going to be on the edge network.

 

[kornyboy]

Wirelessly posted (iPhone: Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU like Mac OS X; en) AppleWebKit/420.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.0 Mobile/4A102 Safari/419.3)

I could've sworn they said it would be free.

I can get a million free scoring apps, or just go to mlb.com for free.

I'll pass on this one...

But do those other apps have video highlights before the game is even over? I think that's really what you are paying for.

I agree that the video is probably what you are paying for but I also agree that the play-by-play that is free on a bunch of sites is what most are looking for. I think that it would be totally worth it if you didn't have to pay each season. Was there anything definite on whether or not you will have to pay each year?

 

[happydude]

I could've sworn they said it would be free.

I can get a million free scoring apps, or just go to mlb.com for free.

I'll pass on this one...

exactly what i was thinking.

 

[docal97]

If you love baseball, $5 is a no brainer. Even $10 for the entire year is cheap. It will be one of the first apps that I will be downloading. I just hope that it works as advertised.

I realize the phone and the contract are a bit pricey, but cmon, to complain about $5? That's just ridiculous. How many large companies are going to spend the time to develop an program, provide constant updates to it during games including video, all for free?

I think that we will find that when the store opens, there will be free programs, but there will be alot of apps to be bought by the larger developers.

 

[DiamondMac]

Not a no-brainer for me and I am a huge baseball fan and I even spent some time working for a MLB team

I will just go to Yahoo/ESPN or other sites for free updates

 

[japanime]

It's not that it will cost $4.99 that bothers me. It's that I would be putting $4.99 into Bud $elig's already filthy-deep pockets.

I'd rather pirate the thing and then donate $4.99 to some charity. Maybe a steroids-awarenes program or something like that.

 

[candyman]

I have no issues with the price. I think the $4.99 is very fair. I would love just to have the option of live audio from the any game I choose. So, no matter where I'm at I can easily tune in with my ear buds and listen to the game of my choice, be it my home team or other. No need for video highlights for me just yet...

 

[JeffDM]

If an independent developer wanted to create this MLB scoreboard only app, would it be that hard to do it with XML feeds from MLB? I would think you could and thus have a similar app without the highlights. I wonder if this would piss off MLB

It could piss them off. I don't know if it would be against their terms of service. But since they control the feed, all they need to do is modify the feed in such a way to break your app and not theirs.

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

But aren't those sites ad supported?

 

[JeffDM]

To be honest, the new MLB.com gameday is pretty filthy.

"Filthy"? Is that the new "bad" or "sick"?

 

[JeffDM]

oops.

 

[Teh Don Ditty]

"Filthy"? Is that the new "bad" or "sick"?

Depends, am I being a trendsetter?



I haven't heard it being used outside myself and my 2 friends.

 

[Luv4iPhone]

cheap for fantasy players

For those who play fantasy baseball this is cheap!! I hope the NFL offers something similar when football season rolls around. I know lots of guys who would pay $20 for an NFL app like this without blinking...

 

[JBmac]

I don't have the patience to sit in front of the TV, and watch a whole game anymore, like I did when I was younger. It will ge good for day games, when at work, and awesome for the playoffs, I have the patience to watch a whole playoff game on TV, but at work during the day, the app will come in handy. It just might get me back into Baseball again!

 

[TalkAboutApple]

To get anything from MLB for $4.99 is a miracle. Isn't that less a small soft drink these days?

Let's hope that these apps stay more in the free/$5 range rather than the $30/50 range. Right now no one know where all of this is headed.

 

[semi5]

This will be my first purchase from the app store.

 

[verks]

$5 is fine to me. This will be the first app I download.

I also hope for an NFL app, but with Sprints deal with the NFL and ESPN's with verizon we might be hoping for Fox Sports to have an app.

 

[MSD401]

I agree this will be my first app..

Here is what I was thinking about the price.. if approximately 1/2 the season (all star game this week) costs $5 I think $10 will be a fair price for the rest of the season.

 

[Mr Maui]

$4.99 shouldn't be a bad price (even $9.99 for full year) ... IF ... and ONLY IF ... you don't have to deal with google-like ads and the like with your app. I hope some of these web-based iPhone apps don't turn the iPhone into a mobile ad space. If paying for a service or application, you shouldn't have to pay for advertising on it too. JMO

 

[Mr Maui]

To get anything from MLB for $4.99 is a miracle. Isn't that less a small soft drink these days?

Let's hope that these apps stay more in the free/$5 range rather than the $30/50 range. Right now no one know where all of this is headed.

Not exactly sure where you buy your "small soft drinks" (since you can get an entire meal off the $1 menu at most chains), but I think we understand the point of your post.

 

[TalkAboutApple]

Not exactly sure where you buy your "small soft drinks" (since you can get an entire meal off the $1 menu at most chains), but I think we understand the point of your post.

Sorry, I meant prices at a MLB ballpark. It's criminal what venue owners charge for concessions in sporting events, amusement parks, etc. Nothing like a captive consumer audience...oh wait, this is starting to sound like AT&T with Apple...

 

[Nickelz92]

I'll pass on this one...

Agreed. Come on now MLB, all of this information and content is already on your website for FREE. Now, why would we pay money for you to simply re-direct it to our iPods in a "cute" little layout. Clearly not worth it, especially when dev's will be making plenty of these.

 

[Nickelz92]

Let's hope that these apps stay more in the free/$5 range rather than the $30/50 range. Right now no one know where all of this is headed.

I'm hoping the same thing; If Apple didn't learn their lesson from the overpriced JSU (which it appeared they did, with the much-better 2.0 going for 50% the price), then this App Store will be a failure. If the App store is overpriced and their a limited free apps, I will greatly consider a jailbreak.