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the irony of the OP bringing up greed while whining that his precious apps might be priced at 99 cents or 1.99 is rather hilarious.

coming back down from the clouds, I expect pricing to be pretty fluid in the first few months as devs find the sweet spots for pricing. the market will also help to dictate. If a dev overvalues their app, people aren't going to buy it and they will be faced with the decision of whether to drop the price or let it sit there and collect dust on the imaginary shelf.

If you don't think something is worth the price, don't buy it. There isn't a gun to your head. Stop whining.
 
It's a market, get used to it. You can't expect things for free. Unless you work for nothing. Even then, it would be ignorance to expect others to do the same.

Your argument is that prices are higher than on the iOS store, and this is unfair. Well, it's a very competitive store. Millions of potential customers draw thousands of developers. If an App could be developed and sold for less, chances are it would be. If customers think an App is too expensive, they won't buy it! There is no monopoly. It's a free and fair market.

Desktop Apps are often more complex and sophisticated; they allow you to do more than their iOS counterparts. This can make them more expensive to produce. Don't forget there are also the costs in time, effort, money of developing an App for the Mac. The premiums may be explained by this. But over time, if Mac Apps aren't sufficiently differentiated from iPhone Apps they will probably converge to the same price.

Finally, the Mac App Store is largely unrestricted. Unlike the iOS store which is padlocked by Apple, the Mac is for ultimate productivity and creativity; for devs and creatives to prosper they need the liberty and freedom to do what they want.
 
Couple of points

I think a few things are happening here with the app store.

Like ALL app stores before it, the iphone app store and the ipad app store, the mac app store has pricing coming out of the gates at HIGHER price points. It is WAY easier for a developer to LOWER pricing than to RAISE it. So, they are in the testing the waters phase, just like the iphone app store and very much so with the IPAD app store.

Second. the apps that are now out, are quite fully developed apps. The ones that came out first on the iphone, then ipad (new versions for ipad) were 1.0 versions at best, and there was going to be an upgrade curve both of performance and functionality, but also updating features. So, what we have NOW is a pretty developed app platform and from that we are already getting much BETTER quality out of the gates.

Finally, this is the wild card. I fully expect SOME of these apps, and APPS in general to be supported on the apple tv. IF that is going to be the case, then THESE apps will also work on THAT platform - further extending their usability and value. So, they are just making them a TAD more costly now.

I DO like things like iwork and ilife a.la.carte pricing options, and do like things like APERTURE for 80$ (I expect that to be a promo that will go away soon)
 
I am shocked and hurt, so hurt, that developers want to get paid for their work.
 
I personally wouldn't call it greed, but, with some apps, I've already noticed the development you've described.

For Example:

Name Mangler. My version 2.0 came free of charge (Donationware). Now $10 for the current version, 2.3.2, on the app store.
Name Mangler had already started charging $10 before the Mac App Store came along.
They are in business......and I like my dividend checks...
Obviously own no Apple stock then...
LOL! Busted! I wonder if Squadleader even knows the current stock price! (which I'm loving, since I first bought at 84.50!) :D
 
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Being a developer myself these posts make me sick. WTF do you people want??

We create cool and usefull apps for you
We charge a cup of coffee for them
We continuously update them and ask for nothing extra
We give you free unlimited support

Seriously where has this "GIMME GIMME GIMME FREE FREE FREE" mindset come from?

We put more work and sit our asses in front of these damn screens for countless hours, work till 4 AM int he morning, and you dare even complain over a 2 dollar app?

Next time you go into work I hope your boss tells you need to

"do some extra work on an existing project, and answer a couple hundred emails, oh and btw your not gonna get paid for it and your being greedy for even asking for money for the work you do here every day"

and see how you feel....
 
First, let me say I fully support you in your comments.

Second, I have some Friday comments of my own for my own self-amusement :) yeah, I'm that bored.

Being a developer myself these posts make me sick. WTF do you people want??

People want everything for free ;)

Seriously where has this "GIMME GIMME GIMME FREE FREE FREE" mindset come from?

Started with Napster, now torrents and hosts, and seems to have moved beyond music.

We put more work and sit our asses in front of these damn screens for countless hours, work till 4 AM int he morning, and you dare even complain over a 2 dollar app?

$1.99 on screen holds 100x more value than staring down at 2 George Washingtons in your hand, which any of us will happily hand off to anyone that asks for it. It's a human mystery :)

Next time you go into work I hope your boss tells you need to

"do some extra work on an existing project, and answer a couple hundred emails, oh and btw your not gonna get paid for it and your being greedy for even asking for money for the work you do here every day"

and see how you feel....

I love this one, because some of us actually do go through this - it's called beeing on salary ;) we get paid for 40 hours of work, but companies always seem to give us ~45-60 hours worth of work every week :confused: we don't like it either :(



Have a good weekend dude and here's a :beer: on me. Cheers.
 
We put more work and sit our asses in front of these damn screens for countless hours, work till 4 AM int he morning, and you dare even complain over a 2 dollar app?
Blame your colleagues asking $0.79 for their apps. Seriously, things like the App Store and the pricing there is killing the business. You cannot make even a halfway decent app for 79 cents. It will never in your lifetime pay for itself. And they probably don't have to, since they are either made by enthusiasts or companies that make their money over real software. But because there are so many apps out there for less than 1 dollar, people start expecting everything to be cheap.

I wonder how many people realize how many copies someone has to sell of a 79 cent app to pay off 3 months development time? To pay the rent of the house? Gas in the car? Food on the table?

You know what will happen? More and more real, quality software will disappear, and replaced half-ar$ed iPhone copies that really don't do anything useful. This in turn will reduce the need of having a real computer and pretty soon we'll be stuck with our iPad 5 that doesn't really do anything but makes us purr happily because we can get so much software for it for almost nothing. At the same time, we gave up all control about what we do with what and when and 1984 becomes reality. Ok, so this is a bit of an exaggeration, but you get the point.
 
You know what will happen? More and more real, quality software will disappear, and replaced half-ar$ed iPhone copies that really don't do anything useful.
We'll see.

As of yesterday, still plenty of apps priced well above $1.

app-store-pricing.png
 
This will cause programs that would have been free to cost 99cent to $1.99. most developers will no longer give us as much as they use to because they can now sell it as parts. And this will end up costing us more money then it did in the past. I am a apple fan but this is nothing more then greed.

.99 cents to $1.99 vs free ... what is really the difference?

coffee and a donut is 2 bucks :cool: IMO, most of these penny apps are not worth anything.
 
It was a joke. His point was that Apple does not pay dividends.

... and the fact that if Squadleader did, indeed, own Apple stock, he would know that it doesn't pay dividends.

Exactly and I don't really see what all the fuss is about if you want to use the App Store use it if not don't, personally for the apps I need that I can't find a free alternative for I will go to the developers site first and give them all the money if that option is available to me. Hell if I like the app enough I have even written developers that have asked for nothing to see if there was some way to send a donation and I am one cheap tight fisted SOB, now I have to be using it every day or very frequently mind you but good software is worth a few dollars that is my 2¢ anyways take it for what its worth...
 
...

Greed, I don't so, because there are news speculation that Mac Appstore is cracked and that would definitely frustrate the developers rather making them greedy, LOL

its not speculation look on the pirate bay...all you need to do is copy one folder from a free app to your "paid" app and it will run as if its been paid for
 
Blame your colleagues asking $0.79 for their apps. Seriously, things like the App Store and the pricing there is killing the business. You cannot make even a halfway decent app for 79 cents. It will never in your lifetime pay for itself. And they probably don't have to, since they are either made by enthusiasts or companies that make their money over real software. But because there are so many apps out there for less than 1 dollar, people start expecting everything to be cheap.

I wonder how many people realize how many copies someone has to sell of a 79 cent app to pay off 3 months development time? To pay the rent of the house? Gas in the car? Food on the table?

You know what will happen? More and more real, quality software will disappear, and replaced half-ar$ed iPhone copies that really don't do anything useful. This in turn will reduce the need of having a real computer and pretty soon we'll be stuck with our iPad 5 that doesn't really do anything but makes us purr happily because we can get so much software for it for almost nothing. At the same time, we gave up all control about what we do with what and when and 1984 becomes reality. Ok, so this is a bit of an exaggeration, but you get the point.


LOL...then Windows will regain market share...the consumer always has a the choice
 
Greed? Are you kidding me

A person does work and creates a program, but there are people who actually think they are entitled to have the program for free.

Tell you what. Give me your bosses phone number and I will give him a call and inform him that he doesn't have to give you a paycheck unless he feels like it.
 
...

eventually more apps will be free and devs will find outside revenue sources like selling your personal data or peppering you with ads all the time...
 
I am a bit buzzed to be reading all these threads, so please forgive me if this has been touched on before in this thread...

I, for one, am glad that developers are getting paid for their work. Also, I think with more and more people buying Macs', the app store is soooo much better to find apps, rather than scouring internet forums to find them.

And people who say .99 apps are worth dick, I beg to differ. How many people have used CyberDuck or audacity or coconut battery? They are all free, and are wonderful. If they suddenly charged .99, they wouldn't be worth it? I'd happily pay $5 for each of those apps.

And didn't the guy who made that stupid fart app on the iPhone/iPod make a few hundred grand, and now works for Apple? He charged .99 cents. I understand there is a difference between making mindless child apps, but still he made a killing.. Why can't anyone in the Mac Store? Give it time, it just opened..
 
its not speculation look on the pirate bay...all you need to do is copy one folder from a free app to your "paid" app and it will run as if its been paid for

The biggest thing people don't seem to get about this whole thing is that people who do this won't receive any updates through the App Store. They will basically have to keep pirating every update that comes out. It's a lot of work to keep up with all your apps. It's not like before where even a stolen serial number might work after an app auto-updates through Sparkle (if the developer hasn't banned the number).

People want to jump on the whole "oooh look how easy piracy is" bandwagon because it's a hot topic but the reality is that developers are far more protected than they were before, and have almost 100% less work to do to in terms of anti-piracy. It's not like people weren't going to figure out a way to crack it, and I doubt there is any developer who thought they wouldn't.
 
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