I recently picked up fargoal andirobbo for my iPad but I bought the non HD versions cause of the much cheaper price tags, and the y seem to look real nice on the iPad in 2x mode. So with those two games what is the advantage of the HD versions? Am I missing out?
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Why are iPad or HD versions cost more?
- Thread starter Stirolak123
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Comments involving extra time or higher pixel count are just silly. The simple answer to your question is that the prices for iPad versions of apps are set by their developers. Some iPad apps are absolutely free. Others are free to buyers of the iPhone version. Still others are more expensive. If you choose to ignore all but the apps that are more expensive than their iPhone versions, then you will mislead yourself.
Whatever.
So why are we not seeing retna display versions? Since they have to account for all those extra pixels?
The problem is many of these apps aren't any different than their iphone counterparts. Not Bly do you have to buy the app again (which really isn't that big of a deal) but they charge a 200% premium for the ipad version.
There is no way that some of these apps take that much more time to optimize for ipad. I would brt that 99% of the same code is used in most cases.
The real reason is that they cant sell as much volume on the ipad and ipad owners are more likely to shell out the extra cash. So they charge more for them.
I would venture to say that one factor is the cost of creating a new app for the iPad.
For example, I have Omni Plus for the Mac, iPhone/iPod touch and iPad. The iPad version is much different (and better IMHO) than the iPhone/iPod touch version. The obvious reason is the additional screen real estate which allows a better and easier to use interface. Designing and creating this code takes resources and developers need to be compensated for it.
For example, I have Omni Plus for the Mac, iPhone/iPod touch and iPad. The iPad version is much different (and better IMHO) than the iPhone/iPod touch version. The obvious reason is the additional screen real estate which allows a better and easier to use interface. Designing and creating this code takes resources and developers need to be compensated for it.
That makes sense, plus the market share on iPad apps are much lower than the iPhone/iTouch counterparts, it only seems reasonable that developers raise the prices to keep a profit.
the reason is quite obvious for certain apps. Like the monkey island games. There is a huge difference in quality and usability between the iphone version and the ipad version. This justify the extra costs.
Some other apps... well, if there isn't much difference and they ask too much, get the competitor's.
Some other apps... well, if there isn't much difference and they ask too much, get the competitor's.
Heh, I was being sarcastic. I'm more inclined to agree with you, although there is the odd exception where I suppose the higher price could be justified.
Hmm, I think I can give some input from a developer perspective. My game, Red Card Rampage, is 99c on iPhone, but $1.99 on iPad. To be honest, unless you happen to be the person that made Angry Birds or Doodle Jump, there isn't a lot of money to be made if your app is 99c. As such, we released an iPad version that is $1.99, and hope that the popularity of the cheaper 99c iPhone version can drive sales of the more expensive HD version for those that have an iPad. And no doubt also, that the game looks far far better on iPad than on an iPhone 3G. Even compared to the iPhone 4, our iPad version has more real-estate that we leveraged by having a user bar at the bottom which the iPhone 4 version does not (although the iPhone 4 version looks really amazing too due to the higher dpi).
This.
The app store is an obvious money maker for devs. You want pretty HD? You pay us.
You want pixelated 2x, don't pay us. Simple economics.