$1 iPhone Applications
There’s an interesting (long) post at Safe From The Losing Fight. This is a great follow up if anyone has been reading my past observations on the iPhone application store.
Andy Finnell says that one outcome may be that…
"The App Store becomes a market for one off apps and abandonware, where apps don’t progress beyond version 1.0 because there’s no money in it. Apps are simple and cheap to build, and developers rely on the initial sales spike to make all their money."
I have heard this from more than one source. The problem is that the current discovery mechanism favours new applications.
Incidentally, AllAboutiPhone featured a case in point today. A chess program by John of ZingMagic (who I incidentally worked with on the UIQ book) selling for only $1 and with 12 competitors!
However, I have been thinking that one of the problems is that there are very few really great ‘must have’ applications. Most have been created quickly and haven’t been written in such a way to differentiate themselves from the competition.
Taking the Chess example, how about Network Chess where you could play against other people? How about a server based tournament system where people could challenge one another. How about storing replays of games so others can see what has happened? How about a real prize for winners?
I think you get the idea. It may not be just about application store visibility and pricing. Word of mouth will always raise the profile of a ‘must have’ application. I think people will pay a good price for a ‘must have’ application. The only problem is that such applications take a long time to write and require a determined commitment to the iPhone platform.
Having said this, even when writing ‘must have’ software, I believe in my original observation that, with time, software prices tend towards zero - however, over months or years (which is ok) rather than days.
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