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ASK HN: Optimum App Price

8 points by shareme ↗ HN
On slashdot appeared a story about Joe Konrath who has the top #! spot for selling books on Amazon at $0.99.(url: http://jakonrath.blogspot.com/2011/03/guest-post-by-john-locke.html). He earns $500,000 yearly.

I am wondering what the tipping point might be as far as iphone/android app prices? Is it $0.99? Has anyone done some A/B testing on such price points?

2 comments

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allwein
It's much more app-specific than the market for novel-length fiction. Think about the differences between a fart app, a simple game like Angry Birds, a more complex game like a FPS, a simple utility, and full-featured productivity app like Omnifocus. There's no single ideal price point that covers all apps.

I can pretty much guarantee that every developer has done some A/B testing on price points for their various apps. I make Facebook game utilities. I've found the ideal price for those kinds of apps are $1.99. At $0.99, I don't get significantly more sales than at $1.99, but I get a hell of a lot more negative reviews. For what's essentially a Farmville Reference, at $0.99 I get people complaining that the app doesn't let them play the game or integrate with their farm at all. At $2.99, I still sell well, but earn less money than at $1.99.

4lt3r
As i know, normal price for not fart app is about $1.99, it's golden mean.