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Ask HN: White Label Pricing My iPhone App?

2 points by sfalbo ↗ HN
I've had a request to license a white label version of one of my iPhone apps and update it with new artwork that will be provided to me from this client.

Personally, I charge $.99 for the app but for this client it will be part of a marketing campaign and given away for free.

I know the details are a bit vague but what strategies have you used to determine a license fee for white label versions of your apps/software?

Do you use past sales history and factor in premiums for the risk removed for the client (it's already developed and proven)?

Do you use other methods to determine a reasonable cost? Thanks in advance for the advice.

2 comments

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Aqua_Geek
Figure out how much time the original app took to build and multiply that by the going rate for iPhone development. This will give you a ballpark figure of quotes this client might have been given for the app. Then charge a percentage of the estimated cost that you think is fair, keeping in mind that it's a huge win for them: there is little technical and timeframe risk as 99% of the development is already done. Worst case scenario, their campaign doesn't do as well as they would have liked.
clscott
I'd charge a standard consulting fee for the effort involved in rebranding and building the client's version of the app and charge them $.66 (your price - apple's cut) per download for the lost sales.

Now, if you think one of the following may be true: 1) there may not be many downloads 2) there may be issues getting paid regularly I'd get a lump sum to cover the lost download revenue.

The marketing campaign should have a targeted # of impressions (i.e. downloads) so you should be able to get that number from your client and multiply by the $.66 to come up with the lump sum.

If you want to take Aqua_Geek's approach which doesn't take into account your lost income going forward I would see if I could add a differentiating feature to the original app and release it soon after their version of the app goes live, this way there is a reason for someone to purchase your app even if they have already installed the other one.

EDIT: fixed some grammatical errors and removed some duplicate information