I'm a developer but I would fall under the unix/linux sysadmin category in terms of paying for apps myself. There are a lot of simple apps, like the Temperature Conversion App for $0.99, that really should not be charged for and in those cases I am going to look for a free version or make the app myself if I really need it. Now if it is a really killer app, that has a good design and is well developed, then I may just purchase it. An example of what I would consider polished and worth the money is SpaceTime 3.0. http://www.spacetime.us/
If I do decide to by an app, which has not happened yet, price is going to be a HUGE factor. I can see paying $1.00 or $2.00 for an app, but as the price gets into the $5.00 range and greater, I simply pass it on by. I understand that with the 30% plus taxes are things to consider when pricing an app and if there were a lot more users of the phone, we may see more purchases coming in. BTW, does anyone have any numbers regarding the # of G1 phones that are out there? I'm curious how many potential customers there are. I'm personally looking forward to the time when more Android powered devices are out there. Perhaps at that point there will be a decent size user base to sell our apps to. Anyhow, I look forward to hear what others have to say regarding this matter as it seems very important to us developers. P.S. Any developers around that have an app on the market for $1.00 or $0.99, and if so, how have your sales been (if you don't mind telling us). Regards, ~clark On Feb 27, 2:22 pm, Stoyan Damov <stoyan.da...@gmail.com> wrote: > Voted (Spend some time adding features). > > Now, for the "Next week I’ll tabulate the results and implement your > recommendation." - please, post the results here, I'm sure no one will > consider the post off-topic ;) > > I see disturbing 60% on dropping the price (though the actual > participants number is quite low): > # Just reduce the price to $0.99 and see what happens. (40%) > # Remove the free version and reduce the price of the paid version to > $0.99. (20%) > > Dropping the price IMHO is the worse decision. Here's how it goes - if > you drop the price: > > 1) you'll definitely piss all of your existing customers (now that > might be just 1 or 2, but imagine he's an influential blogger - good > luck then :) > 2) many will see the price dropped, and you'll be probably tempted to > even put that in the description of your app - *very* bad idea - if > I'm one of those potential customers and see you price drop, I'll wait > for you to drop it again (unless it's like $0.99 or I need the app > very badly, in which case I'd already be a customer...) > 3) you're dumping the rest of the developers with similar applications > - it's not good because they might need to drop their prices as well > and that's bad 1) and bad 2) > > Now, there are apps for $0.99 and nobody needs them. There are stupid > games (like mine), which cost $5 and again no one needs them, but at > least games are an impulse buy. I've had quite a few customers > enjoying themselves for ~2 days (I already said the 24 hour period is > a myth) and cancelling - that's fine, I put a bit more effort and > designed 40 more levels and a level editor (ok, a bit more than a bit > more effort ;) - this got my rating a bit up. There are games like > mine, which cost even more than $5 and although developed by *very* > wellknown professional game companies (and I'm *the* absolute newbie > in games) and absolute killers on iphone have fewer downloads and > sales. > > Bottom line is there are passengers for every train -- I'm not > dropping the price - there are games *very* similar to mine which cost > a fraction of it, but I know I can't sell mine for < $5 - here's why - > T-Mobile gets 30%, then ~40% taxes, then what's left is something like > ~$2. Given the ratio between the downloads of my free version (5K+ for > 1 week) and sales (< 100) I don't think $5 is that high price. But > then again, games are purely an impulse buy. > > There will always be customers thinking along the lines of "not worth > $5" - these don't buy <insert you favorite magazine> here either, > which is also an impulse buy. These guys are so lucky with the 24-our > refund period they even say that in their ratings (luckily not on my > game) saying "played, kind of fun, refund - thanks Google". I'm > counting on the the other guys, who are like me and buy the magazine - > they *know* they'll enjoy it just for a couple of days but that's > fine. > > Cheers, > Stoyan > > > > On Fri, Feb 27, 2009 at 11:13 PM, Ed Burnette <ed.burne...@gmail.com> wrote: > > > What do you do when you put an application on the Android Market and > > nobody buys it? That’s the subject of today’s installation of Market > > Moves (http://blogs.zdnet.com/Burnette/?p=816). At the end there is a > > poll asking for your input on what to try next. Should I get rid of > > the free version? Reduce the price on the paid one? Add some more > > features? These are questions that every Android developer will face. > > Please have a look, add your vote for the best approach, and share > > your experiences in marketing your own apps in the talkback section. > > > Thanks, > > -- Ed Burnette > > Author, "Hello, Android",http://www.pragprog.com/titles/eband > > Webmaster, Planet Android blog aggregator,http://www.planetandroid.com- > > Hide quoted text - > > - Show quoted text - --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Android Developers" group. To post to this group, send email to android-developers@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to android-developers-unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/android-developers?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
