Had a random thought this morning, and was curious to throw it down and see what other people thought about it. So basically as having a birthday just go by I received a few itunes gift cards and loaded them right up into my itunes/app store account. I proceeded to buy the couple of games I was previously "on the fence about" cuz hey, I had the credit ready to go without reaching into my own pocket now. Now let's take that even a step further, and look at what sites like ebay have available (and from what I understand, sometimes Amazon? - could be wrong). They sell Gift Cards at $75 for a $100 gift card, sometimes cheaper, and when i see these deals i usually buy 2-3 of them immediately - why not - its an IMMEDIATE 25 dollars of apps or music or whatever , for effectively free. Apple should be blowing out these types of deals on their own site or even at POS when someone buys a new ipad - "ok sir so with your new ipad air2 we have a special introductory deal to get a 100 credit to the appstore for 50 dollars right now." Things like that can promote the person getting acquainted to using the app store and spending (albeit store credit) on an app. I know when i have my credit loaded up, i buy at LEAST 3x as many apps as I usually do. And I'm on the side of the field that I'm a bit of a compulsive app/game buyer, possibly simply for the fact that im still so amazed at how many games are available and what i can actually play on a phone! So if I buy that many more apps because of store credit, I would have to think the rest of the world isnt too different. I don't know, what are everyone's thoughts on this dynamic and how it affects the amount of items people purchase?
I'm all for discounts (I often check itunescarddeals on Twitter). I like the idea. But I don't think that will move the market: you're fighting human nature, and people have become, as a group, increasingly unwilling to pay what great games cost to build.
