Top secret insider info... Finally this feeding frenzy of supplying the world with free apps is over! Wow. Only paid apps on iTunes, twice the room to promote the reason why we are "selling our goods" TO MAKE MONEY! We all got sucked into the vortex that free is good. "Say what" First Apple removed all the scantly clad teenagers in school uniforms and now the free sections will be removed, this will open up the store like the sun after a thunderstorm. I really am totally stoked by this news and finally we all can make some real dough. Bold move by Apple! But it makes perfect sense! Too many paid apps never mind the free ones. A great day to be a developer.
Sorry i jumped the gun here, my top secret insider info was only a beautiful dream I had after checking my iTunes account in the morning and seeing pages of paid downloads.
Not allowed to discuss the exact details but it was probably one of the best days of my life! Amazing 50 minutes inside the pressure cooker. Great experience!
The dramatic style of this post was engineered to start a fruitful discussion. What if all the free apps disappeared? What would the end result be? It definitely is worth discussing. It isn't a ridiculous proposition! It is a viable option?
That's like saying demos are going to be rid of for console games. It would hurt smalls to a certain degree but overall it's the quality of your app. Lite and free versions should provide enough gameplay but not to much. I can tell you how many times I download something and it's 3 levels and it doesn't want to make me buy the full game. And the app store could become a little less cluttered, but there are many people who rely on stuff like FAAD for their games
Your comment came out of no where, cause I don't remember saying that. Anyway I'm not saying Free Apps equals more devices. Free Applications give people a chance to test out the app and see if it's to their liking before purchasing.
Hi, If this was to happen, the piracy would be even more pervasive than it is now. I would also think there would be less of a customer base for your apps, or anyone elses. Would be a good way to stop, or seriously slow the growth within the appstore, if that was an objective. David
You didn't say it! But that was the only logical reason Apple would keep the free apps? free apps = more devices sold Previous discussions on the topic of free apps revealed another very interesting equation that would justify the removal of all free apps. People trying a free version of an app and not buying the paid version because they didn't like the free version = people buying the paid version without having the luxury of trying out a free version The Prez is 100 % correct it all boils down to how good your game or app is with or with out a free version.
David, Here is the flip side of the coin. If devs are making more money because the store is only populated with paid apps, the quality of apps would go through the roof, because the risk factor of making the investment back would be a lot smaller. So the appstore would probably grow at the same pace if the quality of the apps got better.
Hi, Speaking as a customer, I am careful on what I buy. No free or lite versions mean me spending less money. How does that make you more money? David
David, no free apps = less revenue for Apple and developers? Are you sure? Imagine all the free apps are gone. People would have to buy tonnes more because the free content is not using up their spare time. The device would be idle without purchases. The paid apps would get snapped up a lot easier.
Hi, I am not sure you have, by your last post, a very high opinion of customers on the appstore. Yes, there are the impulse shoppers but also a lot who try before buying, as in the free or lite versions. Cut them and cut revenue for developers and Apple, the impulse buyers do not mess with the free or lite versions, as a general rule. Of course, this is just one of those customers giving an honest opinion on how they would spend less if free and lite versions of apps were eliminated. David
here's how I feel.. as an independent developer (no-name), no one will look at my app if there's not some awesome tech or something absurdly jump-up-and-down craziness screenshots or other gimmicks to woo a potential customer. Actually it's already that bad anyway, but at least free demos gives you a tiny amount of wiggle room. I am with you, the market is confounding and I dislike a lot of what it has come to. I feel that the .99 price point thing is so beyond ridiculous, it got there to fast, and between that and the abundance of free EVERYTHING apps are very devalued in the average customer's mind. I have learned that if you want to charge close to $4 for something, it's really got to look like a high level DS or PSP game, otherwise not worth the bother to most folks. This is the mindset that you must maintain as a developer, it doesn't matter how we feel or how much work we put in or respect for all of that which we might feel we deserve.. it's absolutely a buyer's market, and so we must pander to the customer if we want them to give us a fraction of the time of day. How to fight this? A few things, but really... kill yourself right now making the best looking, best playing software you possibly can.. follow i up with more of the same.. charge next to nothing for it, use a free demo to help get the word out, whatever (don't charge actual nothing because then you can devalue yourself in the long run, and any hope you have of getting lucky in the meantime is shot too). If you build up your rep and therefore your brand over time, then you will have leverage and when things finally reach some sense of normalcy around here (that is, we can charge more than mere peanuts for software) you will have your built-in fanbase right there with you who will be willing to shell out for what you have to offer. That's all a long shot, and it's very general, but it seems to be the only attitude I can think of to make it through the period that we are in now.
