Pushing the App Store price envelope
For people who had been waiting since January to watch TV on their iPhones, price doesn't seem to have been an object.
Within a day of its release Wednesday, SlingPlayer Mobile for the iPhone had shot to the No. 10 spot on Apple's (AAPL) closely watched Top Paid Apps list.
The $29.99 program, which communicates wirelessly with Sling Media's video streaming Slingbox to display TV programming on the screens of iPhones and iPod touches, is the most expensive application to have ever climbed that high.
By Friday morning, SlingPlayer had dropped to No. 12, but it was still the only app among the top 100 bestsellers listed for more than $9.99 — a price point that, until now, seemed to be the upper limit for iPhone bestsellers.
According to Jeff Scott, editor of 148Apps.biz, the closest any other high-priced apps had come to No. 10 were Jaadu VNC ($24.99), which made it to No. 19 in September 2008, and LogMeIn Ignition ($29.99), which hit No. 74 last December.
The vast majority of sales on the App Store are much smaller. Of the 38,356 applications currently active, according to 148Apps.biz's stats,
- 23.4% are free
- 67% cost less than $1
- and 97% cost less than $10
Prices have been drifting down since the store opened 10 months ago. The average in November 2008 was more than $3.50; today, it's less than $2.50. The mean price for games is even lower: $1.44. See chart below.
The most expensive item in the store, by far, is Lextech Labs' iRa Pro, an $899.99 application that displays live video feeds from up to 6 security cameras simultaneously. Apparently its users find iRa Pro worth the price. Six of seven reviewers gave it either four stars or five. The seventh complained about the price and gave it only one.
The runners up:
- iRa Direct ($499.99) — iRa Pro's baby brother.
- MATG – Dynamics GP ($449.99) — Accounting and financial information for sales reps.
- MATG – SAP BusinessOne ($449.99) — Accounting and financial information for executives.
SlingPlayer for the iPhone, which was first demoed at Macworld in January, has been available for months on a variety of other mobile devices, including certain BlackBerry (RIMM), Palm (PALM), Nokia (NOK) and Windows Mobile (MSFT) smartphones.
But it never got the kind of attention on those devices as it has on the iPhone. See, for example, the fuss stirred up this week when reporters discovered that the iPhone version worked only on Wi-Fi, and not over AT&T's (T) cellular networks.
A spokesman for EchoStar (SATS), which owns Sling Media, declined to release sales figures. But applications in the top 10 paid apps list have been known to sell hundreds of thousands of units.
See also:
I bought iBird Explorer Plus for $19.99 and haven't regretted it. It's a great app for Birders. It's the kind of application that belongs on an iPhone or iPod Touch rather than a laptop or desktop. It's cheaper than a Birders book and always up to date.
If the app takes advantage of the features of the iPhone (size, power, convenience, GPS…) and has an audience, people will buy it.
Philip, thanks for including Lextech Labs' iRa Pro & iRa Direct in your round-up. I'm very proud of our team's ability to deliver serious value to first responders and security professionals with our enterprise focused solution.
It's great to see other enterprise focused applications gaining traction on the iPhone as well. The power of this platform really allows taking mobility in new directions and is definitely spurring innovative solutions.
The application price trend graph you show is an average price. So yes, as more apps are added, the average price will move one way or the other. Since you mention in this article that 67% of all iPhone apps cost under $1.00, that means the average price will be heavily affected by free and low-cost apps.
Interesting to see you mention LogMeIn Ignition. An acquaintance of mine mentioned at the local geeks dinner (HRGeeks if you're in Hampton Roads) that he wasn't interested in paying $29.99, so he contacted LogMeIn and complained that since he was paying more than a thousand bucks a year for their services that he should get the app for free.
LogMeIn agreed, and gave him a code to get the app for no charge. I don't know if that counts as a sale, but I don't think this was an uncommon occurrence.
really pay $29.99 to watch TV on a 3.5 inch screen?? I am waiting until June when the updated Iphones come out but no way I pay any more than $9.99 for these 'apps' many which are moronic in my opinion. On my Itouch I think I have any used Pandora radio player. Nothing else is worth it