Impressions: Recent Alternative Pricing Tiers on AppStore

Vidit Bhargava

This week there were minor tweaking’s in the AppStore Alternative Pricing Tier, introducing lower prices for App Stores in some countries including India.

The two new pricing tiers for India are pretty interesting. Basically, Apps can now be sold at Rs. 10 and Rs. 30, apart from the primary tiers.  The pricing is interesting in the sense that this tier of pricing in offline goods is often associated with Fast Moving Consumer Goods (Biscuits, Potato Chips, Chocolates, etc.). What would be the equivalent of something like that in the AppStore world? Arcade Games? Everyday Utilities? I think these lower tiers would be hugely popular amongst Freemium Games which have digital coin-purchases and the lot that rely on In-App Purchases.

As a developer, for a pricing tier this close to Free, I’ll want the sales to be closer on the free spectrum also, than that of the $0.99 side. That is, as a developer, I’d want the App to make just much or even more than what it would otherwise make at the Rs. 60 ($0.99) price, something that will require huge volumes of the App to be sold. Rs. 10 isn’t much, it’s around $0.16.

App Users in India are usually of two kinds : Those who have no problem buying a paid app and those who stay away from that. The latter are generally students. I haven’t met a lot of people who don’t mind buying something for Rs. 60 but have a big problem in spending something in the higher tiers (Rs. 190, 250, etc.).

With the new pricing tiers, I’m hoping more users will take notice of the paid section of the App Store, a lot of others, sadly, will still try to get pirated copies. ?