13 ms·

Apple announces ‘upgrade’ to App Store pricing, adding 700 new price points

191 points by zeraphy 4y ago

kybernetyk 4y ago
Will this solve the issue that the $49.99 tier equals to a 59.99 EUR price? I get a ton of messages every week by would-be Euro customers complaining why the fuck I am fleecing them with a 59.99 EUR price when the US price is $49.99 and the exchange rate is currently roughly 1:1.
- pasc1878 4y ago
  The EUR price includes VAT, Americans have this odd thing of quoting prices without tax which tends to be illegal elesewhere. OK the US does not have a sales type tax on digital goods,
  - awinder 4y ago
    Digital goods are taxed and my apple app receipts all have a tax line on them (US-based).
  - dhosek 4y ago
    Depends on the location. Sales taxes are determined at the state, county and municipal level and apply to different things in different places (so, for example, Illinois does not charge sales tax on magazines, but California does, and the tax rate on a single donut may be higher than the tax rate on a dozen donuts (prepared food vs groceries).
    - jsjohnst 4y ago
      > the tax rate on a single donut may be higher than the tax rate on a dozen donuts It’s even worse than that, which I learned unfortunately at a former employer. Two identically priced dresses could have different tax rates based on the formality of one vs the other, ie one being a simple LBD and the other being a sequined evening gown.
      - dhosek 4y ago
        Does that apply to sales tax or import duties though? I’m not aware of any jurisdiction which has different sales tax rates for different types of clothing. Import duties are a whole other can of worms (in some cases, products are partially disassembled before crossing the border to lower the import duties and then reassembled after import).
        jsjohnst 4y ago
        > I’m not aware of any jurisdiction which has different sales tax rates for different types of clothing I’ll have to ask someone as I’ve forgotten the specific jurisdiction, but yes, it was sales tax specifically. If memory serves, it was either a county or municipality sales tax I thought in one of the states of the United States, but I’ll see if I can confirm. Edit: Here’s one source: https://www.avalara.com/blog/en/north-america/2020/02/how-to-handle-sales-tax-on-clothing-a--state-by-state-guide.html https://www.avalara.com/blog/en/north-america/2020/02/how-to... In that case, it’s statewide it seems for Pennsylvania. Clothing in general isn’t taxed, but formalwear is. I know there are a lot more odd variations than just that.
  - chongli 4y ago
    We have the same thing in Canada. Taxes are not included in the price so that people can be aware of how much tax they're paying and adjust their behaviour accordingly. Since sales taxes are charged on some products but not others, the price-conscious consumer can elect to choose the tax-free products over the tax-burdened ones.
    - CameronNemo 4y ago
      ??? If taxes are included in price, the consumer can just look at the price and compare rather than jumping through the additional mental hoop to determine if one item is subject to sales tax, and what its price is in tgat case.
      - chongli 4y ago
        If you have two items and sales taxes are included in the price of one but not the other, the only way you can know which one has the taxes on it is to go look at some government website that lists all of the categories the tax applies to and those it does not. On the other hand, if the taxes are not included in prices then you will see which one has taxes at checkout and elect not to purchase the item with taxes, preferring the item without taxes. Furthermore, with taxes included in prices you are more susceptible to unscrupulous vendors charging taxes that should not be applied and pocketing the extra margins. One example of that is with the manufacturer of Niche coffee grinders charging VAT to international customers and pocketing the extra margin.
        Strom 4y ago
        > the only way you can know which one has the taxes on it is to go look at some government website In Europe the tax is listed separately on the bill by law, no need to visit any website. The amount of tax charged isn't hidden in Europe, it's just that the most prominent number is the total sum. The pre-tax part and all the taxes are also available separately for your information.
        avianlyric 4y ago
        > On the other hand, if the taxes are not included in prices then you will see which one has taxes at checkout and elect not to purchase the item with taxes, preferring the item without taxes. Why would you care? Having taxes included in sticker prices doesn’t change how much it costs you, only what percentage goes to your government. The only situation where not including taxes is potentially useful is when you explicitly don’t want to pay taxes, but you’re still happy to pay a higher price, if it means less money to the government. Also in Europe we have a very simple solution to this problem. Every price tag has two numbers. The number in big font includes taxes, the little number underneath is without taxes. If you’re desperate to avoid giving cash to the government, then you just need to find items with the smallest delta between the two numbers. Retailers are also obliged to display both numbers, and provide a tax breakdown on your receipt, so you penny pinch your taxes to your hearts content.
  - SllX 4y ago
    There’s a reason for that: we don’t have VAT like you do. Here’s an example: a base model iPhone 14 is $799. If I go to the Downtown San Francisco Apple Store, it is $868.12; if I go across a bridge to the Berkeley Apple Store it is $880.90; if I go from there across a different bridge to Corte Madera it is $870.91; if I go back through San Francisco down to the neighboring county to the Hillsdale Apple Store it is $875.90; and if I buy it in Cupertino, then it is $871.91. If I cross the State border with Oregon and go to an Apple Store in Tigard or Portland, then it is $799. Which is the price Apple should be showing on the Apple Store? They tell you at checkout because what you pay at the end is calculated according to your shipping address, and it’s a line item: sales tax, but pricing is also marketing. Which price should Apple be quoting their American customers in national ad campaigns?
    - Strom 4y ago
      European states have different VAT rates too. A company advertises 999€ and then depending on the state it can be either 832,5€ + 166,5€ VAT or 839,5€ + 159,5€ VAT or 799,2€ + 199,8€ VAT etc. In the case of Apple they sometimes do this and other times not. So for example the iPhone 14 is 999€ in both Germany and Austria, even though they have 19% vs 20% VAT rates. However in Finland which has a 24% rate the iPhone 14 is 1039€.
      - SllX 4y ago
        And does Apple have one Apple Online Store and App Store for the Eurozone or do they have separate Online and App Stores for each EU member they operate in in the local languages and currencies (for the EU and Eurozone are not even perfectly aligned)? Almost every example I gave was within one State: California, except for the two I tacked on at the end from California’s nearest northern neighbor in Oregon. All of the California examples were within the same metro area (the San Francisco Bay Area) but different counties. There is one US website, and one US App Store. It is not the same situation, only seemingly superficially similar until further inspection.
        Strom 4y ago
        Local municipality taxes exist in Europe too. Some cities have an extra 1% tax for example and Apple isn't exempt from that. The price still remains what they advertise for the larger region.
  - eYrKEC2 4y ago
    "quoting prices without tax which tends to be illegal elsewhere" Cui bono? Personally, I like that US citizens are constantly reminded how much flesh the State is extracting.
    - oblio 4y ago
      - rootusrootus 4y ago
        > First past the post ... which is used in plenty of places in Europe, yes? And not every place in the US uses FPTP. In fact, every election seems to add another locality to the list that use an alternative.
      - eyelidlessness 4y ago
        To be fair, Americans (and anyone else) are right to resent sales taxes. And I’m saying that as an American who’s far to the left of what some call “socialism” in Europe. Sales taxes are highly regressive, disproportionately impacting those least able to afford them.
        ChadNauseam 4y ago
        It's not really sensible to look at the regressivity of a tax in isolation. On the tax side, there are other factors you might want to optimize, like how distortionary the tax is and how effective it is at raising revenue. On the spending side, a regressive tax + a progressive government redistribution policy can end up being progressive overall. For example, any tax can be made to be as progressive as you want by redistributing some of the revenue as a UBI. Sales taxes/VATs are very effective at raising revenue and are less distortionary than most of the alternatives. This makes them good for funding redistributive policies. They won't tax billionaires out of existence, but they're a good tool for states to have in their toolbox.
    - error503 4y ago
      Consumers, who don't have to know the ins and outs of local tax policies and exemptions to understand what the product they want to buy will cost them.
  - twblalock 4y ago
    The US does not have a national sales tax or VAT. Every state has their own tax, and some don't even have one. Even within a state, sales taxes can vary at the county and municipality level. To tell an American the full price plus tax they will pay for something, you need to know where they live. For expensive items like computers and phones, the price could vary by tens or hundreds of dollars.
  - rootusrootus 4y ago
    > Americans have this odd thing of quoting prices without tax I am American, and I don't pay sales tax.
- zimzam 4y ago
  When it comes to differences in hardware prices between the US & EU, VAT taxes are often most of the difference: are there VAT taxes on app sales too?
  - FateOfNations 4y ago
    Yes. VAT typically applies to any transaction where a business sells something.
- richrichardsson 4y ago
  VAT, everyone forgets about it. I had a similar conversation with someone on Twitter complaining that the latest iPhone was much more expensive in EU, but once you factored in VAT and some import costs and the fact that apple.com shows the $ price without any sales tax there wasn't actually such a great disparity.
  - shortstuffsushi 4y ago
    As an American who deals in no VAT ever, is something like a 20% vat (10 on 50) normal?
    - CameronNemo 4y ago
      Yes. https://taxfoundation.org/vat-rates-europe-2019/ https://taxfoundation.org/vat-rates-europe-2019/
- yreg 4y ago
  How do you not know the difference is in VAT if you say you answer a ton of support requests regarding this?
raydiatian 4y ago
Now this has me wondering: who has the most expensive product on the App Store, what is it and how much does it cost? — edit — Looks like the award goes to an app for Piano Tuners. Find a niche and corner it. $1,000.
timeimp 4y ago
10x the number of price points is nuts. Then again, at this point, Apple is a treasury operation that also sells phones and computers.
- r00fus 4y ago
  Braeburn Capital indeed.
- chollida1 4y ago
  > Then again, at this point, Apple is a treasury operation that also sells phones and computers. I'm guessing you are joking but incase you were not, Apple still makes far far more from selling new products than they do from investments. So that statement is false or misleading.
  - rootusrootus 4y ago
    By investments do you mean App Store commissions? They do make quite a lot from that. Not more than they make on hardware sales, but it's a pretty substantial fraction of their revenue.
    - jjtheblunt 4y ago
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Braeburn_Capital https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Braeburn_Capital
- CharlesW 4y ago
  > 10x the number of price points is nuts. When you RTFA, you'll learn that Apple is also making it far simpler to manage their app pricing in 45 currencies/175 storefronts. For example: "Starting today, developers of subscription apps will also be able to manage currency and taxes across storefronts more effortlessly by choosing a local storefront they know best as the basis for automatically generating prices across the other 174 storefronts and 44 currencies. Developers will still be able to define prices per storefront if they wish. The pricing capability by storefront will expand to all other apps in spring 2023." Additional capabilities are noted in the announcement.
ralmidani 4y ago
Genuine question: is there a market for a $10,000 app?
- cauthon 4y ago
  Are you too young to remember “I Am Rich“? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Am_Rich https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Am_Rich
  - redtriumph 4y ago
    "The application was removed from the App Store without explanation by Apple the day after its release, August 6, 2008" Would be interesting to know the thought process for doing this.
    - fckgw 4y ago
      It generated support complaints and provided no value to the user.
      - BudaDude 4y ago
        The value is there. People buy useless shit all of time to show off their wealth. Is there any difference between having a $10,000 app or having a $100+ cosmetic skin in a game?
    - martythemaniak 4y ago
      It embarrassed Apple.
    - deleted 4y ago
      [deleted]
  - staringback 4y ago
    Seeing prices list from 2008 having "today's dollars" is really scaring me.
- le_vision 4y ago
jarrenae 4y ago
This seems like a smart move from Apple to continue expanding into international markets and increasing revenue potential from their subscription models. Offering a wider range of price points will allow developers to better tailor their pricing to different markets, and it will also give consumers more flexibility when choosing which apps to pay for. It'll be interesting to see how this change affects the App Store ecosystem in the coming months, and whether it leads to more satisfied users or possibly more predatory subscriptions. The increased flexibility in pricing could be a great benefit for developers and consumers, but I'm going to keep an eye on how it impacts the meta of the pricing models. EDIT: Not sure why this was flagged/replied to as GPT - I wrote this. In retrospect I could have not summarized parts of the post, since ideally we've all read from the source information. Live and learn.
- nine_k 4y ago
  Thank you, ChatGPT! </ha-ha:only-serious>
  - robocat 4y ago
    Good bot. It was 99.98% detected as fake by https://huggingface.co/openai-detector https://huggingface.co/openai-detector
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
arriu 4y ago
So no changes to the 30% yet?
- bonestamp2 4y ago
  Not since the change in 2020 (where developers earnings less than $1 million pay 15%).
- CharlesW 4y ago
  Not beyond their most recent change of commission being 15% for new developers, and developers who made less than $1M in the previous calendar year.
  - grezql 4y ago
- jayrhynas 4y ago
  They introduced 15% for apps < $1M/year two years ago.
MBCook 4y ago
I wonder if more apps will go for, say 50¢, instead of free + $1.00 IAP. I miss the pre-IAP days.
- asadlionpk 4y ago
  Isn't this IAP model better for both users and makers?
  - 4ad 4y ago
    Which IAP model?
  - stephc_int13 4y ago
    I think the free-to-play model has been destructive for many apps and games. The rush to the bottom with $1 price tier, introduced by Apple, was also destructive in itself. The App Store is a huge market, fortunes have been built, but I know many indie developers who have been reluctant to adopt the F2P model. As a user, I don't like it either.
  - sgk284 4y ago
    Definitely not better for users. You used to buy an app and get everything it has to offer. You wouldn't have to worry about getting a useless app and having to pay another $1,000 to get it functional. And you'd know that any reviews of the app are inclusive of functionality you'll have access to. With IAP, it's really difficult to know what you're getting and how much it will cost you in the end. And reviews may be discussing a completely different app experience. Plus the constant feeling that you're being nickel and dimed.
  - Someone1234 4y ago
    IAPs don't share over Apple Family, purchased-apps do. So I'm going to say no.
    - dangoor 4y ago
      IAPs _can_ share for the family: https://www.theverge.com/2020/12/4/22154178/apple-family-sharing-allows-subscriptions-in-app-purchases https://www.theverge.com/2020/12/4/22154178/apple-family-sha... It's the developer's choice, just like family sharing for the original purchase. This was a good move, since so many apps went from paid to free demo +IAP to unlock. I think a lot of devs who previously allowed family sharing for paid apps have turned family sharing on for IAP.
danjc 4y ago
“The team has been hard at work this week and we’re now happy to announce that the number line has even more numbers available in it.”
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- archildress 4y ago
  Can't wait for the courageous design decision to then remove numbers from the follow-up release for more simplicity.
  - qzw 4y ago
    “Our metrics show that less than 0.02% of all apps are using the $26.65 and $57.30 price points. They are therefore no longer available to new apps. Existing apps using these price points will be required to change to one of the other supported price points by March 1, 2024.”
    - hackernewds 4y ago
      The hallmarks of a true monopoly here
- smoldesu 4y ago
  You have to hand it to the bean-counters for finding a new way to butcher their cash cow.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- 015a 4y ago
  I don't agree with most of what Musk does; but if this is the kind of innovation that requires a team of highly compensated tech employees and warrants a press release; something is actually, seriously wrong with efficiency in companies like Apple, and maybe he's actually right that Twitter, or many companies, could run better on far fewer employees.
binarymax 4y ago
I’m not an App Store seller so I have no idea what this means. You can’t just pick any number that you want to sell your app for? You have predetermined prices set by Apple?
- mknapper1 4y ago
  Correct, only pre-approved price points are allowed.
- spiffytech 4y ago
  Yep. And previously you couldn't choose a non-zero price lower than $0.99, so the new price choices will probably go to use.
- threeseed 4y ago
  As I mentioned above pretty sure this was a limitation of their SAP based system and the way it was integrated with the iTunes Store (what App Store used) that required you to pre-define price points.
- RetpolineDrama 4y ago
  Correct, Apple requires you to use one of it's artisanal price points, hand-selected from a only the most psychologically supple increments.
- artdigital 4y ago
  It works in tiers. You can set the price point to be tier 1, 2, 3, 4 and so on, with tier 1 being $0.99, or whatever the lowest price point is in all the other countries that the AppStore is in
a_c 4y ago
Actually what the motivation in having price point ending in .99? Why can't I simply price my app at, for instance, 10? I understand there is a pricing psychology in play and I faintly remember it has something to do with accounting but I can't recall the specifics. Can anyone shed some insight?
- coder543 4y ago
  > Why can't I simply price my app at, for instance, 10? The article says you can. It's one of the "supported conventions".
  - a_c 4y ago
    My bad, completely missed the second table. Thanks for pointing it out!
- nine_k 4y ago
  The psychology is (allegedly) simple. When you see a price like $4.99, unless you're pre-conditioned, you are expected to read it as FOUR-99, essentially $4, even though it's $5 for all practical purposes. Often it is styled as $4.⁹⁹ to double down on this effect. This looks silly, and many people, including me, have taught themselves to recognize this pattern and round the price correctly without a mental effort. Some people, of course, fall for it; I suppose younger kids are heavily affected.
  - ryandrake 4y ago
    How can it be that anyone in the world falls for this anymore? My daughter recognized this obvious pattern when she was 7 years old: "It's $5, dad, why don't they just say $5?" I wonder if pricing something at $4.99 have anything more than a vague subliminal effect these days?
    - stephencanon 4y ago
      Everyone is absolutely consciously aware of it, and this has always been true. It still works just fine via your subconscious.
sebrind 4y ago
My internal reading voice sounds like Tim Cook whenever I read Apple’s announcements
timbre1234 4y ago
Give me an option to search for "no ads" in an app, or give me nothing. I've simply stopped buying iOS apps because I'm done with the ad loads.
- devmor 4y ago
  Same here. It's ridiculous that I should pay for an app and have to deal with banners and popups regardless.
- SomeHacker44 4y ago
  Likewise, I want to search for "no IAP" apps.
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
  - TrueGeek 4y ago
    I don't mind IAP necessarily, but it's frustrating when you download an app and then it immediately says you have to pay $10 a month to even open it. Those shouldn't be listed as "free" in the App Store and should be separate from an app that might be "free" but have a minor feature disabled by an IAP.
- nailer 4y ago
  Yep. “Ad Supported” is not “free”
- nickthegreek 4y ago
  I want to search for no subs. I dont want to see a result for a $5/week wallpaper app.
  - aeternum 4y ago
    No subs and no ads would be great.
    - 4y ago
Overtonwindow 4y ago
How many apps have you purchased from the App Store? I have only purchased five apps since 2008. Are people just spending lots of money on apps or am I out of the norm?
- howinteresting 4y ago
  According to the Epic v. Apple decision: * The vast majority of app store revenue is from games. * A small number of "whales" spend almost all of the money -- presumably rich kids and adults, and people with an unfortunate gambling addiction.
  - intrasight 4y ago
    This is why I find it so baffling that there are so many devs/companies chasing the golden ring of app revenue with sincerity when clearly is a very warped marketplace. What types of useful, non-scam apps do people look for and buy that lead devs to believe there's some opportunity? Why create it as an app and deal with all that BS when you could just make a nice web site/PWA?
    - earthnail 4y ago
      Some products are designed to make use of the iPhone as a form factor. Then you can’t make a PWA. But yes, the market is warped and Apple has a lot of work to do to make it a better marketplace. This is a step in the right direction though. Maybe more steps will follow.
- super256 4y ago
  I spent ~150€ since 2018, mostly for productive apps. Canarymail (A mail client which supports SMTP streaming + PGP) - I think was about 30€ lifetime. StrongBox Pro (A Keepass 2 client) - 80€ Lifetime ProCreate - 10€ Lifetime Affinity Designer 1 - 12€ lifetime FEZ - 5€ Lifetime (Game) TweetBot - 5€ Lifetime but now abandoned for Subscription Software. Doesn't work anymore, I'm using the normal Twitter App now (became usable over the last few years). The only app where I was disappointed in doing a lifetime purchase. It was abandoned really quickly after my purchgase. Blitzer Pro - 10€ Lifetime Threema - 4€ Lifetime DWD WarnWetter - 2€ Lifetime. Most accurate weather app for Germany Facetune 1 - 4€ (Didn't fix my face! Surpise!) Reeder - 5€ RSS Feed App, I use this together with Miniflux Server My last purchase was in 2021, Reeder. I made most purchases when I got the devices, and all lifetime over SaaS purchases have paid for themselves by now. :) But honestly, this was more than I expected.
rootpk 4y ago
black_puppydog 4y ago
So, never having bothered with Apple hard-/software I am a bit confused... A developer can't just set a price for something? But then out of the first 10000 natural numbers, Apple semi-arbitrarily select a set of 900 "known-good" numbers that work well for prices? Like, as if the other numbers are somehow bad prices? If you charge someone $7,43 for something, the ghost of Steve Jobs will start haunting you? That's, like... I don't even know. Feels infantilizing to me. Or what am I missing?
- tshaddox 4y ago
  I find a smaller number of price values better as a consumer, so a plausible (but much less uncharitable) interpretation could be that Apple does this because consumers prefer it.
  - yreg 4y ago
    Apple did this from the very start when they didn’t make much of the App Store. I think they just like the simplicity and cleanness in the store. I like it as well.
- pedrovhb 4y ago
  Why waste 4 bytes on a float when a 10 bit enum does the trick? With the cushy 1024 possibilities, they even have some room for expansion from the current 900 values.
- fungiblecog 4y ago
  Yep, in the old days you would provide the ability to set a price. now we need teams of marketers to introduce pointless complexity...
- __ryan__ 4y ago
  Not even close. They semi-arbitrarily came up with prices they allow in the App Store, probably “justifying” it using some metrics, or your app will be rejected.
  - 4y ago
deleted 4y ago
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countvonbalzac 4y ago
They say they support up to $10,000 in one part but then in the chart the $100 increment only goes up to $9,999.99, so which is it? $9,999.99 or $10,000?
modeless 4y ago
So you can sell an app for $0.29 now? That's cool actually if true. The rest seems silly.
fmajid 4y ago
Still no easy way for app developers to handle upgrades. Apple really wants to push apps towards profitable but exploitative subscription pricing models.
- TheJoeMan 4y ago
  And selling to business customers who don't have the huge IT dept. to setup a full Apple Business Account is a nightmare! Most employees use their own iPhones, and Apple specifically closed the Volume Purchase Program. The VPP was a way for a small company to basically purchase download codes and distribute as needed.
  - Karunamon 4y ago
    One man IT department here: eh? While the 1st time set up was a bit silly, involving digging up a duns number and having our CTO call for some reason, after that it was pretty smooth sailing. SimpleMDM handles the device onboarding, assigning software licenses basically boils down to purchasing them in the Apple business portal and then handing them out through MDM.
smcleod 4y ago
Apple needs to make it easier for people pricing their apps fairly for international markets. So many applications and subscriptions are incredibly expensive when they're priced for the USA which has been over valued for so many years now.
- hackernewds 4y ago
  That would open up a whole can of worms of users locations being necessary/easy to fake for discounts.
  - smcleod 4y ago
    As that may be - it should be the incredibly wealthy companies problem to solve, not the users.
deleted 4y ago
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partiallypro 4y ago
They are still taking 30%. When are regulators going to step in on this?
johnwheeler 4y ago
Drop the 30% tax some, there’s a story
- sokoloff 4y ago
  It’s 15% for businesses doing under $1M/year on the App Store. https://developer.apple.com/app-store/small-business-program/ https://developer.apple.com/app-store/small-business-program...
aliqot 4y ago
God damn I'm so tired of the global market.
dang 4y ago
We changed the URL from https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2022/12/apple-announces-biggest-upgrade-to-app-store-pricing-adding-700-new-price-points/ https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2022/12/apple-announces-bigge... to a third party article I just googled. If there's a better third-party article, we can change it again. Yes, HN has the rule "*Please submit the original source. If a post reports on something found on another site, submit the latter" (https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html), but corporate press releases are so awful to read that I increasingly think we need to make them an exception. https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&query=press%20release%20by%3Adang&sort=byDate&type=comment https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&qu... All the more so because they have a strong incentive to bury the lede (I mean in general—not saying that about this announcement), and while third-party sites have other crap incentives, like sensationalism and clickbait, they at least don't do that.
- jil 4y ago
  https://9to5mac.com/2022/12/06/app-store-pricing-changes-developers/ https://9to5mac.com/2022/12/06/app-store-pricing-changes-dev... might be a better URL, perhaps?
  - dang 4y ago
    Ok, changed to that from https://appleworld.today/archives/101157 https://appleworld.today/archives/101157. Thanks!
- screamingninja 4y ago
  > https://appleworld.today/archives/101157 https://appleworld.today/archives/101157 > The server is temporarily unable to service your request due to maintenance downtime or capacity problems. Please try again later.
- lilyball 4y ago
  Looking at the original press release, I much prefer it to this third-party site. All the third-party site really did was remove a tiny bit of fluff, but it's having intermittent loading issues and is absolutely covered in ads if you aren't using an ad blocker. It also removes some of the actual content!
dcdc123 4y ago
I had no idea price points were so restrictive on the app store.
fnordpiglet 4y ago
I can’t wait until I can cantor diagonalize App Store price points.
throwaway4837 4y ago
This shouldn't have to exist if it was designed properly from the start. This seems like backwards technology, something that is built on top of a legacy system and constrained by the design choices of that system. Perhaps that is why "upgrade" is in quotes.
crystaln 4y ago
So much Apple cynicism here. Apple loves design and beauty. Crisp numbers and stability are more user friendly and aesthetic. Also some numbers have implications in certain markets. Seeing numbers like or $69.42 or $444 or $7.23 is just bad all around. International price conversion while maintaining those is also challenging. Before attacking Apple policies, it's worth considering why their extremely deep design process might have led to that choice.
- postalrat 4y ago
  But take your choice: x.99, x.90, x.95. Beautiful design.
  - crystaln 4y ago
    There's a reason most retail stores use price points and not random numbers. Pricing like this: $7.23 $5.48 $9.21 is just ugly and feels cheap. It's the same reason they have UX standards generally. Why does anyone care about 1 cent on a $5 purchase? Does anyone here care? The new price points seem to provide enough flexibility with less disadvantage. From a business perspective, if I had to guess the increased cognitive load would decrease shopping time and increase decision fatigue. I'd also guess that the retail industry has studied this endlessly, and that Apple is basing their pattern partially on this. This also decreases opportunities for useless psychological price competition and focuses people on quality. Do I want the $1.82 product or the $1.93 product? You probably want the BETTER product. I think you're probably better off having your prices at $0.99, $2.99, and $5.99 rather than $0.84, $2.72, $5.63, even tho the latter is cheaper, particularly if you are in a large store that has thousands of prices.
    - hsbauauvhabzb 4y ago
      Would it be reasonable to assume that the price points help them and not the buyer or seller? Decision fatigue matters more to me than which product you actually pick if I’m taking a clip of the sale regardless
      - 4y ago
musicale 4y ago
> The 100 highest price points, however, are only available upon request as part of Apple’s efforts to reduce the potential for scams. Fortunately it doesn't seem to apply to IAP so apps will still be able to sell $99 barrels of smurfberries.
olliej 4y ago
Does it add upgrades, free trials, or not charging 30% that SJ originally said included advertising and marketing? No? how strange..
wackget 4y ago
Do you still have to pay $100 every year for the privilege of simply releasing an app? I took one look at that and thought "fuck this". If you're a hobbyist with zero interest in making money off your apps, then you get a giant middle finger from Apple.
- majani 4y ago
  That's the $100 working as intended
rognjen 4y ago
Maybe the link should be the original press release? https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2022/12/apple-announces-biggest-upgrade-to-app-store-pricing-adding-700-new-price-points/ https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2022/12/apple-announces-bigge...

191 points by zeraphy 4y ago

Will this solve the issue that the $49.99 tier equals to a 59.99 EUR price? I get a ton of messages every week by would-be Euro customers complaining why the fuck I am fleecing them with a 59.99 EUR price when the US price is $49.99 and the exchange rate is currently roughly 1:1.

pasc1878 4y ago
The EUR price includes VAT, Americans have this odd thing of quoting prices without tax which tends to be illegal elesewhere. OK the US does not have a sales type tax on digital goods,
- awinder 4y ago
  Digital goods are taxed and my apple app receipts all have a tax line on them (US-based).
- dhosek 4y ago
  Depends on the location. Sales taxes are determined at the state, county and municipal level and apply to different things in different places (so, for example, Illinois does not charge sales tax on magazines, but California does, and the tax rate on a single donut may be higher than the tax rate on a dozen donuts (prepared food vs groceries).
  - jsjohnst 4y ago
    > the tax rate on a single donut may be higher than the tax rate on a dozen donuts It’s even worse than that, which I learned unfortunately at a former employer. Two identically priced dresses could have different tax rates based on the formality of one vs the other, ie one being a simple LBD and the other being a sequined evening gown.
    - dhosek 4y ago
      Does that apply to sales tax or import duties though? I’m not aware of any jurisdiction which has different sales tax rates for different types of clothing. Import duties are a whole other can of worms (in some cases, products are partially disassembled before crossing the border to lower the import duties and then reassembled after import).
      - jsjohnst 4y ago
        > I’m not aware of any jurisdiction which has different sales tax rates for different types of clothing I’ll have to ask someone as I’ve forgotten the specific jurisdiction, but yes, it was sales tax specifically. If memory serves, it was either a county or municipality sales tax I thought in one of the states of the United States, but I’ll see if I can confirm. Edit: Here’s one source: https://www.avalara.com/blog/en/north-america/2020/02/how-to-handle-sales-tax-on-clothing-a--state-by-state-guide.html https://www.avalara.com/blog/en/north-america/2020/02/how-to... In that case, it’s statewide it seems for Pennsylvania. Clothing in general isn’t taxed, but formalwear is. I know there are a lot more odd variations than just that.
- chongli 4y ago
  We have the same thing in Canada. Taxes are not included in the price so that people can be aware of how much tax they're paying and adjust their behaviour accordingly. Since sales taxes are charged on some products but not others, the price-conscious consumer can elect to choose the tax-free products over the tax-burdened ones.
  - CameronNemo 4y ago
    ??? If taxes are included in price, the consumer can just look at the price and compare rather than jumping through the additional mental hoop to determine if one item is subject to sales tax, and what its price is in tgat case.
    - chongli 4y ago
      If you have two items and sales taxes are included in the price of one but not the other, the only way you can know which one has the taxes on it is to go look at some government website that lists all of the categories the tax applies to and those it does not. On the other hand, if the taxes are not included in prices then you will see which one has taxes at checkout and elect not to purchase the item with taxes, preferring the item without taxes. Furthermore, with taxes included in prices you are more susceptible to unscrupulous vendors charging taxes that should not be applied and pocketing the extra margins. One example of that is with the manufacturer of Niche coffee grinders charging VAT to international customers and pocketing the extra margin.
      - Strom 4y ago
        > the only way you can know which one has the taxes on it is to go look at some government website In Europe the tax is listed separately on the bill by law, no need to visit any website. The amount of tax charged isn't hidden in Europe, it's just that the most prominent number is the total sum. The pre-tax part and all the taxes are also available separately for your information.
      - avianlyric 4y ago
        > On the other hand, if the taxes are not included in prices then you will see which one has taxes at checkout and elect not to purchase the item with taxes, preferring the item without taxes. Why would you care? Having taxes included in sticker prices doesn’t change how much it costs you, only what percentage goes to your government. The only situation where not including taxes is potentially useful is when you explicitly don’t want to pay taxes, but you’re still happy to pay a higher price, if it means less money to the government. Also in Europe we have a very simple solution to this problem. Every price tag has two numbers. The number in big font includes taxes, the little number underneath is without taxes. If you’re desperate to avoid giving cash to the government, then you just need to find items with the smallest delta between the two numbers. Retailers are also obliged to display both numbers, and provide a tax breakdown on your receipt, so you penny pinch your taxes to your hearts content.
- SllX 4y ago
  There’s a reason for that: we don’t have VAT like you do. Here’s an example: a base model iPhone 14 is $799. If I go to the Downtown San Francisco Apple Store, it is $868.12; if I go across a bridge to the Berkeley Apple Store it is $880.90; if I go from there across a different bridge to Corte Madera it is $870.91; if I go back through San Francisco down to the neighboring county to the Hillsdale Apple Store it is $875.90; and if I buy it in Cupertino, then it is $871.91. If I cross the State border with Oregon and go to an Apple Store in Tigard or Portland, then it is $799. Which is the price Apple should be showing on the Apple Store? They tell you at checkout because what you pay at the end is calculated according to your shipping address, and it’s a line item: sales tax, but pricing is also marketing. Which price should Apple be quoting their American customers in national ad campaigns?
  - Strom 4y ago
    European states have different VAT rates too. A company advertises 999€ and then depending on the state it can be either 832,5€ + 166,5€ VAT or 839,5€ + 159,5€ VAT or 799,2€ + 199,8€ VAT etc. In the case of Apple they sometimes do this and other times not. So for example the iPhone 14 is 999€ in both Germany and Austria, even though they have 19% vs 20% VAT rates. However in Finland which has a 24% rate the iPhone 14 is 1039€.
    - SllX 4y ago
      And does Apple have one Apple Online Store and App Store for the Eurozone or do they have separate Online and App Stores for each EU member they operate in in the local languages and currencies (for the EU and Eurozone are not even perfectly aligned)? Almost every example I gave was within one State: California, except for the two I tacked on at the end from California’s nearest northern neighbor in Oregon. All of the California examples were within the same metro area (the San Francisco Bay Area) but different counties. There is one US website, and one US App Store. It is not the same situation, only seemingly superficially similar until further inspection.
      - Strom 4y ago
        Local municipality taxes exist in Europe too. Some cities have an extra 1% tax for example and Apple isn't exempt from that. The price still remains what they advertise for the larger region.
- eYrKEC2 4y ago
  "quoting prices without tax which tends to be illegal elsewhere" Cui bono? Personally, I like that US citizens are constantly reminded how much flesh the State is extracting.
  - oblio 4y ago
    - rootusrootus 4y ago
      > First past the post ... which is used in plenty of places in Europe, yes? And not every place in the US uses FPTP. In fact, every election seems to add another locality to the list that use an alternative.
    - eyelidlessness 4y ago
      To be fair, Americans (and anyone else) are right to resent sales taxes. And I’m saying that as an American who’s far to the left of what some call “socialism” in Europe. Sales taxes are highly regressive, disproportionately impacting those least able to afford them.
      - ChadNauseam 4y ago
        It's not really sensible to look at the regressivity of a tax in isolation. On the tax side, there are other factors you might want to optimize, like how distortionary the tax is and how effective it is at raising revenue. On the spending side, a regressive tax + a progressive government redistribution policy can end up being progressive overall. For example, any tax can be made to be as progressive as you want by redistributing some of the revenue as a UBI. Sales taxes/VATs are very effective at raising revenue and are less distortionary than most of the alternatives. This makes them good for funding redistributive policies. They won't tax billionaires out of existence, but they're a good tool for states to have in their toolbox.
  - error503 4y ago
    Consumers, who don't have to know the ins and outs of local tax policies and exemptions to understand what the product they want to buy will cost them.
- twblalock 4y ago
  The US does not have a national sales tax or VAT. Every state has their own tax, and some don't even have one. Even within a state, sales taxes can vary at the county and municipality level. To tell an American the full price plus tax they will pay for something, you need to know where they live. For expensive items like computers and phones, the price could vary by tens or hundreds of dollars.
- rootusrootus 4y ago
  > Americans have this odd thing of quoting prices without tax I am American, and I don't pay sales tax.
zimzam 4y ago
When it comes to differences in hardware prices between the US & EU, VAT taxes are often most of the difference: are there VAT taxes on app sales too?
- FateOfNations 4y ago
  Yes. VAT typically applies to any transaction where a business sells something.
richrichardsson 4y ago
VAT, everyone forgets about it. I had a similar conversation with someone on Twitter complaining that the latest iPhone was much more expensive in EU, but once you factored in VAT and some import costs and the fact that apple.com shows the $ price without any sales tax there wasn't actually such a great disparity.
- shortstuffsushi 4y ago
  As an American who deals in no VAT ever, is something like a 20% vat (10 on 50) normal?
  - CameronNemo 4y ago
    Yes. https://taxfoundation.org/vat-rates-europe-2019/ https://taxfoundation.org/vat-rates-europe-2019/
yreg 4y ago
How do you not know the difference is in VAT if you say you answer a ton of support requests regarding this?

raydiatian 4y ago

Now this has me wondering: who has the most expensive product on the App Store, what is it and how much does it cost? — edit — Looks like the award goes to an app for Piano Tuners. Find a niche and corner it. $1,000.

timeimp 4y ago

10x the number of price points is nuts. Then again, at this point, Apple is a treasury operation that also sells phones and computers.

r00fus 4y ago
Braeburn Capital indeed.
chollida1 4y ago
> Then again, at this point, Apple is a treasury operation that also sells phones and computers. I'm guessing you are joking but incase you were not, Apple still makes far far more from selling new products than they do from investments. So that statement is false or misleading.
- rootusrootus 4y ago
  By investments do you mean App Store commissions? They do make quite a lot from that. Not more than they make on hardware sales, but it's a pretty substantial fraction of their revenue.
  - jjtheblunt 4y ago
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Braeburn_Capital https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Braeburn_Capital
CharlesW 4y ago
> 10x the number of price points is nuts. When you RTFA, you'll learn that Apple is also making it far simpler to manage their app pricing in 45 currencies/175 storefronts. For example: "Starting today, developers of subscription apps will also be able to manage currency and taxes across storefronts more effortlessly by choosing a local storefront they know best as the basis for automatically generating prices across the other 174 storefronts and 44 currencies. Developers will still be able to define prices per storefront if they wish. The pricing capability by storefront will expand to all other apps in spring 2023." Additional capabilities are noted in the announcement.

ralmidani 4y ago

Genuine question: is there a market for a $10,000 app?

cauthon 4y ago
Are you too young to remember “I Am Rich“? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Am_Rich https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Am_Rich
- redtriumph 4y ago
  "The application was removed from the App Store without explanation by Apple the day after its release, August 6, 2008" Would be interesting to know the thought process for doing this.
  - fckgw 4y ago
    It generated support complaints and provided no value to the user.
    - BudaDude 4y ago
      The value is there. People buy useless shit all of time to show off their wealth. Is there any difference between having a $10,000 app or having a $100+ cosmetic skin in a game?
  - martythemaniak 4y ago
    It embarrassed Apple.
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
- staringback 4y ago
  Seeing prices list from 2008 having "today's dollars" is really scaring me.
le_vision 4y ago

jarrenae 4y ago

This seems like a smart move from Apple to continue expanding into international markets and increasing revenue potential from their subscription models. Offering a wider range of price points will allow developers to better tailor their pricing to different markets, and it will also give consumers more flexibility when choosing which apps to pay for. It'll be interesting to see how this change affects the App Store ecosystem in the coming months, and whether it leads to more satisfied users or possibly more predatory subscriptions. The increased flexibility in pricing could be a great benefit for developers and consumers, but I'm going to keep an eye on how it impacts the meta of the pricing models. EDIT: Not sure why this was flagged/replied to as GPT - I wrote this. In retrospect I could have not summarized parts of the post, since ideally we've all read from the source information. Live and learn.

nine_k 4y ago
Thank you, ChatGPT! </ha-ha:only-serious>
- robocat 4y ago
  Good bot. It was 99.98% detected as fake by https://huggingface.co/openai-detector https://huggingface.co/openai-detector

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

arriu 4y ago

So no changes to the 30% yet?

bonestamp2 4y ago
Not since the change in 2020 (where developers earnings less than $1 million pay 15%).
CharlesW 4y ago
Not beyond their most recent change of commission being 15% for new developers, and developers who made less than $1M in the previous calendar year.
- grezql 4y ago
jayrhynas 4y ago
They introduced 15% for apps < $1M/year two years ago.

MBCook 4y ago

I wonder if more apps will go for, say 50¢, instead of free + $1.00 IAP. I miss the pre-IAP days.

asadlionpk 4y ago
Isn't this IAP model better for both users and makers?
- 4ad 4y ago
  Which IAP model?
- stephc_int13 4y ago
  I think the free-to-play model has been destructive for many apps and games. The rush to the bottom with $1 price tier, introduced by Apple, was also destructive in itself. The App Store is a huge market, fortunes have been built, but I know many indie developers who have been reluctant to adopt the F2P model. As a user, I don't like it either.
- sgk284 4y ago
  Definitely not better for users. You used to buy an app and get everything it has to offer. You wouldn't have to worry about getting a useless app and having to pay another $1,000 to get it functional. And you'd know that any reviews of the app are inclusive of functionality you'll have access to. With IAP, it's really difficult to know what you're getting and how much it will cost you in the end. And reviews may be discussing a completely different app experience. Plus the constant feeling that you're being nickel and dimed.
- Someone1234 4y ago
  IAPs don't share over Apple Family, purchased-apps do. So I'm going to say no.
  - dangoor 4y ago
    IAPs _can_ share for the family: https://www.theverge.com/2020/12/4/22154178/apple-family-sharing-allows-subscriptions-in-app-purchases https://www.theverge.com/2020/12/4/22154178/apple-family-sha... It's the developer's choice, just like family sharing for the original purchase. This was a good move, since so many apps went from paid to free demo +IAP to unlock. I think a lot of devs who previously allowed family sharing for paid apps have turned family sharing on for IAP.

danjc 4y ago

“The team has been hard at work this week and we’re now happy to announce that the number line has even more numbers available in it.”

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
archildress 4y ago
Can't wait for the courageous design decision to then remove numbers from the follow-up release for more simplicity.
- qzw 4y ago
  “Our metrics show that less than 0.02% of all apps are using the $26.65 and $57.30 price points. They are therefore no longer available to new apps. Existing apps using these price points will be required to change to one of the other supported price points by March 1, 2024.”
  - hackernewds 4y ago
    The hallmarks of a true monopoly here
smoldesu 4y ago
You have to hand it to the bean-counters for finding a new way to butcher their cash cow.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
015a 4y ago
I don't agree with most of what Musk does; but if this is the kind of innovation that requires a team of highly compensated tech employees and warrants a press release; something is actually, seriously wrong with efficiency in companies like Apple, and maybe he's actually right that Twitter, or many companies, could run better on far fewer employees.

binarymax 4y ago

I’m not an App Store seller so I have no idea what this means. You can’t just pick any number that you want to sell your app for? You have predetermined prices set by Apple?

mknapper1 4y ago
Correct, only pre-approved price points are allowed.
spiffytech 4y ago
Yep. And previously you couldn't choose a non-zero price lower than $0.99, so the new price choices will probably go to use.
threeseed 4y ago
As I mentioned above pretty sure this was a limitation of their SAP based system and the way it was integrated with the iTunes Store (what App Store used) that required you to pre-define price points.
RetpolineDrama 4y ago
Correct, Apple requires you to use one of it's artisanal price points, hand-selected from a only the most psychologically supple increments.
artdigital 4y ago
It works in tiers. You can set the price point to be tier 1, 2, 3, 4 and so on, with tier 1 being $0.99, or whatever the lowest price point is in all the other countries that the AppStore is in

a_c 4y ago

Actually what the motivation in having price point ending in .99? Why can't I simply price my app at, for instance, 10? I understand there is a pricing psychology in play and I faintly remember it has something to do with accounting but I can't recall the specifics. Can anyone shed some insight?

coder543 4y ago
> Why can't I simply price my app at, for instance, 10? The article says you can. It's one of the "supported conventions".
- a_c 4y ago
  My bad, completely missed the second table. Thanks for pointing it out!
nine_k 4y ago
The psychology is (allegedly) simple. When you see a price like $4.99, unless you're pre-conditioned, you are expected to read it as FOUR-99, essentially $4, even though it's $5 for all practical purposes. Often it is styled as $4.⁹⁹ to double down on this effect. This looks silly, and many people, including me, have taught themselves to recognize this pattern and round the price correctly without a mental effort. Some people, of course, fall for it; I suppose younger kids are heavily affected.
- ryandrake 4y ago
  How can it be that anyone in the world falls for this anymore? My daughter recognized this obvious pattern when she was 7 years old: "It's $5, dad, why don't they just say $5?" I wonder if pricing something at $4.99 have anything more than a vague subliminal effect these days?
  - stephencanon 4y ago
    Everyone is absolutely consciously aware of it, and this has always been true. It still works just fine via your subconscious.

sebrind 4y ago

My internal reading voice sounds like Tim Cook whenever I read Apple’s announcements

timbre1234 4y ago

Give me an option to search for "no ads" in an app, or give me nothing. I've simply stopped buying iOS apps because I'm done with the ad loads.

devmor 4y ago
Same here. It's ridiculous that I should pay for an app and have to deal with banners and popups regardless.
SomeHacker44 4y ago
Likewise, I want to search for "no IAP" apps.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- TrueGeek 4y ago
  I don't mind IAP necessarily, but it's frustrating when you download an app and then it immediately says you have to pay $10 a month to even open it. Those shouldn't be listed as "free" in the App Store and should be separate from an app that might be "free" but have a minor feature disabled by an IAP.
nailer 4y ago
Yep. “Ad Supported” is not “free”
nickthegreek 4y ago
I want to search for no subs. I dont want to see a result for a $5/week wallpaper app.
- aeternum 4y ago
  No subs and no ads would be great.
  - 4y ago

Overtonwindow 4y ago

How many apps have you purchased from the App Store? I have only purchased five apps since 2008. Are people just spending lots of money on apps or am I out of the norm?

howinteresting 4y ago
According to the Epic v. Apple decision: * The vast majority of app store revenue is from games. * A small number of "whales" spend almost all of the money -- presumably rich kids and adults, and people with an unfortunate gambling addiction.
- intrasight 4y ago
  This is why I find it so baffling that there are so many devs/companies chasing the golden ring of app revenue with sincerity when clearly is a very warped marketplace. What types of useful, non-scam apps do people look for and buy that lead devs to believe there's some opportunity? Why create it as an app and deal with all that BS when you could just make a nice web site/PWA?
  - earthnail 4y ago
    Some products are designed to make use of the iPhone as a form factor. Then you can’t make a PWA. But yes, the market is warped and Apple has a lot of work to do to make it a better marketplace. This is a step in the right direction though. Maybe more steps will follow.
super256 4y ago
I spent ~150€ since 2018, mostly for productive apps. Canarymail (A mail client which supports SMTP streaming + PGP) - I think was about 30€ lifetime. StrongBox Pro (A Keepass 2 client) - 80€ Lifetime ProCreate - 10€ Lifetime Affinity Designer 1 - 12€ lifetime FEZ - 5€ Lifetime (Game) TweetBot - 5€ Lifetime but now abandoned for Subscription Software. Doesn't work anymore, I'm using the normal Twitter App now (became usable over the last few years). The only app where I was disappointed in doing a lifetime purchase. It was abandoned really quickly after my purchgase. Blitzer Pro - 10€ Lifetime Threema - 4€ Lifetime DWD WarnWetter - 2€ Lifetime. Most accurate weather app for Germany Facetune 1 - 4€ (Didn't fix my face! Surpise!) Reeder - 5€ RSS Feed App, I use this together with Miniflux Server My last purchase was in 2021, Reeder. I made most purchases when I got the devices, and all lifetime over SaaS purchases have paid for themselves by now. :) But honestly, this was more than I expected.

rootpk 4y ago

black_puppydog 4y ago

So, never having bothered with Apple hard-/software I am a bit confused... A developer can't just set a price for something? But then out of the first 10000 natural numbers, Apple semi-arbitrarily select a set of 900 "known-good" numbers that work well for prices? Like, as if the other numbers are somehow bad prices? If you charge someone $7,43 for something, the ghost of Steve Jobs will start haunting you? That's, like... I don't even know. Feels infantilizing to me. Or what am I missing?

tshaddox 4y ago
I find a smaller number of price values better as a consumer, so a plausible (but much less uncharitable) interpretation could be that Apple does this because consumers prefer it.
- yreg 4y ago
  Apple did this from the very start when they didn’t make much of the App Store. I think they just like the simplicity and cleanness in the store. I like it as well.
pedrovhb 4y ago
Why waste 4 bytes on a float when a 10 bit enum does the trick? With the cushy 1024 possibilities, they even have some room for expansion from the current 900 values.
fungiblecog 4y ago
Yep, in the old days you would provide the ability to set a price. now we need teams of marketers to introduce pointless complexity...
__ryan__ 4y ago
Not even close. They semi-arbitrarily came up with prices they allow in the App Store, probably “justifying” it using some metrics, or your app will be rejected.
- 4y ago

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

countvonbalzac 4y ago

They say they support up to $10,000 in one part but then in the chart the $100 increment only goes up to $9,999.99, so which is it? $9,999.99 or $10,000?

modeless 4y ago

So you can sell an app for $0.29 now? That's cool actually if true. The rest seems silly.

fmajid 4y ago

Still no easy way for app developers to handle upgrades. Apple really wants to push apps towards profitable but exploitative subscription pricing models.

TheJoeMan 4y ago
And selling to business customers who don't have the huge IT dept. to setup a full Apple Business Account is a nightmare! Most employees use their own iPhones, and Apple specifically closed the Volume Purchase Program. The VPP was a way for a small company to basically purchase download codes and distribute as needed.
- Karunamon 4y ago
  One man IT department here: eh? While the 1st time set up was a bit silly, involving digging up a duns number and having our CTO call for some reason, after that it was pretty smooth sailing. SimpleMDM handles the device onboarding, assigning software licenses basically boils down to purchasing them in the Apple business portal and then handing them out through MDM.

smcleod 4y ago

Apple needs to make it easier for people pricing their apps fairly for international markets. So many applications and subscriptions are incredibly expensive when they're priced for the USA which has been over valued for so many years now.

hackernewds 4y ago
That would open up a whole can of worms of users locations being necessary/easy to fake for discounts.
- smcleod 4y ago
  As that may be - it should be the incredibly wealthy companies problem to solve, not the users.

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

partiallypro 4y ago

They are still taking 30%. When are regulators going to step in on this?

johnwheeler 4y ago

Drop the 30% tax some, there’s a story

sokoloff 4y ago
It’s 15% for businesses doing under $1M/year on the App Store. https://developer.apple.com/app-store/small-business-program/ https://developer.apple.com/app-store/small-business-program...

aliqot 4y ago

God damn I'm so tired of the global market.

dang 4y ago

We changed the URL from https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2022/12/apple-announces-biggest-upgrade-to-app-store-pricing-adding-700-new-price-points/ https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2022/12/apple-announces-bigge... to a third party article I just googled. If there's a better third-party article, we can change it again. Yes, HN has the rule "*Please submit the original source. If a post reports on something found on another site, submit the latter" (https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html), but corporate press releases are so awful to read that I increasingly think we need to make them an exception. https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&query=press%20release%20by%3Adang&sort=byDate&type=comment https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&qu... All the more so because they have a strong incentive to bury the lede (I mean in general—not saying that about this announcement), and while third-party sites have other crap incentives, like sensationalism and clickbait, they at least don't do that.

jil 4y ago
https://9to5mac.com/2022/12/06/app-store-pricing-changes-developers/ https://9to5mac.com/2022/12/06/app-store-pricing-changes-dev... might be a better URL, perhaps?
- dang 4y ago
  Ok, changed to that from https://appleworld.today/archives/101157 https://appleworld.today/archives/101157. Thanks!
screamingninja 4y ago
> https://appleworld.today/archives/101157 https://appleworld.today/archives/101157 > The server is temporarily unable to service your request due to maintenance downtime or capacity problems. Please try again later.
lilyball 4y ago
Looking at the original press release, I much prefer it to this third-party site. All the third-party site really did was remove a tiny bit of fluff, but it's having intermittent loading issues and is absolutely covered in ads if you aren't using an ad blocker. It also removes some of the actual content!

dcdc123 4y ago

I had no idea price points were so restrictive on the app store.

fnordpiglet 4y ago

I can’t wait until I can cantor diagonalize App Store price points.

throwaway4837 4y ago

This shouldn't have to exist if it was designed properly from the start. This seems like backwards technology, something that is built on top of a legacy system and constrained by the design choices of that system. Perhaps that is why "upgrade" is in quotes.

crystaln 4y ago

So much Apple cynicism here. Apple loves design and beauty. Crisp numbers and stability are more user friendly and aesthetic. Also some numbers have implications in certain markets. Seeing numbers like or $69.42 or $444 or $7.23 is just bad all around. International price conversion while maintaining those is also challenging. Before attacking Apple policies, it's worth considering why their extremely deep design process might have led to that choice.

postalrat 4y ago
But take your choice: x.99, x.90, x.95. Beautiful design.
- crystaln 4y ago
  There's a reason most retail stores use price points and not random numbers. Pricing like this: $7.23 $5.48 $9.21 is just ugly and feels cheap. It's the same reason they have UX standards generally. Why does anyone care about 1 cent on a $5 purchase? Does anyone here care? The new price points seem to provide enough flexibility with less disadvantage. From a business perspective, if I had to guess the increased cognitive load would decrease shopping time and increase decision fatigue. I'd also guess that the retail industry has studied this endlessly, and that Apple is basing their pattern partially on this. This also decreases opportunities for useless psychological price competition and focuses people on quality. Do I want the $1.82 product or the $1.93 product? You probably want the BETTER product. I think you're probably better off having your prices at $0.99, $2.99, and $5.99 rather than $0.84, $2.72, $5.63, even tho the latter is cheaper, particularly if you are in a large store that has thousands of prices.
  - hsbauauvhabzb 4y ago
    Would it be reasonable to assume that the price points help them and not the buyer or seller? Decision fatigue matters more to me than which product you actually pick if I’m taking a clip of the sale regardless
    - 4y ago

musicale 4y ago

> The 100 highest price points, however, are only available upon request as part of Apple’s efforts to reduce the potential for scams. Fortunately it doesn't seem to apply to IAP so apps will still be able to sell $99 barrels of smurfberries.

olliej 4y ago

Does it add upgrades, free trials, or not charging 30% that SJ originally said included advertising and marketing? No? how strange..

wackget 4y ago

Do you still have to pay $100 every year for the privilege of simply releasing an app? I took one look at that and thought "fuck this". If you're a hobbyist with zero interest in making money off your apps, then you get a giant middle finger from Apple.

majani 4y ago
That's the $100 working as intended

rognjen 4y ago

Maybe the link should be the original press release? https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2022/12/apple-announces-biggest-upgrade-to-app-store-pricing-adding-700-new-price-points/ https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2022/12/apple-announces-bigge...