On 02/16/2012 12:22 PM, Tim Mensch wrote:
On 2/16/2012 11:47 AM, Nathan wrote:
You'll notice the top is dominated by freemium app, but you can
install or look further to find out how much they charge for
accessories. I suspect lot of them make big money in small increments.
I have spent a lot of time researching freemium apps, and while it's
important to have low-end ($1) things to buy, it's equally (or
possibly MORE) important to have expensive things to buy.
I bet you'll find every one of those top grossing games has a $99
add-on. And in a lot of cases it's the most popular purchase, or at
least in the top three.
Despite that $0.85/user number, most users never buy anything. It's
the "whales" (users who spend a LOT) that bring up the average. There
are reports of some games inspiring users to spend THOUSANDS of
dollars. I'm not making this up. The highest number I've heard was
around $30,000 spent by one user on one game.
You could pay to have a complete game developed (albeit a small one)
for that amount. You can also imagine it doesn't take too many
"whales" to raise the average spent per user.
Tim
Since I do contract game work on other platforms and some coming on
Android I heard many complaints from existing game publishers about
figuring out what to do with a 99 cent market. That's why "casual
games" have become popular there. Most are more idea than code and if
you have some nice graphics will entice people to buy.
For non game niche apps I always found it was best to tip-toe into the
market. I have people who email me and say they are will to pay quite a
bit more for more features, i.e. $30 to $50. I want to see more
interest but that is building in the field as more people get Android
devices. And I still have people wanting me to do iPhone and Windows
Mobile. I had a Windows Mobile product but I could not guarantee that
it would continue to work with newer phones and in fact it doesn't
completely. Another solution to adding features was a smorgasbord
approach where users could chose what addons they wanted to work with
the base app. And I still have a Windows app selling at $50 that is way
overdue for a 2.0 upgrade.
As for pricing this is a very good article on pricing software though it
doesn't discuss pricing in a recession when inflation takes off (though
it sort does indirectly):
http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/CamelsandRubberDuckies.html
There are, however, a number of articles to be found on the Internet
about strategies during a recession and when inflation sets in.
--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Android
Discuss" group.
To post to this group, send email to [email protected].
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to
[email protected].
For more options, visit this group at
http://groups.google.com/group/android-discuss?hl=en.
