RIM App World Includes $3 Minimum Price
9:31 am, March 5th, 2009, Ed Sutherland
Will RIM’s just-introduced BlackBerry App World become the business-class version of Apple’s more consumer-oriented iPhone App Store? That’s the question being asked as the Canadian phone maker prices BlackBerry applications starting at $2.99.
Unlike iPhone applications that can be purchased for as little as $0.99 each, a multi-tiered price system for BlackBerry users ranges from $2.99 all the way up to $9.99 per app.
RIM’s departure is viewed as an acknowledgment of growing resentment by some iPhone developers at App Store pricing.
Developers, such as the creator of the Twitter application Twitterific, “have warned that iPhone developers are often stifled by pressure to sell apps at the 99-cent mark,” according to one report.
The higher priced App World could mean attract those developers, according to CNET.
“RIM needs more developers on its bandwagon because the iPhone is the shiny object in the mobile world,” the report said.
In the end, Apple and RIM are trying to attract two different audiences. And in the case of RIM, business users won’t “sweat” the higher price.
Posted by Ed Sutherland in News | Comment on this article
Too expensive
DownloadOnlineGame, on March 5th, 2009 at 3:40 pm
Nobody pressured the developers at the iPhone App Store to sell for $0.99.
They choose the price themselves.
They can’t cry wolf now.
This is just RIM price gauging and this is the pathetic excuse for it.
Ian, on March 5th, 2009 at 7:54 pm
I’m fairly certain that I read on several sites that the pricing goes up to $999.99. You’re a few 9s short.
That aside, RIM’s $2.99 minimum may have nothing to do with differentiating itself from Apple’s App Store. RIM may simply want to avoid making practically no money or even losing money on 99 cent apps. Credit card processing fees on 99 cents are somewhere between 20 and 41 cents. If RIM’s rev share is 30/70, RIM stands to lose money on 99 cent apps.
nak, on March 5th, 2009 at 8:55 pm
But apples goal isn’t to make money on the apps, it’s to add value to the iphone – to that end, it doesn’t matter if they lost money on 99 cent apps, or if developers feel the squeeze, so long as they keep making software that people want.
@nak: I’m sure that given the billions of 99c micro payments apple has going through the itunes store, they’ve gotten a better deal than 20c a transaction… if that’s not bargaining power, i don’t know what is!
Matthew Kerr, on March 6th, 2009 at 4:59 am
Why do we care what RIM or APPLE charge on their app stores? RIM is building their store from scratch – Apple already HAD their store in the form of iTunes – which had been paid for many times over. If RIM sets a minimum price point I am sure it has to do with recouping development costs.
In the end – it really doesn’t matter. If I am a Blackberry fan then I will be paying $2.99+ for an app. If I am an iPhone fan then I get to pay less. But the APP PRICE isn’t what drives me to one platform or another – just look at the Windows vs. OS X history to see that played out at a much greater per app cost.
Morgan Nelson, on March 8th, 2009 at 11:01 am