BlackBerry App World minimum paid price: $2.99
By Nilay Patel 
posted March 4th 2009 11:10PM
posted March 4th 2009 11:10PM
[Via CrackBerry]
posted March 4th 2009 11:10PM
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people going to go broke buying apps lol
People in the UK are really going to go broke buying these apps - $2.99 = £2.59?!
They're hardly going to go broke.
This is a good idea because it means that the novelty apps will be free and the paid for software of a reasonable quality. For those bemoaning the lack of a $0.99 pricing point I would point out that the equivalent apps for S60 and WinMo are usually free to begin with so iPhone/iPod Touch users are kind of getting ripped off here.
Bottom line - less crap to wade through and most of the $0.99 apps are free on other platforms anyway.
@Chair Throwing Consultant
Yeah, that's quite the markup for Europeans, be it GBP or EUR.
But the Canadians get a pretty sweet deal out of that pricing structure. Guess they give the home base a deal.
I disagree, Mark, on a few points.
While most of the App Store's 99 cent stuff can be had elsewhere for free, nearly always a free equivalent can be found in the App Store, too. And there are one or two 99 cent apps that represent bargains and are most definitely not available elsewhere for free.
Having a $3 starting price will not stop novelty apps - check the $4 fart apps and other crap priced similarly (and higher) to be found on the App Store. The only way to stop fart apps appearing is to specifically block fart apps, and while that may seem a great idea to the polite among us, it represents at its core an unjustified censorship of apps that some people at least want to buy. I do not buy fart apps, but if someone else wants one, well, who am I to tell them they cannot have it? They are as welcome to their fun as I am to mine.
Those pounds and euro prices are simply outrageous - what they mean is that European customers will be in effect subsidising American customers ... love to see what the EU thinks of that. Will be very interested to see what their Australian prices are too, when (if?) they open up here.
In the end, the Blackberry App World won't have less novelty and crap apps that the App Store to wade through, they'll just average a price of USD$3 instead of somewhere between $1 -$4. That is the only difference. I do not understand at all why you or anyone else would think that having a starting price of $3 would affect the load of crap apps in any way - you can say it, but without stating by what means or methods, or for what reasons, this is supposed to happen, it just sounds like a hope rather than a prediction.
And to go OT a bit, I HATE the $x.99 crap - it is a well-known psychological trick, to make your brain think that $2.99 is "2 dollars" instead of the "3 dollars" it actually is. I wish the App Store and the App World would have rounded prices, and not prey on people.
I'm glad to know that a free app in the US is free in other countries...obviously.
Yeh but the rest of the exchange rates are bullshit!
$2.99 -> £2.59?
i really hope this convinces developers to just make the apps free. if not, RIM's gonna have a lot of mad teens and twenty somethings.
plus, come on. im sorry but some apps just aren't worth 2.99. ever.
minimum PAID price. In other words, you can pay 0, or 2.99+
Then don't buy them.
Software Engineering's a bitch. So please stop whining about paying for a product.
@HunterXI
dude. trust me. you dont have to tell me that. im a CS major. i do this crap now and ill be doing this crap in 30 years. i get it. all im saying is that im not paying 2.99 for an app that can fart or make different smiley faces for me.
They're going to have apps over $20? They better be amazing lol.
probably volume licensing or something
@iGoon Normally I don't go in for poo jokes, but...why, yes, thank you very kindly.
BB software has traditionally been priced in the 14.99-49.99 range (and a lot is subscription based, so you're paying that amount quarterly/annually). Pre App Store, 2.99$ was waaaaaay cheap for paid mobile software.
I agree with the OP, this will just help keep crappy apps out of their store.
How?!?! There are still free apps!!!
The sweet spot for apps is the $0.99 - $1.99 range! Lots of handy utility apps are around that range, like the molecular weight calculator I just downloaded! Call me cheap (believe me, I am) but I don't normally download anything if its above $2.99.
I see no reason to do that, especially because garbage will still get in because of the free category.
There are four value propositions a business could use:
1. Lower quality, lower price
2. Higher quality, higher price
3. Higher quality, lower price
4. Lower quality, higher price
Given that many users have complained that the blackberry's screen is less responsive, many apps will be considered equal or lower quality. Combine that with the higher price, and you find option number four, the one option that loses every time.
Equal or lower compared to what?
And screen response = lose everytime? Pretty long bow to draw.
Blackberry handsets coupled with a BES server have a huge headstart on most corporate desision making processes. The handsets are automatically part of the corporate network, secured and connected when they activate.
Removing the need for application gateways, webservers, authentication process etc puts BES and BB's out in front in terms of corporate application consideration. Not to mention the enormous, and standard, benefits of BES security and administration (policies).
Plus keep in mind that the BB application SDK has been around for a few years now - available free of charge - and able to roll out apps to handsets via an existing BES server. The app world is simply a collaboration and distribution point.
"Want to fart louder than all the other fart apps? There's an app for that."
I just threw up in my mouth.
dude, you really need to find a place to throw up.
$2.99 fart app, duh.
And why do they say you can "select a suggested retail price?" They're not suggested retail prices. It is THE PRICE, full stop.
What a joke .,mediocre attempt to compete with app store,.,LOL .tiers LOL!!!!!
Just because you don't know what a word means doesn't make it funny.
Mr T would pity you, Shank.
Tires don exits!
Who ever came up with this idea is one of the people who should have been laid off.
Yes, especially since it's probably a lame attempt to generate more revenue than the iPhone App Store did right after it launched, and then throw the figure in Apple's face and manipulate investors. This attempt will likely backfire.
Honestly, most of those 99 cent apps on Appstore, are either really good and should actually cost more, or like a majority, should just be free, a majority, like 98% of them, because they're just a waste.
honestly, I don't understand your math here. I was a decent math student in my high school, but aren't you using too much 'most', 'majority', '98%', 'more' here?
He is trying to implode the Matrix.
Yeah, letting the developer decide what to charge for their work is ridiculous.
An important distinction between this and the iPhone App Store, though, is that this "App World" will not be the exclusive and only way to get apps onto your device... but on the other hand, what developer wants to go through the hassle of setting up their own store or going to a non-standard store where either way they'll get a lot less exposure just to be able to charge a lower price?
Just wish they made developing for all these devices as easy as it is for windows mobile. Most that I know have a blackberry, can't wait to see what they start downloading to waste time at the office.
wait, Apple shows them the winning formula and they managed to f**k it up? morons.
You said it bro. Iphone was there for the cloning and they added a twist ,.,... Totall bb fail !LOL
iPhone app store was there for the cloning ,but yet they failed. Typical rim.
Who's to say there is only one possible successful model?
I smell a bomb!!!! I give this apply named store (seriously, you guys couldn't come up with anything better, even iberry would have been better) 6 months before it implodes.
my 2 cents mobile phone companies: spend some money, hire some people and get some good ideas out here, cause your all going to die as soon as more computer companies realize making cell phones isnt that hard.
Berry store
Notice if apple apps started at $2.99 , article/ bloggers would be ripping apple for price gouging,.right??
RIM needs to deny fart apps and other things of childish nature. It goes completely against their business model and it just doesn't make sense. However, I like the price point for the applications, and I think you're right in your analysis regarding RIM's intentions for the price point. No one is going to pay $3 for a novelty app; conversely, if a novelty app is released for free on the Black Market (as I call RIM's app store) and has a premium equivalent on Android or iPhone/iPod, that hurts their own business.
RIM has 2 benefits here, like you said it´s in general a business phone so the programs being developed most likely will target that group preventing indirectly crap to be developed. The other advantage is that if you want to develop crap, so you can. You probably still can release it via the Berry store and otherwise you just do it yourself. More important your software developed specifically for you doesn´t need a permit from RIM, you just do it and you distribute it efficiently via your BES server.
That said, I think for starting developers as well starting users its a nice solution. For those who are longer around they already know where to get what as well there is a good support from the crackberry forum for further inquiries.
Let me get this straight. Apple imposes a few rules -- some based on AT&T's requirements, not their own -- about what can and can't go on the App store, and they're baby-raping fascists. RIM, on the other hand, would become the heroes of the mobile space by approving or denying apps based on their usefulness in the enterprise?
Look, RIM knows that BlackBerry can't just be for business anymore... iPhone's popularity as a device and platform for development is too ubiquitous. They're doing this as a tactic to boost initial store revenue, plain and simple, and it's not going to work.
The point is that no matter what RIM does it has less influence on the apps then if Apple enforces any rules due the way a Blackberry works compared to an iPhone. Further yes the iPhone has made a ripple in the telephone market though RIM still outsells Apple as well they target rather different groups. So sure they are both influential to eachother (design/technic wise) but it isn´t like that RIM without an appstore or touchscreen would cease to excist.
Further that RIM creates this to boost their own pocket, very unlikely since developers can choose weather they use the berrystore so if RIM would squeeze the developers to much they would simply move. This will in the end mean that RIM for sure can´t overcharge, ie if they make money from it, it will be little to non. The berrystore for that seems only there to make apps easier avaible to the consumer.
One has to wonder what is wrong with the financial people at RIM. At current exchange rates, 2.99 USD equals 2.36 Euro, not 2.75. Not to mention the GBP difference which is even larger
Please, everyone, stop overpricing your European counterparts by so much; it might have been cool when Apple started it but it's not cool anymore.
Does VAT apply here, though? That might account for the premium.
YOu can't compare the Apple app store with this, Apples and Oranges my friend.
There are two points that everyone is missing here.
1. You have to pay to have your app included in the app store. Other than larger corporations, who is going to pay to give an app away for free.
2. There is a limited amount of memory allocated to apps on all Blackberries and you can't install apps to your memory card.