Detailed look at pricing an app for the Mac App Store

Apple developer Michael Jurewitz took a detailed look at Mac App Store pricing in a five-part series on his Jury.me blog. It's a thorough exploration of the dynamics of App Store pricing that touches upon revenue maximization, demand curves and the basic research each developer should be doing before they write any code.

You can read each segment on Jurewitz's Jury.me blog using the links below.

• Understanding App Store Pricing - Part 1 In this first part of his series, Jurewitz looks at the Top Grossing apps versus their Top Paid counterparts and discovers that the Top Grossing list was 329 percent more expensive than the Top Paid list.

• Understanding App Store Pricing - Part 2 In part two, Jurewitz explores the reasons why the Top Grossing list was 329 percent more expensive than its Top Paid counterpart.

• Understanding App Store Pricing - Part 3 In part three, Jurewitz looks at whether you can charge more for your app. It's Microeconomics 101 for the Mac App Store.

• Understanding App Store Pricing - Part 4 In part four, Jurewitz examines the hows and whys of product development.

• Understanding App Store Pricing - Part 5 Pricing Kaleidoscope In the fifth and final part of the series, Jurewitz summarizes "how you can take real world data and use it to make better real world decisions about how you price your app."

This series is based on presentations Jurewitz gave at Çingleton and NSConference earlier this year. If you are a developer, it's a must-read. iOS owners should also peruse the articles to get an appreciation of the time and effort that goes into the business side of app development.