Last week Apple announced they’ll be opening an online store for Mac apps just like they have the “regular” app store for iOS apps.
On the surface I think this is good news — it will make it fairly easy to get your software in front of a large group of people.
But I’m wondering about the pricing of Mac apps? While there are higher priced apps in the current App Store, even most (all?) of the top sellers are just a buck or two.
A couple days ago I downloaded the trial version of Plants vs Zombies to my iMac and played the 60 minutes the trial gave me. Then it asked if I wanted to play the whole thing and I said, “Yes!”
But instead of spending the $19.99 they wanted, I grabbed my iPhone and bought the iOS version for 99 cents. No, I don’t get to run it on my big 27″ screen, but I also can play it wherever I happen to be, not just when I’m sitting in front of my desk.
The race down to 99 cents in the App Store caught a lot of people by surprise. And while the Mac App Store will be different — it’s only one way to get Mac software — I wonder if they same thing will happen. I think it will.
Maybe the bottom won’t be 99 cents, but I could see $9.99 becoming a new sweet spot for a lot of Mac software. If the volume of sales increases a lot that won’t be bad for developers, and it will be very good for consumers.