

99¢ - Apple FaceTime App - Really? - apokusin
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/facetime/id414307850?mt=12

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lukeholder
The minimum price on the app store is .99 - Facetime comes pre installed on
newer versions of osx.

This is most likely an accounting reason why they need to charge for this
feature for older users.

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burnblue
Well, except that didn't stop Apple from offering iBooks, Find my iPhone,
iTunes U, Apple Store, Remote, Find My Friends, iTunes Movie Trailers, AirPort
Utility, and Cards apps for free…

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apokusin
Indeed. I don't see why they need to charge even 99¢ for it. They made that in
the margins of the original products that are capable of running the app.

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cstross
I have no inside information, but I would speculate that there might be
royalty payments Apple is required to make in return for licensing some of the
voice and video codecs used in Facetime. On a new device or OS license, these
will be rolled in with the purchase price, but when adding functionality to an
existing device they're required to cough up $0.1 or $0.5 or some such to the
licensees. Hence the need to collect more money.

(This used to be the case with QuickTime: the basic stuff was free, but if you
wanted additional codecs you had to upgrade to QuickTime Pro, for real money
-- but it wasn't all going into Apple's pocket: it was simply that if they'd
bundled all the codecs with the basic application they'd have been liable for
extra royalties.)

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jeffehobbs
That price was to get 10.6.x users used to visiting the Mac App store and
paying for an app.

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moreorless
Yes. It really is 99¢. It is a fantastic app and definitely worth the 99¢. In
my experience, it is the best under $1.00 software application I've ever
bought spanning all platforms.

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dmishe
Remember that Xcode 4 was 4.99 on osx before Lion.

