The proposed iPhone API for in-app charges may finally start to change this. And the extra costs will not reduce an app's popularity.
Before, your entire app revenue was locked up in that initial download. You either convinced people to try your app, or not.
But now, it's more sensible: if you have logical ways to extend your app, or improve it, there will be a way to let customers pay you for those enhancements.
And customers can use this to reward you for making an App That Doesn't Suck. You may (eventually) pay $20 for something in $.99 upgrades, but only if you use it for a long time. If you download an app that you end up hating, you've spent only $.99 instead of $20.
Then there's the fact that people seem to like incremental costs, even though they'd often balk at the equivalent cost up front. $59, or 3 easy payments of $19.95? $600 for World of Warcraft, or $15/month all these years?
Before, your entire app revenue was locked up in that initial download. You either convinced people to try your app, or not.
But now, it's more sensible: if you have logical ways to extend your app, or improve it, there will be a way to let customers pay you for those enhancements.
And customers can use this to reward you for making an App That Doesn't Suck. You may (eventually) pay $20 for something in $.99 upgrades, but only if you use it for a long time. If you download an app that you end up hating, you've spent only $.99 instead of $20.
Then there's the fact that people seem to like incremental costs, even though they'd often balk at the equivalent cost up front. $59, or 3 easy payments of $19.95? $600 for World of Warcraft, or $15/month all these years?