Restricted to just three price points for many years, app developers on Apple’s App Store will now have the flexibility of choosing from a total of 700 new price points – starting from $0.29 (AED1.07) to $10,000 (AED36,725).
Rising backlash from developers, inflation and regulatory demands have led to one of the biggest changes in the history of App Stores, through which the Cupertino-based tech giants have kept an iron fist on what and how Apple product owners can make their purchases.
In a blog post, the company said: “Under the updated App Store pricing system, all developers will have the ability to select from 900 price points, which is nearly 10 times the number of price points previously available for most apps.
Apple app pricing flexibility
“This includes 600 new price points to choose from, with an additional 100 higher price points available upon request.
“To provide developers around the world with even more flexibility, price points, which will start as low as $0.29 and, upon request, go up to $10,000, will offer an enhanced selection, increasing incrementally across price ranges (for example, every $0.10 up to $10; every $0.50 between $10 and $50; etc.).”
In August last year, Apple had agreed to change its policies after a $100m pay-out in a class-action lawsuit with US app developers.
At the time, developers were restricted to fewer than 100 possible price points in the App Store, which started at a minimum of 49 cents for subscriptions and 99 cents for apps, with a maximum price of $999.99.
These new pricing enhancements will be available for apps offering auto-renewable subscriptions starting today (Wednesday), and for all other apps and in-app purchases in spring 2023, giving all developers flexibility and control to price their products in 45 currencies throughout 175 storefronts.
Developers will also be able to leverage additional pricing conventions, including those that begin with two repeating digits (eg, AED110).
App Store only allowed products to be priced ending .99 ($0.99, $1.99 and $9.99). Rounded price endings have now been incorporated (like AED10.00 or SR25.50).
Developers of subscription apps will now have the capability to manage currency and taxes across storefronts.
They need to choose a local storefront (say UAE) they know best, and it will automatically generate prices across the other 174 storefronts and 44 currencies. Developers will still be able to define prices for every storefront if they wish to do so.
An Indian app maker can set pricing for their Indian customers, and have their prices outside of the country be updated whenever there is a change in foreign exchange or tax rates.
“These newly announced tools, which will begin rolling out today (Wednesday) and continue throughout 2023, will create even more flexibility for developers to price their products while staying approachable to the hundreds of millions of users Apple serves worldwide, and in turn help developers continue to thrive on the App Store,” said Apple in the blog post.
Apple is already the world’s most valuable company, with a market capitalisation of $2.2tn and the value of its brand is $482.2bn, according to international consultancy Interbrand.
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