Linked by Flatland_Spider on Sat 7th Mar 2009 01:19 UTC
Following in the footsteps of Apple and Google, Research in Motion is planning to open an online store for its popular Blackberry smartphone. The store, dubbed Blackberry App World, aims to be a "convenient location for BlackBerry owners to download 'games, social networks, personal productivity applications and so much more.'" App World will feature freeware apps along with for-pay apps. The pricing for applications will start at free then jump to $2.99 at the low end and $999.99 on the high end. At the moment Blackberry App World is only open to developers, but there is a sign up page for users who want to be notified of when App World goes live for the public.
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Member since:
2005-12-31
> While people aren't happy about the decision, it could work to keep the
> clutter down
The 'clutter' includes many useful applications, and a $0.99 pricing both encourages users to use them and developers to write them. Examples include the ruler, the flashlight, and the periodic table. As a user, paying more than $1 for these applications seems overpriced, and I would start wondering how much I need them instead of just buying them. Developers may start producing such applications for free (as many do now), but then a lot more developers would be encouraged by the fact that (1000 users x $1 x 70% of the payment goes to the developer) = $700 for an application that takes 1 hour to write.
Simply put, disallowing prices between $0 and $3 just hurts applications that are worth exactly that amount.