questions → why do apple apps cost more than android apps?

vote-for31vote-against

Why do Apple apps cost more than Android apps?

Jan 2, 2012 5:50 AM

You can get many of the same apps on both kinds of devices. However, you have to pay for some of them when using an Apple product. Why is that?

s21 s21

15 Answers answer

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vote-for7vote-against

da people who were dumb enough to buy an apple product are dumb enough to pay more for apps

...let the downvotes roll in :facepalm:

miquinn miquinn
vote-for1vote-against

I am not a techie, but it seems that they should cost the same unless the programming for Apple is harder.

dw1771 dw1771
vote-for18vote-against

@dw1771: The programming isn't harder, it's just that there's an annual $99 fee to be in the iOS developer program.
http://developer.apple.com/programs/ios/develop.html

rprebel rprebel
vote-for5vote-against

I believe the term is proprietary, meaning they can charge what they want, with no competition. Barnes & Nobles does this as well. I am not sure about Apple, but with B&N they state the reason for higher cost is no ads and vetting, making sure the Apps are virus/malware free. I am not sure if this is true or not, would be nice if a Dev could respond to this question.

meems212 meems212
vote-for3vote-against

I think Apple is just greedy and they can capitalize on their greed because they're well known. iTunes is a huge program that is actually the "standard" for people trying to judge how well something is doing in the electronics market. What I mean by that is, when people talk about the most downloaded song, or album, or tv episode, they normally use iTunes figures to illustrate their point. Combine that with the fact that they made a popular (I didn't say great) phone, your average American consumer will likely go with the product that is easily advertised and seems to be the most compatible with the music/movie/tv/app program that nearly everyone has. Is it the smartest decision? No. But it's the most popular one right now, and that's what your average consumer will wind up buying the majority of the time.

captainsuperdawg captainsuperdawg
vote-for5vote-against

Apple's strength is the size of their app market (and the Reality Distortion Field, of course). Especially earlier on, Android needed cheaper apps to compete. That's kind of carried forward into the present time.

khellendros1984 khellendros1984
vote-for-1vote-against

Because you get what you pay for

polixter polixter
vote-for10vote-against

@captainsuperdawg @khellendros1984: The developer/owner of each app set the price of the app, not Apple. @rprebel is correct, iOS developers have to pay to have a developers license, where you can be an Android developer with a simple application and no money. The iOS developers need to recoup somehow; some use ads and some charge for the app. And yes, Apple does get a 30% cut from the app cost. Your typical app costs 99c, so Apple makes about 28c to pay their employees and such.

falcondeal falcondeal
vote-for3vote-against

@miquinn: That was my first instinct...but I think it has something to do with jailbreaking too...

dmaz dmaz
vote-for0vote-against

Because stone cold Steve Job's said so.

simmp5 simmp5
vote-for3vote-against

@falcondeal: Thanks. Good to know

captainsuperdawg captainsuperdawg
vote-for3vote-against

@falcondeal I'm aware that individual developers set their app prices, and the rough shares that go different places. I wasn't trying to imply that Apple was setting the prices higher, but rather that individual developers looked at the size and developer popularity of the respective markets and intentionally released their apps for lower prices on the Android market.

khellendros1984 khellendros1984
vote-for4vote-against

Two words: open source.

I run a Linux distro on my laptop and there isn't a single program on it that cost me money and it does 100% of what I need it to do.

I can surf the internet, do word processing with MS Word compatible output and media players and burning utilities.

When you make the source code available to developers at no charge and you don't require them to pay a licensing fee, they only charge you for the time they spent to write the code. I think, too, as time goes on, you'll see Android apps start to drop in price, and in reaction, crap on the App Store go up in price.

matt1976 matt1976
vote-for3vote-against

"Why does Apple {thing} cost more than {Non-Apple} {thing}?"

Same reason as always - Apple markets to those with more money than brains, and they are darn good at it.

secretagentman02 secretagentman02
vote-for0vote-against

Apple does not set the prices in the Mac App Store, the developers do. Apple charges what the developer tells them to charge.

http://www.downloadfrostwire.org/

evantanski evantanski

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