Natanel Barookhian's Blog

More on Mobile App Pricing

A few weeks ago, I wrote a post about factors that mobile app developers should take into account when pricing their apps (more here). If you are a developer or just someone interested in pricing strategies, I would recommend taking a few minutes to read.

I wanted to follow up with a short addendum to my post to discuss a very recent phenomenon which will likely significantly affect the top line app producers. 

Last week, Rovio’s Angry Birds Seasons app (normally .99c) was featured as the top Free App of the Week by the Apple App store. Rovio took advantage of the promotion and the fact that it was downloaded by millions of users to promote a newer app which they just released, Amazing Alex. As soon as a user opens up the Angry Birds app, they are provided with an opportunity to purchase the new app, and this promotion was highly successful as Amazing Alex is now at the top of the App Store charts, and is a “featured” app as well. Wink, wink agreement perhaps?

Why is this significant? Well, I believe that we’re seeing a shifting in the lifespan of major apps. The leading gaming companies, like Rovio will be inclined to free up some of their previously paid apps in order to promote upcoming releases. What this means is that apps will now have a shorter shelf life, and we can expect that users will have more free access to cool apps after a certain time has elapsed. This is phenomenon is more likely in the gaming industry more so than others.

What Rovio has taken into account is that after a point in time, it is better to leave behind the laggards to promote newer games. I’m excited for this to become a reality, and ultimately it will be very positive for consumers.