Breakdown of BlackBerry App World pricing structure
Now that the preliminary site for RIM’s upcoming application store “BlackBerry App World” is up, we’ve got a lot on our minds and we’re sure you do as well. Our first dose of shock comes from the pricing structure, which is absolutely horrible. To quickly rehash the image above, you’re looking at a nine-tiered structure that starts at $0, jumps to $2.99 on Tier Two and then adds $1 on each subsequent tier until tier nine is reached with prices capped at $9.99. Now, many people have expressed a great deal of sticker shock that paid apps are to start at $2.99 and we can’t help but agree that forcing such an expensive price floor is a practice that can only harm App World and interest in BlackBerry apps in general. With that said, we do understand that there are many forces at play that help dictate the price. Supply and demand obviously plays a role in but with roughly 21 million current ‘Berry users — many of them corporate/government/etc and restricted from downloading any applications — there simply isn’t that high of a demand as there is for Apple’s App Store or even Nokia’s upcoming Ovi store. Perhaps the supply side of things is affecting the price more so than demand. It is worth nothing that while RIM has been pushing its gear way further into the consumer market and more applications have come out (some pretty novel ones, we might add), the BlackBerry platform is not one that is easy to develop for.
RIM is a very paranoid company and does not give developers too much access to the API out of fear that the security of the device, OS or servers will be compromised. This means that to create a good application, a lot of skill, time and money is required — costs that developers are more than willing to pass on to the end-user. In addition to this, to submit an application to App World costs $200, something we strongly feel should be done away with as it not only punishes those who are about to bring a great deal of money to RIM from all of their hard work, it will also serve to discourage hundreds of developers who have the skills but not the money to pay an exorbitant fee. Removing or drastically reducing this fee and having RIM bear the initial costs of hosting an app will certainly add downward pressure on prices.
RIM, buddy ‘ole pal, you need to look long and hard at a free market pricing system in which market conditions push prices to equilibrium. It can only serve to benefit us all.
I don’t know if I disagree with the $200 submission fee. It ensures that developers work hard enough on the product to ensure they make that money back.
^ Not only that, the 2.99 ensures you wont get a lot of that useless junk that is all over the itunes store. Kinda forces you to make a “GOOD” app.
Still think 2.99 maybe a bit high, maybe 1.99? I dont know, guess we’ll see how this plays out.
I am a huge BB fan. I’ve been rocking one for years. That being said I’m just not sure how compelling their current lineup would be to develop for. Granted developers have never been in a situation where they were being encouraged to develop stuff as they would be in the case of the app store. However many of the games/apps on the iphone work because of the larger display, multi-touch input, and accelerometer. Even on my Bold most of the apps people enjoy on the iPhone (not an apple fanboy, but afterall apple is the only reason RIM even got off their ass to throw together an app store) just wouldn’t really translate to the bb devices.
However it’s about time RIM started encouraging more apps being created for their platform, but I just don’t see it really being that successful.
It says these pricing tiers may change, I hope they do from a purely consumer point of view, but we will see and I don’t think RIM is trying to mirror the App Store (quantity way over quality).
The higher cost, time and effort which needs to be put into creating a Blackberry app means you will probably see higher quality applications. I strongly prefer having this over having millions of mediocre apps to browse through, download, then uninstall.
Blackberry’s are still limited by their memory limit dedicated to applications, so this makes sense for RIM for now, instead of having tons of people downloading cheap apps and then complaining about application memory space.
Considering there are tons of corporate BBs, think of how much money can be made if large companies bought applications to intergrate for their entire company. That would be crazy.
99% of the Apple App Store apps are junk. Take away games and that number is higher. BB are not geared for kids, as much of the app store is. Come on, farts and tip calculators and games that hold interest for 3 minutes? Junk. Look at the stats on the apps that are downloaded. I love the iphone used it for nearly 1 year, the reality is its not a business centric device. The email, sms and im are simply not there yet. And the battery struggles to last a day. BBs have most of the stuff you need already built in. Iphone is more toy, a great toy, than anything else. BB is a tool that is reliable and way more practical. IMO, the BB app store will not lure new users and the apps won’t sell that well.
This is RIM trying to keep the consumer apps to a minimum. that 2.99 must change, thats just stupid and $200 for developers is too much as well. Well, good luck with all that.
and Jack Tee – its a business, junk or no junk people and apple make a lot of money off their app store. RIM must change their OS and add more app memory.
I don’t disagree with the $2.99 price point, as people have said, it does get away from the junky apps, But I do disagree with the $200 fee. What about the companies that want to release their app for free, there’s really not an incentive to do that if there going to have to pay a lot where their recieving nothing, like BGR and a BGR App.
But then again, guess this means that most companies would just be releasing more then one app since they want there money back.
@Dtest54
“its a business, junk or no junk people and apple make a lot of money off their app store”
Apple’s store is a little like advertising. Networks make a lot of money from advertising during shows, but it detracts from the consumer experience. Does the business consumer really want to be bombarded with hundreds of junk applications in between one or two good ones? Given RIM’s target market, I think a little barrier to entry is a good thing.
This is going to be sweet. I get tired of rumbling through crackberry.com to find apps. I hope the pricing keeps the fart apps and simple games out. I want some useful apps! I’d love to see a WMwifrouter type app soon!
The fact that you can’t post an RIM story without talking about the iPhone tells you exactly where RIM is in the market right now. Fair or not, there is this perception that RIM needs to catch up to Apple. Too bad they won’t, since they lack the software skill, but it will be good to see them try.
On “App World,” fail. Developers will have to either pick a device to support (Curve? Bold? Storm?), or develop for more than one (of course the latter choice would drive up costs quite a bit. Then, they have to pay $200 to put the app on, and then charge at least $2.99 if they charge anything. Compare that to iPhone development: one OS for 17 million devices that all have essentially the same equipment, no fee to place an app in the store, and greater app flexibility. Oh, and the App Store has already sold more than 500 million apps. Not a tough call. . .after all, you BB users are so busy tapping out e-mails about your boss’ dry cleaning and all. Cheers.
I own an iPod Touch and some of my best apps are the 99 cent ones.
$2.99 is too high a floor…
The 200 submission fee, to me, makes sense. 1) it will reduce the number of apps submitted drastically, making that teenager in his basement writing a random quote generator not submit (which would probably get declined anyway because his code was insecure or buggy) and 2) of the remaining apps that DO get submitted, it takes man hours to review them for use on such a secure network and device such as blackberry. That cost needs to be offset somehow. 3) RIM is a business.
What the fark! I just saw this on crackberry!
“Can the user store applications on an external SD card?
Applications cannot currently be stored on or run from an SD card. BlackBerry App World does not permit the downloading of applications to an SD card.”
Of you are a good developer then you can easily afford 200$ submission fees
Hey BGR you know what would go good with App World? That free unlocked BOLD. =)
Are these all one-time charges, or will there be support for monthly recurring charges as well? For a purportedly pro-business device, does anyone else find it odd that all payments are done through PayPal?
The BB Apps store better not feature dull and boring Geek apps or lame Business apps, as there are millions of non BES customers who now have a BB and would happily download iPhart for 99 cents, and will happily spend money on being entertained.
It’s 2009 – things have changed.
$2.99 is way too much. My iphone (non game) application price limit is $1.99 and even at that price it has to be pretty impressive for me to buy it. Itunes does suck and I agree that 90% of the apps are totally usless. This BB Apps store will be a mirror of itunes. I have yet to see any 3rd party app on any BB or iphone that is a must to have. Each phone comes with the basics you need in today’s world. Give me Flash lite, Adobe reader/creator something you will use more than once.
I think you all erroneously presume that a teenager is incapable of having a good idea. Furthermore, 50$ would be enough to guarantee serious submissions. 99c is the right price.. and the real question is, what will developers be able to access????
I have spent up to 12 GBP on a single app in the AppStore,
but some of the most useful and fun applications have
been in the 0.99 – 2.59 GBP price range.
The apps include Bebot, an innovative micro-synth, SlotZ
Racer, Frogger, Voxie voice recording, London Tube travel
assistant, Yahtzee, Toy Bot Diaries, miniSynth, Crazy
Tanks, a four track recorder (59p, special offer), a guitar
tuner, Enigmo (an award winning game), Cro-Mag Rally,
Air Hockey and the essential shopping list which is used
every day.
All the above are (for me) useful and are stable and high
quality. As far as I am concerned there is a lot of potential
in the price range up to GBP 2.60. It’s easy to denounce
some of the AppStore applications as ‘junk’ because it is
certainly true. However, look at any consumer platform and their
overall software range you will find just the same. You get good and
bad applications in any price range.
Main reasons the ban on the lower price tiers is questionable:
patronising for developers
patronising for customers
flies in the face of RIMs current advertising drive to attract consumers
social networking apps require a low price structure to penetrate the market
small apps who do one thing really well, like shopping lists, conversions, virtual instruments, sodoku etc are penalised
All these can only hurt RIM, instead of being imaginative with their market they are using the sledgehammer.
Looks interesting pricing structure!
Even the development looks promising!
But, as long as RIM wont allow Apps to be downloaded & installed on memory card
OR
expand their internal memory from tiny MBs to Gigs..
Their App store is no where near any other competitor in the market!
If the pricing and entry fee will keep frivolous apps out of the store then I’m all for it. Yes, games and simple apps have a place in the phone ecosystem, but rim has a right to leave those things to android and apple. Vegas has 5 dollar tables and 500 dollar tables for a reason. Not everything has to be equal.
“you’re looking at a nine-tiered structure that starts at $0, jumps to $2.99 on Tier Two and then adds $1 on each subsequent tier until tier nine is reached with prices capped at $9.99″
um… according to your own photo, it’s NOT capped at $9.99. it’s $1 increments from $2.99 to $19.99, then $10 increments up to $99.99, followed by $50 increments from $100 to $599 and finally $100 increments up to $999.
so the prices are baselined at $2.99, if not free, and capped at $999.99.
it’s right there in the photo you published with the article. c’mon man.
This app store will be stillborn. $200 entry fee? Give me a break. Its obvious that RIM is trying to cater to the regular non-business consumer with some of their new offerings (Storm), but the way they are handling this app store business is all wrong. They COULD have an app store exactly like Apple’s and continue to be business oriented (if thats the image they are trying to protect here). Business consumers wont be “bothered” by fart apps because they’re not forced to download them. Hell, RIM could make it so they don’t even have to SEE them. This really just shows that, while RIM wants to cater to consumers, they are seriously out of touch with what they want.
App World? I wonder which marketing genius at RIM came up with that name. It doesn’t convey anything about what it is… whereas Apple’s AppStore, Google’s Market, and even Palm’s App Catalog at least convey that it’s a place to get apps. Heck even AT&T’s MEdia Mall conveys more than App World.
As a developer, I will not submit any apps to their World, at $200 for 10 subissions (rejected apps count as a submission, and even updates count as submissions) it will prevent the kind of eco-system that has grown around the iPhone (you might argue that a lot of the apps are crap, but I’ve seen lots of good ones at free-$1.99 too).
There’s no reason for a developer to use their store, there are other ways to get your wares sold, and even to sell them yourself, without cutting a check to RIM (via paypal/gimme a break)