Distributing apps on the Mac App Store is definitely an interesting prospect for Mac developers. I have seen many highly regarded Mac app developers backing the initiative almost immediately after the announcement saying their apps would be available on the App Store at launch. No wonder: imagine the amount of people who have never even thought about downloading an app that will suddenly discover all the great apps that they’ve been missing. As we’ve seen from the iOS App Store, the one-click simplicity of purchasing, downloading and installing apps makes them so much more accessible to the common user. I wouldn’t be surprised if Microsoft creates an app store of their own soon.
When news got out that the Mac App Store was a reality, some speculated that developers could decide to price their apps differently on the App Store than on their own websites because of the 70/30 cut for app sales revenues. I was intrigued by this possibility but didn’t consider it until recently.
Selling my apps on the App Store
I have decided to try something: selling my apps on the App Store for a small amount of money while keeping them free on my website for anyone to download. This could be seen as some kind of variation on the “different pricing for different stores” strategy I talked about in the previous paragraph, but instead of a developer charging say, 12$ on his website and 15$ on the App Store, I’ll be charging 0$ (nothing) on my website and 2$ on the App Store.
Why?
Developing applications takes time and hard work. Even more so maintaining them and supporting them in the long run. As I am currently studying software engineering, I’ve been pretty much booked since I first published my apps back in April 2010. Still, I’ve been able to publish two apps that I’m very proud of and I have received great feedback, feature requests and bug reports from many of you.
As much as I like to give to the community, there are some fees that I must pay to make that possible (website hosting, domain names, Mac Developer Program membership, etc.). I don’t really care if I’m not making a profit with my apps because they aren’t meant for that. I created them for myself in the first place, then decided to polish and publish them. One thing that’s a bit uncool though is if I’m losing money publishing my apps, which is currently the case (donations have alleviated that a bit, thanks so much!).
I really don’t mean this as a cry for help; I simply don’t want to begin charging for apps that have been available for free thus far and screw my current users, while I would also like to compensate for some of the fees that I have to pay in order to make my projects work.
The App Store seems like a great way to do this and keep everyone happy.
What do you think about this strategy? Do you think it’ll work? Do you think it’s fair? Tell me in the comments. Take care!
Just saw your application (Sleepytime) on the App Store and downloaded it immediately.
I did see your note that it was free to download from this website, but wanted to make sure you get the credit for making the application.
Keep up the great work!
Cheers.
Thanks a lot! I hope you’ll like the app! If you’ve got any questions feel free to contact me anytime and I’ll do my best to help.
Thank you! I appreciate your support. The app. works great.
Just wanted to let you know that your work IS being appreciated, even if a lot of folks don’t say that in-person.
Keep it up!
I know it hasn’t even been a week but how is it working out for you? I’m thinking of doing exactly the same thing and I’m trying to get some idea of the effort involved in taking a fully functional app and squeezing it into the Mac App Store system. I’m not expecting to make a lot of money out of it, so if it’s a matter of a week to make complicated changes then I’m probably just going to keep it free, but if it’s a 5 minute job with example code then the profit might even cover my wages. Trouble is, I can’t find Apple’s docs without forking out for the developer program first.
It’s working great! I think being on the App Store on day one made a good difference. And it seems that people are happy with the 0$/2$ pricing; I have received a few comments and reviews corroborating that. Many have purchased the app knowing full well that it was free on my website. Some even purchased it after trying the free version for a day or two. That’s completely awesome!
Regarding the code, it wasn’t that bad to modify the apps to fit with the App Store, but what required the most thought was how to obtain separate products for the App Store and non App Store versions without having to maintain two different projets. I’ll send you some quick tips by e-mail. Anyone else interested in this info post a comment here and I’ll get back to you. I may write an article for this eventually.