THE SHIFT TO FREE
Going back a few months, analytics firm Flurry reported this July what the shift toward free applications looked like at the time. From 2010 to 2012, the proportion of free apps on the App Store ranged from 80% to 84%, but by early 2013, that had grown to 90%. And 6% of paid apps fell into the 99 cents price point.
At the time of the original report, Flurry noted that it seemed like people wanted free content more than they wanted to avoid ads, or have the highest quality experience possible.
According to Flurry’s Director of Research, Mary Ellen Gordon, PhD., the most compelling piece of evidence to support the shift to free was Flurry’s observations of developer A/B testing. They watched as developers experimented with different price points over the past months, finally resolving themselves to free apps, often supported by in-app purchases.
“It suggests that developers are not just moving to free apps because everyone else is or it seems like the thing to do. Many of them have actually tested different price points,” she tells TechCrunch. “Based on the trends, I would guess that by next year the (weighted) percentage of apps that are free will be somewhere between 91% and 93% — greater than it is now, but not 100% because there will probably always be certain specialized apps that are able to charge for downloads.”
Sens dubte això dificulta el negoci de les apps si hi pensem com a commodity, però ja fa temps que molts tenim clar que el negoci de les apps per la majoría d'empreses va per un altre cantó. Des de l'explotació via propaganda (menys eficient del que molts creuen) fins a enfocar l'app com una plataforma per potenciar i donar nous serveis de negocis ja existents.
