Suggestions on how to price an iPhone app for the app store which relies on a central server
Suggestions on how to price an iPhone app for the app store which relies on a central server
- Subject: Suggestions on how to price an iPhone app for the app store which relies on a central server
- From: "Brian Tunning" <email@hidden>
- Date: Fri, 27 Jun 2008 17:18:32 +0800
Let me know if there is a more appropriate forum for this question -- this
Cocoa list was the best I could find, especially considering that I am not
one of the lucky few in the "official" iphone developer program, and do not
see any other avenues of getting my questions answered.
I'm developing an application for Cocoa & Cocoa Touch, which will
synchronize notes between a PC and Phone. The system requires the use of a
centralized server, which store and manage the synchronization.
I want to sell the application through the AppStore, but am not sure of the
best way to deal with pricing, especially since if a user manages to defeat
the DRM in the AppStore, they would not only pirate the application, but
would cause me additional monthly charges in data storage, traffic, etc.
I have some options I'm considering, such as:
1. Price the application as free in the AppStore, and charge separately for
the synchronization service. This means the iPhone app could be used to
write/edit notes (and save them locally on their phone), but would not be
able to synchronize them with another device until they get a
synchronization account.
I could offer the subscription elsewhere (eg, on google checkout), and once
the payment is verified, I would provision an account for the user.
This in my mind would be the safest way -- and also makes sense for other
scenarios in the future, such as if the end user doesn't have an iPhone, and
wants to synchronize notes between 2 or more Macs (thus there is no AppStore
for them).
Would Apple consider this a way of cheating their distribution model?
2. Price the application at $15 (for example), which would include 1 year of
service.
This would be the most convenient for the end-user, but I'm concerned about:
- What happens when the 12 months expire, does the user need to purchase
the app "again" from the AppStore? This would likely violate the AppStore
policies.
- What happens if users are able to copy the app to another device/pirate
it. I would have no way of knowing the difference between a "paid" user,
and one who pirated it. Unless Apple would provide developers with the
serial numbers of the devices who paid for the app, I really wouldn't know
who to kick off of the service.
I'm really not sure which way to go here -- it isn't very clear to me how
applications+service type apps should be sold & distributed under their
umbrella.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
thanks
--
-bri
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