Why so many iPhone apps are ad-supported

Noxegon

This is a bit of a rant I'm afraid, but bear with me.

I hate advertising in apps. I hate in-app purchases. I want quality software that doesn't nag me.

Two-and-a-bit years ago I put out a Solitaire game for macOS/iPhone. Since day one it's been priced at €0.99 or equivalent. I've added a lot to it over that time – support for 20+ game variants, guaranteed winnable games, commissioned card artwork, etc – yet monthly sales remain comfortably within single figures.

A few weeks ago I made the discovery that I'm seeing upwards of 10,000 impressions on the App Store for every single purchase. Apparently the $0.99 price point is too much, and it's scaring people away. To that end, though I can't stand the idea, the next major upgrade is going to flip to free with in-app purchase prompts appearing after a few minutes of play.

I'm disgusted and revolted, but the market has left me no choice.

Bah humbug.

squonk

Pele just don’t want to pay for software. They’ll happily pay €40 and upwards for Sky or a broadband connection or a phone service each month but won’t pay a €0.99 one-time fee for software they might find useful.

To be fair though as well there probably beds to be a viable trial scheme which there isn’t Ray on iOS anyway. You can buy the app and do have a cooling off period but it’s not transparent how to get a refund. Having something like this would help. It night be good if Charles were deferred and a one week in-built trial period was permitted where you aren’t charged if you uninstall before the trial is up.

So when you don’t have any of this infrastructure it leads developers into an ad-supported model where users install for free but must ensure ads unless they want to pay to turn off the ads.

I’m not crazy about apps going to a subscription model either as I would rather pay upfront for a lifetime licence but I’m a developer myself and can see why app devs might go for a recurring income stream. There have to eat and pay bills too.

Creamy Goodness

And to make things worse, iOS customers are twice as likely to pay than people who own an Android phone. It's ****, I know some indie developers have used the idea of tip-jars or subscriptions to remove nag screens etc.