With Windows Phone 8 due to be launched later this year, it's a given that we will see an influx of new Windows Phone apps available to download from the Windows Phone Store soon. Some app makers may want to set a price for their apps, but it can be difficult to pick a price for their creations.
In a new post on the Windows Phone developers blog, Microsoft's Bernardo Zamora, who has personally launched a number of Windows Phone apps, gives some helpful hints on how to price apps for the store. One option is simply to set one price and have Microsoft's storefront calulate what the price will be across all of the Windows Phone markets. Zamora says, "My take is that the single-price strategy is useful when your app revenue is small, since it’s very simple to execute and easy to manage."
As far as setting that first price, Zamora says there are a number of factors involved, including what the prices are for similar apps offered by competitors. App developers can check the storefront to see which apps sell the best in different markets.
Zamora adds that app developers could even consider raising the price of their app because it might be highly localized. On the flip side, it might be better to charge less for your app or even to make it free and have it generate revenues via ads or in-app purchases.
App developers can also make changes to their prices after it is published in the store once they receive customer feedback. Zamora says:
For example, I bumped up the price for the Spanish-language version of one of my apps by 50 cents in Spanish-speaking markets. For another app, I raised the price by the same amount in two countries where download data suggested users found that app especially useful. The results so far are encouraging: no decrease in paid downloads. (I did try a much higher increase for one of the apps— from $0.99 to $4.99—but that didn’t work out too well; paid downloads dropped to almost zero.)
Source: Windows Phone developer blog | Image via Microsoft
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