Apple store screenshot
turns to flexible price strategy
Apple announced that it will add 700 new pricing levels for developers and relax the price upper limit and price lower limit. Apps listed on the App Store can be as low as 29 cents and can reach up to $10,000. If developers want to price their apps above $1,000, they need to submit an application to Apple to avoid the appearance of apps with obvious premium . Developers will also have new options to set prices in different countries and currencies. The new pricing architecture for automatically updating subscriptions will take effect immediately and will be expanded to standard apps and in-app purchases next spring.
pointed out that this move is the latest move by Apple to provide greater flexibility and avoid criticism from outside the world. Musk 's criticism of Apple is still heard. Even if a platform with a large user base like Twitter is restricted at the download portal, it will face great losses.
In fact, the App Store has always been one of Apple's "money tree". Apple's App Store will take 30% commissions from app sales and in-app purchases, and does not support third-party payments. The specific proportion depends on whether these apps belong to the subscription payment model or belong to the category of apps that can reduce commission payments. It also charges an annual fee of $99 for developers every year.
Apple's latest fourth-quarter financial report also confirms this. Data shows that the fourth-quarter revenue of service businesses, including the App Store, was US$19.19 billion, and increased by 5% year-on-year. This result has exceeded the product line of iPad, which had revenue of US$7.17 billion, a year-on-year decrease of 13.1%. How to support the "ecosystem" of
Even though Apple stores are expensive for developers, industry observer Hong Shibin pointed out that compared with the Android camp, the App download channels in the Apple ecosystem are more unified and safer, and it is more rare to induce downloads. In addition, from the perspective of the richness of the application, many Android versions of applications made by foreign developers are only available on the Google app store, which also leads to relatively poor domestic Android stores resources. The App Store can avoid such problems to a certain extent.
Experts said that although many Android stores do not have intuitive charging rules like Apple, they can also dig profits from developers. For example, bidding rankings, those with higher bids can be placed in a more prominent position. Therefore, in some Android stores, users manually search for an app, and the result also needs to turn down many pages to see. Those who rank high are often "paid players".
It is undeniable that in the face of this market environment, Apple is also constantly testing new charging methods. For example, Apple launched the official promotion "ASA", namely Apple search ads, with the advertisement position at the top of the search result page, but the App Store will also add advertisement labels to these applications. Well-known applications such as Weibo and Gaode Map have also been serving advertisements here for a long time.
industry observer Liang Zhenpeng pointed out that in fact, whether it is Apple or Android, its application stores balance efficient download services and interfere with user choices. The former can establish a reputation, while the latter can achieve real money income. What strategy should be adopted depends on the environment in which they are located.
Liang Zhenpeng believes that specifically, the Android camp has small differences in both software and hardware, and the homogeneous competition is inevitably more intense and the reputation is difficult to guarantee. Apple has its own iOS ecosystem and has stronger control over its own software and hardware products, but it is inevitable that it will lag behind Android in terms of scale. In terms of revenue share, iPhone and Mac notebooks are still the biggest revenue. Perhaps for Apple, increasing reputation, creating a more friendly ecosystem, and using software to drive traffic to hardware devices is a more efficient choice. This is also confirmed by the data of
. In July 2018, Android accounted for 77.32% of the global mobile operating system market share. Four years later, in 2022, this number has dropped to 69.74%. Meanwhile, global iOS adoption rate rose from 19.4% to 25.49%, an increase of 6% in four years, but it is still far inferior to Android.
experts said that for a long time, Apple has had an unshakable voice in the upstream and downstream of , the industry chain, with its strong brand power. Now, with the emergence of the trend of homogeneity of Android and Apple mobile phones, its business strategy has gradually moved closer. Perhaps it is now the node for Apple to shift from "making money" to "sharing profits".
Beijing Business Daily reporter Jin Chaoli Wang Zhuli Image source: Apple store screenshot
