May 22

Fierce competition driving cheaper apps

The number of apps available for iPhone and iPod touch in iTunes store has exceeded 40,000 at the end of April 09. With every developer or company trying to get as many sales as possible, some will eventually drop price. There are already many available for free. This has been somehow backup by a recent report on App Store from Distimo, which is a new ducth company in the crowded mobile market. The report contains some interesting findings that seem to relate apps pricing and its ranking.

Distimo aims to release market-wide data on all Smartphones apps stores (Blackberry, Palm, Android..etc) on a monthly bases. There will be broad report on the US market for free and another one with more insight on worldwide markets for a charge. The first full report of Apple store is available for download here.

One month’s data may not be enough to draw any conclusions, but Distimo compared 100 most popular iPhone apps for a while and found prices to be dropping. The increase of apps for $0.99 from 42 to 53 is what’s seems to be driving the graph below.

Apple Store price distribution - Top 100 apps