Microsoft: Better to make a million dollars than sell a million apps

May 26, 2011 | By Surur

Brandon Watson has encouraged developers to charge more for their applications.

At a press briefing he told reporters:

"We are a bit more holistic in terms of the behaviours we’re trying to reward in our marketplace and that sustains a higher price point. I’d rather developers sell fewer than a million downloads and get to a million dollars. If we can support a higher price point that’s good for developers.”

Being a software company itself Microsoft has always discouraged the race to the bottom which has seen the majority of applications being either free or very cheap.

Certainly with Xbox Live games this trend has been more than prominent, with even extremely old games being sold for relatively high prices. Independent developers have also complained that these games also get the majority of sales, suggesting Xbox Live ISVs are not just charging high prices, but reaping high profits from good sales also.

On a different note Brandon has also suggested that of the majority of the 500 new features in Windows Phone Mango which has not been announced are quite a few features which will make users very happy.

"There are more delighters coming," he said.

Via SFGate.com

About Surur

Site Admin and Windows Phone enthusiast, he has been using Windows Mobile devices since before they were called PocketPC’s. He is currently sporting a HTC 7 Trophy.

Tagged developers

Debase

90% off all the apps in the marketplace especially Xbox Live games are not what they cost now let alone more money

http://profiles.google.com/murani.lewis Murani Lewis

What Brandon is saying isn’t that all devs should be charging $4.99 or more for their apps but at least $1.99. Somewhere in that ball park. Once again he mentions a holistic experience and when your phone is smart and intuitive its not like you need to be downloading 20-30 apps per month.

I give myself $5 every week to spend on apps/games and it makes me buy the ones i like regardlesss of price. I would never judge my app exprience on the availability of uselesss apps that i would only use every blue moon.

Anonymous

I have to disagree with Mr Watson.
Do the math here.
Ex: two apps ..#1 is $2.99 and #2 is $5.99 (both similar, but the expensive one has says better graphic)

More people could afford to pay for the $2.99 vs out of reach for most buyers for the $5.99

50 x $2.99 = $149.50
10 x $5.99 = $59.90

Which developer are making money here?

Anonymous

Except from experience of developers more expensive xbox live games actually sell better than cheaper non-xbox live games. Its not a level playing field.

Anonymous

Yes, but when ifruit apps are cheaper than Window Phone apps. I don’t think it is fair at all!

Anonymous

umm sorry but worse statement of the year… i like WP7 but if they actually intend to start charging more then im not buying.. we already pay more for apps in the UK.

Anonymous

worse statement? as a developer this attracts me to windows phone 7 marketplace platform more than the other fragmented operating systems

Anonymous

yes as a developer this is good but not for customers…if a customer sees the same app on android for free while being charge like$3 for it on wp7…which device do you see them buy because people download load 10-20 apps a month, with buying apps on wp7 within a year the cost of all your apps would almost be the same amount you got the phone for… am not being cheap but really some games on the market need to be free e.g Lunar lander, pitfall(£2.49)..and a lot more worse on non-Xbox games. but if the quality of the app can be the reason for why a game is expensive then im okay with that.

http://fxfp.com/ Alex F.

This IS good for the customers – your free Android app won’t be supported well and work like crap.

Anonymous

i don’t own an android anymore, but still not all customers will see this the way you do… its basically like who people buy their clothes from although i hate Primark but their is a reason they get a lot of customers, its because they provide identical clothes sold by the likes of Next and River island but at a cheaper price.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Ricardo-Dawkins/746307628 Ricardo Dawkins

All those free apps in my Androd device have ads….terrible ads. Even Angry Birds got those huge banners blocking my view.
http://chmun77.myopenid.com/ Jimmy

Then I guess is the developer fault! Why developed an app and then add such a big ads to block the view?! Yes, he can earns extra from having ads, but since it is an app, at least it has to be usable by someone. Is not an ads program you know?

Normmedia

I doubt anyone buys a smartphone just to play games on it and if they do then we’re better of without them anyway.

Anonymous

OMG… Is he so stupid?!
TheManFromEarth

This guy truly annoys me.
MS, I am a shareholder and a customer, Please fire this guy.

There was a time when MS had one voice (Balmer), today it seem everyone gets to open there mouth.

Anonymous

He a good guy
http://fxfp.com/ Alex F.

Yeah, right – and I’m Bill Gates.

Anonymous

hello bill

http://fxfp.com/ Alex F.

Hiya!

Anonymous

Lol

Sent from my Windows Phone

Jonnyjon91

This guy looks like a douche and his comments always irk me.

http://fxfp.com/ Alex F.

He’s a nice guy really – and that was a smart comment.

Anonymous

Let’s make a app pass so everyone is getting paid.The people happy and developers happy win win
http://fxfp.com/ Alex F.

As a developer, I totally agree.
And I also think that this is better for the consumer – higher price encourages developers to spent more time on their apps, polish them, support them properly, update them, and generally customers get more for their price.

The sustainable app development should result in retained customers, good reviews, and long life of the app – but also in healthy profits. Currently the majority of app developers are unable to support themselves from their apps – and that can’t be good for anyone.

Anonymous

as someone who is not a developer, but understands your point of view, i also agree. the whole race to the bottom thing is generally bad for developers, and consumers, because it only ensures that big start ups/companies are able to compete. smaller developers just can’t make good enough money to warrant the time invested unless they’re selling at a very high rate (velocity vs price).
At the same point, this also sucks for consumers. Especially with games. There have been many many many xbox live games that are in marketplace that are simply a ripoff for what they bring to the table relative to their development costs – perfect eamples being monopoly, pacman, tetris. A lot of legacy titles are basically ported or coded over from their iphone counterpart, with little to no changes, and then charging 5,6, even 7 dollars for them. I don’t care what anyone says, there’s no way that 5 bucks is worthy for a game that is 30 years old…or 2.99 for a poorly made game like pitfall. As a consumer, comparing these prices to what are on iOS and android, you can’t help but feel ripped off.

http://twitter.com/winningguy Nelson Ocampo

This is good in the long term, but bad in the short term.

If the marketplace is able to consistently support higher prices, then developers will be willing to invest more in the development of the software.

In the short term this is bad because there are a lot of apps that are just remakes of existing iPhone apps. If they are exactly the same, then customers won’t be happy with the higher prices. Or if they are low quality apps, then customers won’t be happy.

As time goes on, apps will be tailored specifically to the strengths of WP. When that becomes the norm, customers win.

I’d like to see a wide range of prices. To the point where one could make a reasonable estimation about the quality of the app by its price point. And if something is $4.99, then they could expect something very polished and well supported.
Ryssfemma

Of course, when the jew speaks its all about money right in the pocket.
http://twitter.com/danrivhor Daniel Rivero Horie

“OUCH!” by my Wallet
http://www.Ztitch.com Ztitch Developer

Unfortunately, their ranking system doesn’t support high priced apps.

Ranking is based on one thing only: number of downloads. You charge your app a high price, your downloads will sink and so will your ranking. The solution is to make ranking based on download * price. Let’s see if the Mango marketplace does this.
http://www.Ztitch.com Ztitch Developer

Unfortunately, their ranking system doesn’t support high priced apps.

Ranking is based on one thing only: number of downloads. You charge your app a high price, your downloads will sink and so will your ranking. The solution is to make ranking based on download * price. Let’s see if the Mango marketplace does this.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Warren-Cush/1425676469 Warren Cush

i agree with him and it can benefit both the customer and developer. the only way for it to benefit both is MS has to not just let any app on the market, it needs to be governed in a way a developer doesnt charge a consumer too much for a crappy game. the only way a game can get reviews only if a customer buys the game and then reports on it. there should be an option for demo trails on all games, there can customer review a game and possible make a purchase without feeling they wasting their money. if a game gets a lot of bad reviews it should be taking off the market by MS or Developer and have them try again. a customer will pay for a quality product and the developer will provide a quality product so they can continue to make a profit.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Warren-Cush/1425676469 Warren Cush

i agree with him and it can benefit both the customer and developer. the only way for it to benefit both is MS has to not just let any app on the market, it needs to be governed in a way a developer doesnt charge a consumer too much for a crappy game. the only way a game can get reviews only if a customer buys the game and then reports on it. there should be an option for demo trails on all games, there can customer review a game and possible make a purchase without feeling they wasting their money. if a game gets a lot of bad reviews it should be taking off the market by MS or Developer and have them try again. a customer will pay for a quality product and the developer will provide a quality product so they can continue to make a profit.
Anonymous

Might I suggest a Grace Period? Maybe the First 500 DL’s get it half off or have it half off for the first week or two. Let’s Work Together.
http://chmun77.myopenid.com/ Jimmy

Same games / app ported from Android but cost so much higher? MS thinks the users are suckers? Developers can put ads all they want as long as the app is usable. But if the app is selling at such higher prices than on other platforms, sorry to say, Goodbye WP7. If there are no consumers for WP7, I don’t see why developers will even bother to create apps for that platform.
http://twitter.com/midnightz Eman Zaman

Is he stupid?! When WP7 catches up with other handsets in terms of OS then price will become a huge differentiator between handsets. Why would anyone want to pay £3.99 for Angry Birds when they could buy it for £0.79 on iOS or for free on Android? This is hardly a customer-centric focus and that’s precisely what WP7 is purported to be.