Google recently allowed paid apps to enter the Android Market on a pay per download basis. Before that, every Android application was free and developers were embraced by the community of T-Mobile G1 users. Yesterday however, there was quite a bit of negative publicity when the most expensive Android app to-date popped up on the users’ radar. It’s not the cost that caused the fuss but rather what the app does or does not do.
Indeed its a great feeling to get something for nothing but at heart hopefully we all realize that developers deserve compensation for the hard work it takes to deliver a desirable product or service, especially during this economy. With that said, I hope the majority of Android users can start to embrace well designed commercial Android apps as well. However, this may take a bit more time given that us G1 users are so used to having nothing but free apps at our finger tips and the only extra costs we’ve incurred have been for our G1 accessories. I think developers could probably help ease this transition and achieve greater sales during this early stage by using a freemium business model. That is, offering a basic free version of their mobile application that tempts the user to upgrade to a premium, feature filled version of their app. Alternatively, the devs could also offer a 30-day trial and extras like free lifetime upgrades to sweeten the deal.
Given that it’s been almost a week since Google opened the doors to commercial Android app developers, I thought it would be fitting to showcase some of their work. Below I have sorted out the top 10 most expensive apps in the Android Market. While I wouldn’t consider them to be the most clever android apps or great productivity apps either, I suspect you might find some of them entertaining. The prices were quite surprising to me in that I didn’t think they were ridiculously high at all. You’re probably going to disagree with me on number ten however, but I really don’t have a problem with it. Ultimately, an app is only worth what the user is willing to pay for it and I’m sure there’s someone out there that will fork over the cash to install the I AM Richer application on their Android device.
Top 10 Most Expensive Google Android Apps
1. Geocacher ($15) – Geocaching app chocked full of lots of fun, cool features
2. Pons Compact English Dict ($18.99) – An English-German-English dictionary with > 130,000 entries
3. Collins English Dict ($24.99) – Vast Collins dictionary with > 200,000 English definitions
4. Concise Oxford American ($24.99) – Includes more than 180,000 definitions
5. Mobile Pocket Finder ($24.95) – A personal locator app that lets people find your G1 from any phone or computer at pocketfinder.com. It can also tell you how fast it is traveling and permits you to set zone and speed alerts as well as view history.
6. AcroBible NAS ($25.99) – Offline Bible that’s easy to search, read, and personalize through bookmarks, notes, and highlighting. Synchronization of highlighting and notes possible through iBibleSpace.org
7. AcroBible NIV ($25.99) – NIV version of AcroBible NAS
8. Jazan Wild Carnival of Souls 4 ($99) – Comic book
Update: According to Sharon Barnes from Carnival Comics, this was a typo in the Android Market and the correct price should have been $0.99 instead of $99. Apparently you can’t see your own app for sale in the Market so Carnival Comics didn’t know until today when they received ~100 emails criticizing the price. Sorry to hear of the angry emails but at least now they are aware of the mistake. The correct pricing has been changed but Sharon said that it can take up to 24 hours for and old app to clear and the correct pricing to display.
9. Score Out Caddie ($34.99) – Tells you distances to golf course greens and hazards that can also be used to keep score and track performance at ScoreOut.com It is currently only available for San Francisco Bay Area golf courses and comes with a 30 day money back guarantee.
10. I Am Richer ($200) – The highest priced Android application to-date that does nothing but let everyone know, via its blue glowing diamond-like image, that you can afford an application that essentially does nothing (see image below).
I haven’t used any of these personally so I can’t tell you if they how well they perform. It will probably take at least a month to get a decent amount of user ratings data in order to make a well informed buying decision. Currently, many of the commercial apps ratings are skewed and misleading in that they are rated very high but they have only been rated by one or two people; most likely the developer and his/her spouse
Don’t get me wrong, there are really great quality apps out there and I’ve already spotted at least one commercial app in the Android Market that I’d be willing drop a few bucks on if I was ensured great support and free updates. For example, the PhonePlus Callback app ($1.49) permits you to send quick one-touch custom will-call SMS or email messages to a incoming caller when your busy and sets a reminder for you as well. That’s something really helpful that I could actually see myself using but then again, it’s not as prestigious as the I AM Richer app or probably not as fun as the numerous farting apps now available.
Regardless of our opinions, it all boils down to what the market determines to be a fair price for any given app and if there are enough people buying it to make it worth the developer’s time and financial investment to continue supporting it. So you really can’t get upset at someone selling an app that doesn’t really do anything if people are willing to buy it. After all, the developer’s cost and commitment is very little for such an application and the profit margins are great. So that’s why we are seeing all these lowbrow silly apps and why I imagine the Android Market, like the iPhone App Store, will surely see many more in the near future.
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JAZAN WILD CARNIVAL OF SOULS App.
The 99 dollars was a typo. It was suppose to be 99 cents. You can view Chapter One App for free at your Marketplace on all G1 Phones. Thanks Sharon (Carnival Comics V.P.)
Kevin reply on February 27th, 2009 2:43 pm:
Glad to hear the pricing change was made, I’m sure you’ll see more sales now that it’s $0.99.
I like the idea of offering the 1st chapter for free too!