Apple expands developer pricing options for apps in the App Store. The company today announced 700 new price points and tools, in what it describes as the biggest App Store pricing update in its 14-year history. In addition, developers can now automatically set regional costs in response to exchange rates.
The new App Store structure allows developers to choose from 900 price points for their apps, nearly ten times more than previously available. Pricing now starts at $0.29 and can go up to $10,000 on demand, the Cupertino giant announces.
In addition, app prices can now gradually increase in different ranges. For example, they can now increase every $0.10 up to $10, every $0.50 between $10 and $50, and so on. Apple is also adding different pricing conventions for all 175 regional stores.
Apple’s biggest App Store update yet
The update also makes it easier for developers to handle global exchange rates. Apple uses the example of a Japanese game developer that gets most of its business from Japanese customers. It can now set its pricing for its store in Japan and see global prices change automatically based on exchange rates and taxes. Previously, developers had to do this manually.
Apple says the new pricing structure is available today for apps that offer auto-renewing subscriptions. It will arrive for all other apps and in-app purchases in spring 2023.
For reference, according to the latest data, Chinese companies Tencent and ByteDance (TikTok) were the highest grossing publishers in global mobile app stores in the first half of 2022. Also for reference, the global mobile app market is highly centralized, with 91% of revenue coming from the top 1% of developers, according to Sensor Tower data. They analysed the success of developers in the app market and found that while market share is declining, the top 1% of developers continue to generate the vast majority of downloads and therefore revenue.