How to price your apps, sell them, and earn a living

Former developer tools evangelist at Apple, Michael Jurewitz has been going flat out on the writing circuit this past week, topped off by a an insane final lap consisting of a 5-part series on understanding App Store pricing.

Pricing your app is probably one of the most difficult things you will ever do. It often feels like a shot in the dark at best and a wild-guessing game at worst. It's important to remember that there are a few things you can do ahead of time, and some very interesting things you can do later, to understand how successfully you may have priced your application.

Here's the breakdown, and the links to each part:

Part 1 looks at the phenomena of falling prices, or "racing to the bottom", and graphs the differences between top and median selling and grossing apps.

Part2 looks at the difference between top selling and top grossing apps, and which types of apps actually make money.

Part 3 looks at elasticities, demand curves, revenue maximizations, and the realizations that App Store business really is a business.

Part 4 looks at how all of the above should be factored into determining what price can be charged for any given app.

Part 5 is where Jury puts his own apps where his mouth is, showing how all this thinking was applied to Black Pixel's Kaleidoscope 2, and what the results have been to date.

Read 'em all, and thanks to Jury for sharing his insights, and driving all this across the line. Very nearly at Mach 1.

Source: Jury