70% of iPhone apps will be free
June 11th 2008
Quoting Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster, AppleInsider reports that over 70% of all software available through the iPhone AppStore will be free. Moreover, the average cost of an application will fall be $3.00.
"We see this as a positive indicator of the potential for Enterprise adoption of the iPhone," he said. "We found the average cost of iPhone apps on the App Store to be $2.29, with 71% being free."
Munster took some time Monday following Steve Jobs's opening keynote to chat with 20 Apple developers, mingling amongst the crowd of 5,200.
Here are some of the other things he discovered:
• 50% said they plan to focus solely on the iPhone, touch
• 70% of developers have written for other phones
• 50% are writing for iPhone and Mac
• 15% of iPhone apps will use location-based services
• 10% will be entertainment
At first blush, it would appear that Apple might have a revenue problem with 70 percent of the apps being given away for free and an average selling price of less than $3.00 (ie the AppStore earns less than 90¢). It's not hard to imagine that developers selling their stuff will be subsidizing the rest with Apple at best breaking even.
However, a lot of what's getting created, especially the free stuff, will be just utter crap. A lot people hoping to get a finger in the iPhone honey pot won't get even get a taste.
A more interesting question is how many of these new faces at WWDC will find they like Apple better than developing for Windows, etc and decide to stay. How many will end up developing for the fairer platform...
What's your take?
