Installer Apps Jailbroken iPhone Apps & Jailbroken iPod Touch Apps

The developer behind Frenzic and Twitterrific recently wrote an open letter to Mr. Steve Jobs himself. In this letter he basically complains about the price competition in the App Store.

He goes on to say that the development costs that go into an application(when developers and designers cost 150-200 per hour) make the process too risky. Talking about how developers are dropping their prices to the $0.99 range and because of that, his appliations are being pushed off the ‘top apps’ lists. This is coming from the person that is charging 10 dollars for a Twitter client(Twitterrific Premium).

I hate to be the bearer or bad news Craig Hockenberry, but we(the people who buy your applications) don’t care how much it cost to develop an application. If it’s too much, then don’t pay for it. Eventually the developers and designers will lower their prices. If not, then maybe developing applications for the App Store isn’t for you. It seems that other developers aren’t having any issues at all making money. . .then again he’s charging 5 dollars for a unique game on the iPhone(not just a Twitter client).

Pssst, Craig. . .if you make an application, when there are more than 5 others that essentially do the same thing. . .it won’t do well. Especially when your competition is charging much less than you are. No one is asking you to lose money. And if you can’t find a way to make a profit, we(the customer) don’t care. Maybe the App Store just isn’t for you.

On a final note, here is one excerpt from the letter. . .

I also worry that this low price point for applications is going to limit innovation on the platform. Sure, apps like Ocarina and Koi Pond are very cool and very cheap. But when are we going to see the utility of the platform taken to another level, like when spreadsheets appeared on the Apple ][ and desktop publishing appeared on the Mac? (It could be argued that Safari has already accomplished this, but I still think there is a third party idea that will be just as transformative.)

Just because you want a spreadsheet application to be big business on the iPhone doesn’t mean the other millions of iPhone owners want it. Most of us just want a small application that we enjoy showing off to our friends and family(especially the ones that have never seen an iPhone before).

You’re right, lots of applications have been marked down to the $0.99 price point and if you’re not willing to do this too, then be prepared to get left behind. The App Store just passed the 10,000 application mark. . .and this is just be beginning.