It's a shame that a company even need to write an article like this. The venture backed economy in most technology companies really warps pricing models and allows companies with huge funding to disregard the actual 'making money' part
I remember my first start-up, where the software we were selling was what was paying for my ability to eat food and have a place to live. And a guy on the phone wondering why the software cost a thousand bucks and not $39.95 like the stuff he saw at Babbage's.[1] I said I probably wasn't the right person to ask about that.
[1] TIL Babbage's had already had a name change before the time period in question.
Agreed- all the more reason to not apply mass market, VC-backed product economics to your niche technical application. We are working on a niche desktop OSX app that we will price +200 USD. It's for business users with a budget and has a demonstrable ROI for exactly that kind of buyer, why cater to the $.99 or free crowd?
Part of the problem is the App store itself. It's primarily a consumer store, and price expectations are set accordingly. Sadly, Apple hasn't really done much to prevent the race-to-the-bottom pricing.
If the app was a sideloaded app only, the OP would be able avoid the questioning from the more frugal app store audience completely (and could conceivably cut his price by 30%).
The "even my company won't pay" comment was a bit shocking but also reminds me of Kalzumeus' experience with teachers and the already low price of bingo card creator.
