Tag Archives: discounting strategies for apps

Do you feel screwed when you purchase an app at full price, then find out later the price has dropped? Mark Rein from Epic Games thinks you should.

I first heard of Mark’s Twitter rants from PocketGamer.biz.

I purchased Epic Games’ Infinity Blade at full price for $5.99. It truly is setting the bar for graphics and game play for its game type. With that said, would I have felt screwed if Mark and company decided to drop the price over the holiday season? No way. Why should someone else’s good fortune of getting a great deal cause me to feel screwed? The whole buyer psychology of feeling screwed after paying what you felt was fair price baffles me, especially over the few meager dollars we are talking about with iOS apps.

I applaud EA for their aggressive $0.99 app promotional strategy. It is crucial to maintain high visibility in the App Store over the holiday season. EA will rack up the sales this holiday season, and leave other game makers like Epic Games in the dust.

For tips from the experts on how to set your holiday app marketing plans, check out my November 2^nd ClickZ column “Holiday App Store Traffic Is Insane, Don’t Miss Out”.

“When it comes to driving your app up the rankings chart in the App Store, make sure you have the following two tactics in your corner: discounting and press.

Smart App Marketing’s Rob Weber talks with Michel Kripalani the CEO of Oceanhouse Media about what it takes to deliver hit after hit in the App Store.

Oceanhouse Media publishes e-books and mobile games based on famous characters from Dr. Seuss, the Berenstain Bears and Rudolph to name a few.

The publisher is a media darling, having been featured in both national press and top tech press including: The New York Times, CNN Money, The Wall Street Journal, MSNBC, FastCompany, Wired and cnet.

Thanks to iPhone/iPad DevCon for press access at the 2010 San Diego conference.”

[Originally posted on Smart App Marketing November 30th 2010, along with my video interview of Michel]