Mobile games are priced all over the spectrum, with some adopting the free-to-play model, while others charging as much as $10. However the question is, what’s a fair price to charge for a game, or an app if we’re speaking in general? Naturally a lot of things are taken into consideration, like the time spent developing it, testing it, marketing it, and etc.
However it seems Google is more than happy to allow Android devs to experiment with its prices. According to a report from The Information (paywall; via Engadget), the company is reportedly thinking of introducing a feature where Android devs could price their apps differently, meaning that one person could see it priced at $1, while another could see it priced at $2.
The goal here is to allow developers to better understand at which price point will attract customers the most. Of course this follows the law of supply and demand where the equilibrium has to be achieved, but what price that is will have to be discovered, hence the experimentation with the prices.
Naturally some users will be miffed if they find out they’ve paid more for an app than someone else so in essence, this experiment could backfire. Perhaps there might be some kind of refund system that allows devs to refund customers once a price point has been determined. There’s no confirmation if this is a direction Google will be headed, but with Google I/O taking place later this month, perhaps we will learn more then. In the meantime what do you guys think of this idea?