Wobble Words Price Drop to $2.99

dbalmer · 10/28/2009, 12:56 AM

Sales have been fine, and feedback has been awesome! I want to thank each and every person who has downloaded, played, and especially commented about Wobble Words this past month.

I've already added a lot of user-suggested features to the product roadmap, a few of which will also be in the upcoming 1.1.0 release (accepted by Palm, hopefully will be in the App Catalog this week).

I've also done a lot of soul searching about probably the most consistent bit of feedback: price.

I have no regrets about trying to set a higher and more sustainable standard for app pricing than the *Phone, but it's really obvious that consumers already have certain pricing expectations that look impossible to change.

So, I'm lowering the price to $2.99 this week. I'm hoping the drop will increase sales, obviously, which is a win-win because more sales means I spend more time improving the app (and making more apps in the future).

And hey, I'd it'd be awesome if all the folks who took off 1-3 stars due solely to price reconsidered their review after the pricing change takes effect.

insane42 · 10/28/2009, 02:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dbalmer

Sales have been fine, and feedback has been awesome!

Just fine?

dbalmer · 10/28/2009, 02:12 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by insane42

Just fine?

Actually, pretty good for a paid app in the catalog. This price change is more about addressing the most consistent negative comment for the app.

allergic · 10/28/2009, 02:21 AM

could you share how many you've sold? ballpark figure? i'd imagine your app is among the more popular paid apps, so it'd give a good idea as to how many people are out there buying apps for the pre...

ETA: love the app, i have no problem with the $4.99 i paid for it. i play it all the time -- reached 27k so far. thanks for the work you put into it!

insane42 · 10/28/2009, 02:34 AM

Ditto on Allergic. I'm VERY curious on how many apps are selling on the catalog...

ryleyinstl · 10/28/2009, 10:00 AM

http://forums.precentral.net/gobico-...op-2-99-a.html

malpha · 10/28/2009, 02:42 PM

Quote:

I'm VERY curious on how many apps are selling on the catalog...

A patch was just released on Preware which shows how many downloads an app has in the App Store...

dbalmer · 10/29/2009, 01:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by allergic

could you share how many you've sold? ballpark figure? i'd imagine your app is among the more popular paid apps, so it'd give a good idea as to how many people are out there buying apps for the pre...

ETA: love the app, i have no problem with the $4.99 i paid for it. i play it all the time -- reached 27k so far. thanks for the work you put into it!

I used a preware patch that's available now to see download counts for the apps in the App Catalog. For a ballpark, I'll say "low thousands" for the top downloaded paid apps.

I'm happy you love the app, stay tuned for more features in the coming months (about one release per month). 27K is nice! Have you tried some of the other variations? My favorite lately is: 3min, drops on, no shakes, no blanks. It's more challenging, yet still fun.

enormous · 11/05/2009, 09:46 AM

Looks like the updates that came out yesterday included Wobble Words 1.1.0, but still at the $4.99 price point.

sacherjj · 11/05/2009, 10:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by malpha

A patch was just released on Preware which shows how many downloads an app has in the App Store...

Unfortunately, we don't know how many of these translate into sales versus free downloads at first or redownloads because of space issues.

willxcore · 11/08/2009, 04:40 PM

A wise move. $4.99 was something I was obviously willing to pay, but it is a high price point for a game on a mobile device. Whether you want to argue that it had unfairly come to that conclusion by today's standards because of the iPhone is not really viable when you have other platforms to look at as well.

On PSN you can download a PSone classic came for a buck more than you are charging for Wobble Words. There is absolutely no game on the iPhone that's 5 bucks that will sell as well as a 1 dollar app. There are games like Doom and Metal Gear Solid that sell for more but are developed with high production value and carry a brand name that you obviously can't compete with.

I almost bought the Classic app just to have access to some old Palm games, but when I found out a lot of them were 10 dollars or more I immediately changed my mind. It just isn't worth that price. There are some really top quality games available on the iPhone that are just a dollar. I have friends with iPhone's that have to make really tough decisions on whether they'll pay even that one dollar just for a game. I have already spent around 15 dollars on apps for my Pre including Wobble Words. Like I said I don't regret paying the price, but I'm certain that pricing on the Pre will have to remain in competition with iPhone pricing just because it's set the standard and there's nothing you can do about it.

Think about what someone might say about Wobble Words or any other game and the price they paid. "Hey WW is a pretty fun game and at 5 bucks it feel like I paid for a quality app, but I wish I didn't have to spend so much" or "Hey WW is awesome and it was only a buck (or 2 or 3), what a value, this is awesome!"

See my point?

sivan · 11/08/2009, 08:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by willxcore

I almost bought the Classic app just to have access to some old Palm games, but when I found out a lot of them were 10 dollars or more I immediately changed my mind. It just isn't worth that price.

How were they worth the price on Palm OS but not on the Pre?

On a different topic, a lot of reviewers seem to like the app, but lower the rating to pressure the developer on price. The rating is there to judge if the app does what it's supposed to do.

willxcore · 11/09/2009, 01:52 PM

They weren't ever worth the price. I didn't have an old Palm OS phone but I wanted to have more games on my Pre so I thought I'd download Classic and then get older P.OS games. They are priced way too high to even be considered.

sivan · 11/09/2009, 01:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by willxcore

They weren't ever worth the price. I didn't have an old Palm OS phone but I wanted to have more games on my Pre so I thought I'd download Classic and then get older P.OS games. They are priced way too high to even be considered.

Those sold just fine before the iPhone, so what's changed? Is it the intense competition on the app store and if so do you think it should reflect on Palm's app catalog? Given webOS's mindshare you may have to wait for a while.

drizek · 11/09/2009, 02:08 PM

The lack of cheap apps made both my Palm OS and WinMo PDAs less useful than they could have been.

I was pretty disappointed to see how expensive apps for the Pre were on launch, but I think it is inevitable that the prices will go down eventually.

sivan · 11/09/2009, 02:29 PM

And yet forking $70 a month to Sprint is not an issue...

drizek · 11/09/2009, 02:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sivan

And yet forking $70 a month to Sprint is not an issue...

I ended up paying less per month with Sprint than I was paying for voice/sms alone with ATT. So no, it wasn't an issue because it was money I was spending anyway and I got a good deal.

Anyway, I am interested in both wobble words and word whirl, but I havent purchased either of them because Word Ace is also a lot of fun and it is free. You only need to have a few good free apps on the platform to bring the prices of everything else down.

sivan · 11/10/2009, 12:14 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by drizek

I ended up paying less per month with Sprint than I was paying for voice/sms alone with ATT. So no, it wasn't an issue because it was money I was spending anyway and I got a good deal.

The key here is your perception of spending. When you are paying a subscription fee you don't think about value. If Sprint tried to charge you by metered data, even if it came to less than $70 a month, you'd perceive usage as expensive.

Quote:

Anyway, I am interested in both wobble words and word whirl, but I havent purchased either of them because Word Ace is also a lot of fun and it is free. You only need to have a few good free apps on the platform to bring the prices of everything else down.

There will need to be an equilibrium where a developer can turn enough profit in compare to opportunities other than developing for the Pre. Lower prices are possible when the cost is spread over many buyers, and this depends on a large market and an efficient way for buyers to find the apps that interest them. Lower prices and free apps are not a certainty.

dbalmer · 11/10/2009, 12:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by enormous

Looks like the updates that came out yesterday included Wobble Words 1.1.0, but still at the $4.99 price point.

Palm's app submission process isn't quite instant. Up until very recently, once you submit a change, you have to wait for that submission to go through before making a change. So the 1.1 change was in review for a while and I wasn't able to change the price until it was published. Which I did, but triggered a review process on the price change.

Price should be dropping soon, and I must say, even with some of the delays, Palm's submission process has improved by leaps and bounds from a couple months ago. Keep up the good work, Palm!

dbalmer · 11/10/2009, 12:37 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by willxcore

Think about what someone might say about Wobble Words or any other game and the price they paid. "Hey WW is a pretty fun game and at 5 bucks it feel like I paid for a quality app, but I wish I didn't have to spend so much" or "Hey WW is awesome and it was only a buck (or 2 or 3), what a value, this is awesome!"

See my point?

Yup! The most consistent dings on my reviews were from price, so I took a hint.