TL;DR: Most in-app purchases got more affordable, biggest price drops outside the Euro zone.
It was brought to my attention that, internationally, the pricing for my macOS/iOS app Actions For Obsidian was a bit odd. Apple isn’t without blame here, but ultimately that’s fully on me. I simply didn’t check all the local prices after setting the base Euro price tags, and I apologize.
Why it matters
The below changes do not look like much if you’re the Euro zone but for calculated local prices the difference can be staggering. Read below for more.
The new pricing
… went into effect over the weekend:
| License | “Size” | Old price | New price |
|---|---|---|---|
| macOS or iOS | S | €11 | €9.99 |
| M | €14 | €12.99 | |
| L | €17 | €17.99 | |
| Upgrade to both platforms | S | €8 | €7.99 |
| M | €10 | €9.99 | |
| L | €12 | €12.99 | |
| Combo license for both | S | €19 | €17.99 |
| M | €24 | €20.99 | |
| L | €29 | €25.99 |
You can access them from inside the app.
Where I went wrong
I looked a bit deeper into how Apple calculates local prices, and …it’s surprisingly lazy? Totally bonkers? Both, actually. I had no idea!
So, when a developer sets the price for an app or IAPs in the App Store, they can either pick from a pre-defined list of prices, or they can enter an arbitrary price. Since I like nice round numbers, I set the price to €19 instead of €18.99 (using one of the IAPs as example).
Here, Apple’s price calculation kicked in. I then spot-checked a few of those prices, they all looked fine, and I considered that task completed.
So, in the process, for those €19, Apple’s “calculation” set the local Australian price to AUD 29.00.
Only last week I learned that when I decrease that nice round €19 to €18.99, the Aussie price becomes AUD 29.99. (What.) Changing it to €18.00, it becomes AUD 29.00 again. Going down to €17.99, the local price drops to AUD 22.99. 🤯
Absolutely wild.
But why, Carlo‽
My current theory is that Apple really, really wants us developers to use their *.99 pricing scheme matrix (…, €7.99, €8.99, €9.99, €12.99, €14.99, €17.99, €19.99, €24.99, etc.). For those prices, there are properly calculated local counterparts.
But for those custom prices, Apple doesn’t actually calculate anything, it seems; they just use the nearest “standard” price. That’s why €17.99 comes out as AUD 22.99 correctly (because €17.99 exists in Apple’s matrix), but €18 is AUD 29.00 because their pricing matrix doesn’t contain that.
And it’s not just about Australia — my apps are available in 150+ countries which don’t use the EUR. 🤦🏻♂️
Summary
To my (potential) customers, I’m sorry for the oversight. If you were still on the fence whether or not to spend money on Actions For Obsidian, I do hope you take another friendly look.
To my fellow developers, spot-check your local prices often. 😅
PS: My other useful, nice, non-AppStore apps are unaffected by Apple’s pricing, and still very affordable. Wink wink, nudge nudge. 🤙🏼
