The app store will shortly be coming to town. And what does the app store have in (ahem) store for us? Free software!
While this wasn’t the original plan of the Apple bunch, it is quickly becoming a reality if figures from an industry survey are to be believed.
Apple planned for the apps in the app store to sell for an average of $10 each. From this $10 sale they would take a $3 for their trouble. It’s not a lot when you say it like that, but when you say it like this: “there will be millions of downloads”, it soon takes on a different meaning.
So what of this free software then?
Industry analyst Gene Munster conducted a survey of 20 developers that planned to release software for the app store. These developers revealed that over 70% of those apps would be available to the grateful customer for free. Of the remaining apps for which a charge would be made, the price was looking to be settling on an average of around $2.29 – a far cry from Apple’s estimates.
Munster also discovered that half of those surveyed were working only on iPhone apps and half were working on apps for the iPhone and for the Mac environment.
Free software all around, then!