App Store price increases mandated by Apple now in effect in EU, with new 0.49 euro tier

Apple has made good its promises to increase App Store pricing in the European Union, with pricing including a pair of new low-cost tiers in effect since Tuesday morning's refresh.

First spotted by iFun, the price increase on both the macOS and iOS App Stores previously announced on April 28 is not a strict percentage jump in pricing per tier.

Not previously announced, is a new 0.49 euro "alternative price tier A" spotted, and applied to popular iOS platformer "Doodle Jump" and "alternative price tier B" still at 0.99 euro. The alternative tiers were previously available in India and China, and appear to now be extended to the EU as well.

It is not known if the new tiers are permanent, or a temporary promotion.

Similar to Tuesday's increase, in January, Apple increased pricing in the U.K as a result of the "Brexit" vote, as a result of currency devaluation.

"Price tiers on the App Store are set internationally on the basis of several factors, including currency exchange rates, business practices, taxes, and the cost of doing business," Apple said in a statement regarding the U.K price change. "These factors vary from region to region and over time."

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3 Comments

zoetmb

said about 6 years ago

I never realized there were tiers. I always thought the developers set whatever prices they wanted (including free) and Apple took 30%. Are there tiers in all countries?

normm

said about 6 years ago

zoetmb said:

I never realized there were tiers. I always thought the developers set whatever prices they wanted (including free) and Apple took 30%. Are there tiers in all countries?

If developers set their price in one currency, then the prices in other-currency app stores would need to be computed from that, and would be strange non-round numbers. I hadn't thought of this issue, but it makes sense that instead they choose a price tier, and get sensible looking prices in all stores. Price tiers also avoid the problem of developers continually making their app one cent cheaper than their competitors, until most apps are 1 cent.

cropr

said about 6 years ago

This change is very annoying for me. I have 3 apps on the App store that are only available in Euro based countries, and that now changed in price (I was informed last week by Apple). This means that all my own marketing material that mentions a price has become useless. The cost related to this marketing material cannot be neglected.
On top of that, one of the apps contains a online subscription to some content, which was aligned with the on paper subscription (5.99 Euro), but this is no longer possible.
Why can't Apple follow the scheme that Google uses. You as a developer define the price in the currency that you prefer, and Google provides the prices in the other currencies.