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Apple App Store Prices Rise in UK, India and Turkey (bbc.com)
Apple is to put up the price it charges for apps in the UK, India and Turkey. From a report on BBC: UK costs will numerically match those of the US, meaning that a program that costs $0.99 will now be 99p. That represents a 25% rise over the previous currency conversion, which was 79p. "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," it said. "These factors vary from region to region and over time." The rise will also affect in-app purchases but not subscription charges. The cost of a $0.99 app will become 80 rupees in India, representing a 33% rise from the previous price of 60 rupees.
The real question is how quickly Apple will move to reduce prices if/when the Pound recovers?
lol. How quick is "never"?
I do not want your cheap brainburning drugs. They are useless for work. And I am a working man today.
its basically charging arbirtarily different prices in different regions and pocketing the difference. I am sure a US app maker will still get paid in USD.
As an app developer, I can correct your incorrect assumptions.
Apps on the app store come in different "price tiers" from free, to $0.99, to $1.99 etc. Apple translates these prices for countries other than the USA. Mostly this is done by multiplying or dividing by the exchange rate, adding VAT where necessary, and rounding to a nice even amount (if they calculated the correct price should be £2.04 or £1.94, then the actual price will be £1.99, for example).
When the customer pays, Apple removes the VAT which they pay to the tax office of that country, takes their 30% or 15% cut, and then converts the money into the currency of the developer, and that's the amount paid.
Apple also tries to keep the prices constant for long times - they could have done the UK change six months ago, so for six months UK citizens actually got a rebate.
The users pay a fair price - each user pays an amount so that the same money ends up in the developer's pockets. So users are not "fucked". And developers get roughly the same amount of money wherever you buy an app. Right now, developers got 20% less if you bought in the UK instead of the USA, for example, and that has now been corrected.