Apple introduces ‘contingent pricing,’ redefining App Store dynamics
The marketplace on Apple’s App Store is opening up opportunities for you to get deals, for companies to make deals, and for everything to get a lot more competitive.
Apple is piloting a feature called “contingent pricing” and is planning on rolling it out to developers “in the coming months.” It’s being sold as a way for developers to “attract and retain subscribers,” reshape competition in the App Store, and foster user loyalty by allowing developers to “give customers a discounted subscription price as long as they’re actively subscribed to a different subscription,” Apple wrote in a post on the Apple Developer website.
Apple didn’t give specific examples, but I imagine that if you paid money to subscribe to, say, a photo editing app, another photo editing app could see that and lower the subscription price for you, specifically, for their app, in order to compel you to switch. “It can be used for subscriptions from one developer or two different developers,” Apple wrote, meaning companies could do this within their own apps — if you buy a subscription to a photo editing app, you get a deal on their video editing app, for instance — and also for competitors’ apps.
“If you’re interested in implementing contingent pricing in your app, you can start planning today and sign up to get notified when more details are available in January,” Apple wrote.
So if, in a few weeks, you start seeing deals your friends aren’t seeing, don’t fret — you’re just being sold to, but more intimately than before.
