If you’re a regular online shopper, you’ve probably noticed that the Aussie dollar has been fluctuating wildly of late — and not in our favour. Thanks to our weak dollar, Apple is getting ready to update (read: raise) App Store prices to better reflect our terrible exchange rate.
It’s been about a year and a half since Apple updated its pricing for Australia last April, with some price points seeing an increase of up to 30% at the time. This new price rise, set to happen within the next 36 hours, seems to be an increase of roughly 15% — with $US 0.99 apps currently costing $1.29 set to rise to $1.49. Australia is not the only market that will be affected by the upcoming App Store changes, with Sweden and Indonesia also seeing price increases thanks to exchange rate fluctuations.
It’s not just app pricing that will be affected, but also In-App Purchases, including automatic subscriptions. If you’re currently a subscriber to an app, your automatic payments will not be cancelled, but you will get an email informing you of the changes to what you’ll be paying. Previously, Apple has automatically cancelled IAP subscriptions because of price changes — so make sure you aren’t relying on them to do the same again this time.
While the Australian App Store hasn’t had a $0.99 price point since the last price increase in 2014, the good news is that Apple is bringing it back. The new cut-price tier sees developers once again able to offer apps on the Australian store for $0.99 — although whether any devs choose to implement it is another matter.
[9to5Mac]
Comments
11 responses to “Prices On Apple’s Aussie App Store Are Going Up”
Greed is good, or something.
I think i saw someone else ask a brilliant question.
‘Did the prices go down when our dollar was doing well?’
I think we all know the answer to that
Actually, they did. Took them a while, but they did it.
http://www.smh.com.au/digital-life/smartphone-apps/apple-australia-slashes-app-prices-by-up-to-25-20110714-1heuu.html
huh, well found sir!
Its like interest rates at the bank. Go up immediatly in response to a change but to go down all of a sudden it takes months
And this is exactly why I haven’t bothered buying anything off the app/iTunes Store for a long time, even though I am an iPhone user.
When our dollar became strong I never remember Apple updating their prices to retain parity with US prices. Now that we’re back to where we were before and the price difference makes sense, they increase it yet again!? ‘Coz you know, gotta keep that Australia Tax a part of sales…
Fuck ’em!
They eventually did introduce parity with US prices (but like $69 games it took forever)
However they’ve never reduced the prices on iTunes (ie music, movies) citing rights holders as the culprit
And also yes fuck them – haven’t paid money for an app in years
In apps too?
… Not that i bought into that but all those parents that blame phones for their credit card bills are not gonna be happy lol
Just as long as they pay all the taxes they owe the people of this and many other countries, they can charge what they want as far as I’m concerned.
Just one more reason not to buy apps. When my iPhone 4 finally dies I’m never buying another apple product again.