Apple Raises App Store Prices In Pakistan But Not in India, Here’s Why!
Apple recently launched the iPhone 14 lineup, showcasing the powerful hardware embedded inside the Pro and Pro Max models. But if you think that only the iPhone is expensive, wait till you buy the apps from the Play Store. Apple yesterday announced that it is raising the App store prices on apps and in-app purchases in specific regions.
Territories that use Euro currency (France, Germany, Italy, Portugal, and Spain) and countries including Chile, Egypt, Japan, Malaysia, Pakistan, Poland, South Korea, Sweden, and Vietnam will witness a price hike from the next month.
App Store Prices: Apple Becoming Greedier?
Apple didn’t cite a clear reason for the surge in App Store prices. Bloomberg shared that it may be due to the strengthening of the US dollar while the Euro continues to plummet. Euro has come down and is now equal to the dollar, which is why Apple is raising its prices to account for currency disparity. Japan users will see an almost 30% hike in the App Store prices from October, which isn’t great news because their currency Yen is also at an all-time low.
Reports show that App developers already raised the prices last year. In-app purchase prices have gone up by forty percent, which seems to be good news for Apple and developers, but not for the end users. Apple is clearly doing it to boost its revenue at a time when most industries are facing revenue decline due to supply chain issues and the Russia-Ukraine war. But Apple seems to forget that this hike will impact a lot of paying users.
Some may even choose to end their subscriptions and leave the app altogether. Not every user can continue to keep paying for apps when the prices rise multiple times in a single year. App developers will also face the wrath of this price hike. They may have to raise the prices to accommodate the price hike and still earn enough from purchases.
App Store is a major source of revenue for Apple, and it recently added an advertisement tier to earn more by selling ad spots for app promotion. It also added a lot of extra services with the iPhone 14, for which users have to pay extra. Indian users are safe from this price hike because India uses USD as a currency standard as opposed to countries like Pakistan, which use Euro.
