A packet of Lays costs $1 in the USA. The exact same product costs Rs. 10 in India. If its price was bumped up to Rs. 50 to bring it in line with its pricing in the USA, I doubt they’d be able to sell even a small fraction of the number of units they’re selling today.

In general, the value Americans place on a dollar is roughly equivalent to how much Indian value Rs. 10 at. So an application that costs $4 on the App Store might be only as expensive as, or perhaps even cheaper than, a cup of joe in the USA, but it’s equivalent to ten such cups in India. That’s a steep difference and one that Indians cannot just ignore when making a purchase. To put this into better perspective, $5 is the maximum I ever spend on my phone in the entire month (voice and text combined; data excluded).

So, yeah, maybe our judgement is clouded by the fact that the value of a single dollar is five times as high for us as your average American and therefore, maybe we shouldn’t be commenting on its fairness or justifiability.

Twitter client developers are also going to get the idea, add this SIMPLE feature to their clients. This means one less icon used on your home screen. I think I would have paid $2 for this app to keep me occupied until 3.0 arrives, but $4 is just too much. It’s not that I can’t afford this app. It’s that there are way more interesting thing on the App Store for $4.

Twas fun.

However, the verdict is purely subjective, and Preshit has stated his ‘opinion’ that the average twitter user will not go ahead and make that purchase. It’s a good app, and if you want that functionality it will serve you well. But my friend ‘average-Joe’, who uses Tweetie on his iPhone, will not go out and spend more than that to get something like saving drafts. Most people don’t even care about tweets.

Birdhouse will be appreciated among those who really want that functionality, but it won’t be a rapidfire “must buy” item like some of the App Store gems. And in my opinion, the main reason for that, is the price. That’s not the way you and I think (sorry to drag you into this). That’s the way the general app store customers think (mainly due to the abundance of cheap $1 apps out on the store). Great app, but sucky price.

*/ My views are purely subjective, and my own opinion. These are not facts, and are not based on hard evidence. /*

If the application were crappy—not doing what it was supposed to do, poor design, crashed a lot—then I think that there’s a valid argument about a program being overpriced. But it seems to me that, as you say, Birdhouse does exactly what it sets out to do. As such, it’s up to the consumer to decide whether or not the price is worth paying. Nobody’s *making* you purchase Birdhouse in addition to other Twitter apps; nobody’s making you purchase other Twitter apps, either. I’m not convinced that that argument holds water.

Are you kidding me? Yes, it’s more than one Twitter app (and $6 less than Twitterrific). So what? These prices are all chump change, and far too low for what we’re getting. If consumers aren’t willing to pay fair, reasonable prices, developers aren’t going to be ABLE to create software. Period.

Aayush, when you start writing software, you can start dictating prices for it. If you’d like a lower price, that’s fine. But blanket statements like this are beyond ridiculous, they’re insulting. If you don’t believe the application is worth $3.99, you’re entitled to that opinion. But don’t state it as a fact. I’ve used this app for months, and it’s worth far, far more to me.

Not anymore. $4? Seriously? Uh, no, thanks.

I am one of the more public opponents of the App Store’s downward spiral when it comes to application pricing. But, at the end of the day, I’m also a consumer. I agree that, in general, maybe four dollars isn’t too much to pay for what this application does (though Rs. 200 is, but let’s keep that aside for now). However, that’s where equities of scale come into play.

I can’t possibly be expected to pay $3 for the best Twitter client on the iPhone and $4 for an app that compliments it. It is, after all, just the Notes app with a prettier user interface and a door to Twitter. The maximum I—or anyone, really—ought to be expected to pay for this app is 50% of what it currently costs.