Many apps and in-app purchases are now around 20 percent more expensive in Europe, including Apple software. Subscriptions do not appear to be affected. What users need to know now.
As announced, Apple has implemented a comprehensive price increase in the App Store: prices for many apps and in-app purchases have risen by around 15 to 25 percent in the euro zone since Wednesday. In other countries, including Poland and Sweden, Apple corrected its price levels upwards. Developers and app providers are not completely free to set their prices in the App Store, but have to choose one of the predefined “tiers”.
Many apps now more expensive
Accordingly, the prices for apps and in-app purchases increase automatically if the respective provider does not manually set a lower price level. Software such as the popular drawing and painting tool Procreate, which uses Apple’s price level 10, now costs 12 euros in Germany and other European countries instead of 10 euros. The price of Minecraft went from 7 to 8 euros. The basic price of 0.99 euros has automatically become 1.19 euros. However, other app providers have corrected their price level downwards in order to maintain the previous price: apps for EUR 0.99 or EUR 0.49 are still available if developers use Apple’s alternative price levels for them.
Apple’s own professional applications for Macs have also become significantly more expensive: Customers now have to pay 350 euros for Final Cut Pro instead of 300 euros, and the price of Logic Pro has increased from 200 to 240 euros.
The discount campaigns on App Store credit that have long been regularly offered in stores and by Apple itself have also practically disappeared, with many buyers and subscribers saving a good 10 percent on every purchase.
Criticism of unilateral price increase
Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney, who is conducting a bitter legal battle against Apple, criticized the step: It shows Apple’s pricing power, the group is arbitrarily raising the price against the wishes of the developers – in view of inflation and fears of recession, it is ultimately a bad one Time to raise prices for digital goods.
Apple did not give a reason for the announced euro price increase. However, the group should be reacting to the weak euro, and the prices for the iPhone 14 have already been raised significantly in Europe. The app store prices have been repeatedly adjusted to exchange rate changes in the past – most recently in the summer of 2021 downwards.
Subscription prices currently remain unchanged
Nothing is currently changing for subscribers to services and apps; they are excluded from the automatic price increase. This applies to Apple’s in-house subscription offers as well as to subscriptions made in apps from other companies. Services such as Apple Music, iCloud storage space and the Apple One bundle will therefore continue to be offered at the known prices. However, Apple has already obtained approval for “proportional” price increases from all App Store users. Apple Music’s student subscription price increased for the first time in June.
Price increases are also open to other subscription services, and since spring 2022 no special approval has to be obtained for this. However, the subscription prices in apps are usually only increased for new customers; existing subscribers then continue to pay the original price – as long as they remain in their subscription level. Some providers generally charge higher prices for subscriptions in their iOS apps than for purchases on the web, for example – and thus pass on the commission to be paid to Apple to the end customer. All subscriptions concluded with Apple and in apps can be viewed and managed in the iOS settings or the system settings of macOS for the “Apple ID” in the Subscriptions section.
