The price of a loyal iOS user has fallen again

In September, the price of a loyal iPhone user in the United States fell to the level of May 2011, as for the number of downloads, it remained almost at the level of August. 

A month ago, Micah Adler, executive director of Fiksu, promised a storm. In his opinion, after the release of the iPhone 5, the price of a loyal user (the one who launches the application at least three times), which fell in price by 20 cents in August, should have grown significantly. Instead, it fell another 20 cents to $1.13. About the same amount – $1.10 – cost a user in May 2011, after Apple banned offervalls. This is also at the level of the price for a loyal user in the “off season”: in January 2012, it cost $1.14.

In a new report, Adler tries to explain this by “the good work of marketers who have learned how to conduct advertising campaigns for less money.” It seems to us that this may be due to Apple’s ongoing war with bots, as well as the lack of real growth of the iOS user base. In other words, the company’s new products are not bought by new users, but by owners of previous devices. 

The number of free downloads also did not show the expected significant growth. If last year after the release of the iPhone 4S, the number of downloads significantly jumped (from 3.80 million per day in September to 4.91 million in October), then this September it has risen quite slightly: from 4.05 million to 4.07 million. 

True, both the low price for a loyal user and the relatively weak growth in free downloads may be due to the fact that the iPhone 5 was released in the US only on September 21. That is, not in the middle of the month, as it was a year ago, but, consider, at the very end. In addition, do not forget about the shortage of devices in the first week. 

So it may well be that the results for October will be much higher.