Apple raises the price of apps in seven territories, including South Africa

Have you already adjusted your budget for the year ahead to include your new Netflix subscription and the ever-rising price of a loaf of bread? If so, then there’s one more thing you need to tick upwards – Apple just announced an increase in the cost of apps on its App Store for seven territories, including South Africa.

Tech blog The Next Web reports that “following fluctuations in exchange rates, Apple has informed developers today that it’s planning to change the App Store pricing in a number of countries within the next 72 hours.”

The territories affected by the price rise are Canada, Israel, Mexico, New Zealand, Russian, Singapore and South Africa, and these prices rises affect In-App Purchases as well as the purchase of the app itself.

Bear in mind that this doesn’t only affect whether or not you pick up that app you’ve been thinking about over the last few weeks. It also affects apps that are already installed on your device. In a memo sent out by The App Store Team, they explain that “Subscribers in Russia and South Africa will need to re-subscribe at the new price. Israel will not be impacted, as auto-renewable In-App Purchase subscriptions are not available there.”

The rise in prices is a subtle acknowledgement from the world’s leading technology company that it doesn’t expect the South African exchange rate to improve any time soon. The last time that prices were hiked on the App Store for South Africa was during March 2014, and seen in that light, a rise in pricing was probably inevitable.

Here’s a link to a .pdf which shows the new pricing for all the tiers in the App Store, but it’s massive and not particularly helpful.

What we can tell you is that the cheapest apps in Tier 1 are now charged at R18.99, while the top tier apps are just one cent below the R20 000 mark. According to Macworld, “Apple permits developers to choose from 94 price tiers, which range from US$0.99 to US$999.99. Developers pick one price tier, which applies to every country that their app is distributed in.”

It’s not yet confirmed when these changes will go live, but Apple is reported to be implementing them anytime within the next three days. In fact, by the time you read this, there’s a good chance that prices have ticked higher.

If you’d like to find out more about how Apple works with developers to set prices for apps, then you can read the full “Beginners Guide to App Store Pricing Tiers” on Macworld.