There are a lot of excellent Vision Pro apps already available, and early data shows that the App Store for visionOS is bucking a long-running trend. According to new data from Appfigures, cited by TechCrunch, the majority of Vision Pro apps are paid downloads, rather than being free to download with in-app purchases.
The average selling price of Vision Pro apps is $5.67, according to Appfgures.
The data suggests that 53% of Vision Pro-only apps are paid downloads. In comparison, just 5% of apps across the App Store on other platforms are paid upfront downloads. Additionally, Appfigures data shows that 35% of Vision Pro apps don’t monetize at all through the App Store, while only 13% offer subscriptions.
TechCrunch has some more details from Appfigures:
The analysis examined all the apps optimized for the Vision Pro, including the more than 700 apps optimized for the new device, meaning those apps that are Vision Pro-only and others where the developer optimized an existing app to work on Apple’s VR/AR headset specifically. However, it did not include the roughly 1.2 million iOS apps that work on the Vision Pro, but weren’t modified by their developers.
Including iOS apps that were modified to include a native Vision experience, only 17% were paid downloads, and 58% were monetized with subscriptions.
9to5Mac’s Take
Whether this trend holds as Vision Pro and visionOS mature as platforms remains to be seen.
An interesting tidbit I only recently remembered: when the App store launched in 2008, it didn’t support in-app purchases at all. Instead, the only options for developers were to offer a completely free app or to charge for it up-front. The in-app purchase monetization option didn’t debut until 2009, and has since become the far more popular option among developers.
In-app subscriptions, meanwhile, debuted in 2011. At the time, Apple emphasized the use of subscriptions for content-based apps such as magazines, newspapers, video, music, and more.
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