If there is one thing that Apple does best these days, it would be making money — tons of it. As of May 2015, Forbes reported that the Cupertino-based company is worth $741 billion, which it obviously didn't amass through economic considerations.
In March 2015, Apple raised the prices for its desktop and notebook offerings for Australia, New Zealand, Canada, France, Portugal, Denmark, Finland and Sweden due to the increase of the U.S. dollar value. The same reason precipitated another price hike in May 2015 for Europe and Canada, which raised the prices of iMacs, Apple's all-in-one desktop.
Now, after five months, Apple has once again notified its users in Sweden, Indonesia and Australia of a price hike as the USD gains more traction. This time however, it's the virtual goods that will spike in price by as much as 15 percent. For instance, apps that previously sold for $1.29 AUD will now be priced at $1.49 AUD in Australia. The same will be true for Indonesia and Sweden.
"When foreign exchange rates change, we sometimes need to update prices on the App Store," says Apple.
However, it's not only the apps that are affected. Even the auto-renewable in-app subscription will also experience a price hike.
"Although we're changing the prices for auto-renewable In-App Purchase subscriptions, we won't interrupt them," added Apple. "We'll send an email to your subscribers in Australia, Indonesia, and Sweden shortly before their existing subscription renews to let them know of the price increase."
In addition to the notification, the email that will be sent will also contain a link so users can turn off their subscriptions. Furthermore, the Australian App Store will also receive a couple of lower-price tiers, which are Alternate Tier A and Alternate Tier B.
Through the pricing scheme, developers can offer their apps to the Australian market for $0.99 AUD. Whether the developers opt for the lower-priced listing will be entirely up to them.
Photo: Kārlis Dambrāns | Flickr
