I disagree, I think you are incorrect to seperate "marketing from distribution." First, you mean differentiate between 'promotion' & distribution.'
Anyway, the app store is not simply a distribution channel. It's a market. A price driven one. Sure it's not in a vacuum. You can promote outside of it. But it is a pretty self contained market.
Of course, there is nothing wrong with a price driven market.
Yeah, just read up on the Marketing Mix, and that clarifies things.
When I say "marketing" I mean "pricing and promotion." Really, I mean any activity designed to increase demand, either by moving up the demand curve (pricing) or by shifting it to the right (promotion).
Distribution does not increase demand -- it matches demand with product (at least in my mental model).
So, yeah, "marketing vs. distribution" was not the best dichotomy since most people take distribution to be a subset of marketing.
Anyhow, details aside, I agree that the App Store is a market, but it's a market in the same way that Borders is a market. There are rules for increasing demand intra-Borders, but it's necessarily constrained.
I can't believe the iPhone app marketplace as such is purely price driven. People dropped around $400 on these devices and pay between $70-$100/month for the right to use them.
It's only the confluence of factors within the App Store itself that is driving down prices.
I can't believe the iPhone app marketplace as such is purely price driven. People dropped around $400 on these devices and pay between $70-$100/month for the right to use them.
that kind of reasoning can get you into trouble. People pay $1k+ on PCs & $60 a month to mostly use the web, yet most will not pay anything for access to apps, tools & content.
Around 2000 the web would have been significantly enhanced as a tool with access to a few paid content sites (Britannica, etc.), but few subscribed.
It is tempting to think of price/demand curves as a cold value proposition with users clearly getting more utility from a quality app then a Starbucks coffee. But mindsets move independently of this. Once consumers get comfortable with the notion that web apps are free or that iphone apps cost $.99, it's very hard to break.
BTW, along with that graph I would like to see if there is any correlation between development costs & app price.
Anyway, the app store is not simply a distribution channel. It's a market. A price driven one. Sure it's not in a vacuum. You can promote outside of it. But it is a pretty self contained market.
Of course, there is nothing wrong with a price driven market.