Saturday 24 January 2009

iPhone Apps Pricing Differences Between Regions

Recently I changed phones and decided to go with the iPhone. Besides battery life and the Apple iTunes lock in I'm happy with the device. Sidenote: why can't they make the device present as a USB hard drive?

However, the thing that gets me really annoyed is the way Apple locks you into iTunes by region. The really cruddy thing about this, beside the interface only being localised for the region you are in, and that some apps are missing altogether, is the price differences between region.

This is just one example, iSSH retails for 4.99 USD on the US iTunes site, and retails for 600 YEN on the Japanese. At current exchange rates that makes the local price approximalely 150 yen (1.70 USD) more.

C'mon what is the justification for this kind of difference in price?

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