IPUrbia

Every now and then, I take a quick meander through my cell phone provider’s third party software offerings and end up shaking my head at the sure atrocity and stupidity of the whole racket. $2.99 for a song? $3.99 per month for virtually every app possible, including such gems as “Astrology Mobile” and “Hip Hoptionary“. Over a three year period, that comes to almost $150, making “Astrology Mobile” more expensive than Microsoft Word, even before data usage charges.

Much can be said about the high pricing being the result of vendor lock-in and monopolies. I tend to think that it is the result of stupidity–the cell phone companies leave a lot of money on the table with prohibitively priced a la carte pricing structure.

Consider this: $5-$10 for unlimited access to any and all provider-sponsored cell phone applications. This price is reasonable enough to be appealing to a much wider audience, and the increase in revenue offsets the loss of revenue from the handful of people who bought BOTH “Astrology Mobile” and “Hip Hoptionary“. Application providers, who would get paid on a usage basis, also profit since they would have access to a much wider market than previously possible. In the end, the mobile application market booms, providers get more money, and we get better applications and free access to a horoscope on an anytime, anywhere basis. If that’s not a win-win-win situation, I don’t know what is.