[netcan]

The the relatively recent rise of two big types of software pricing & distribution is a opportunity to notice how different things in markets interact in these markets. If you spend your career in software you forget how weird an industry with n marginal costs is.

An app store lends well to $1-$10 apps creating a demand creating a supply.

Web based Saas lends well to $5-$50 apps creating a demand creating a supply.

If you need a sales consultant or a long decision making process you need to go into the 5-6 figures realm.

These things didn't happen because consumers really wanted smartphone apps that happened to cost around $1 or webapps that happened to cost $5 per month. The marble dictated the sculpture

Consumer webapps need to be sold as monthly subscriptions. Subscriptions have a customer decision making and vendor responsibility overhead that makes $5 roughly the lowest possible price, so you naturally get the "cheaper" apps bunching around the lowest viable point.

B2B web apps/services were able to crack into a price range that was inaccessible before. $1500 one off payment for a shrink wrap version is too expensive for self service sales & too small for a sales teams. $99 p/m with 30 days free isn't. Whole programming cultures formed around this new opening.