That explains why it is in Apple's interest for prices to be low , but not really why prices are as low as they are. I imagine this is because of there is rela

That explains why it is in Apple's interest for prices to be low , but not really why prices are as low as they are. I imagine this is because of there is relatively little "value" in most mobile apps. A great number are basically just novelties or an alternative to using a browser for some specific task. A popular area in mobile stores is games, but most mobile games are more of the "Play for 10 minutes on the train" variety than "sit down and play multiplayer until the sun comes up" games. I might pay $40 for a game in the latter camp, but would be hesitant to spend more than $5-10 on the former. You could apply similar economics to desktop PC apps, where some similar effects can be observed in some cases. You could still argue that it is in a computer manufacturers interest for all software to be cheap or free but you still see plenty of big ticket desktop software that hasn't been particularly disrupted by low cost alternatives. Examples would be office, photoshop and the ilk.