Nat Ives of Advertising Age assesses whether The Wall Street Journal will be successful in charging mobile phone users $104 a year to access its mobile application.
Ives writes, “If you’re not a subscriber to the Journal in print or on the web, prepare to pay $2 every week for the privilege of using the mobile app — $104 every year. If you subscribe to either the print or online edition, you can pay just $1 extra dollar every week. If you subscribe to both, you can have the app for free.
“Previous experiments with charging haven’t come close to those levels. The Associated Press experimented this year with selling its BlackBerry app, for example, for $2.99 — one time only. Many app developers talk about getting 10 people downloading the free version for every one person willing to pay, but the AP found a much bigger difference.
“‘Most folks talk about a 10 to 1 ratio,’ said Jeff Litvack, general manager for mobile and emerging products at The Association Press. ‘We saw a significantly higher ratio.’ The reason? So much similar content was already widely available.”
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