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Pricing is always tricky. Though I consider the Aquarium a simulation, people think of it as a screensaver. I had to resurrect the concept of paying for a screensaver, which was totally dead when I came out with the product. I picked $20 as a price because it seemed to me that it's something that most people could afford -- the price of dinner, or a movie for two. But it's high enough to be taken as a real purchase and not just a throw-away. People could consider it a real gift for birthdays, Mother's day, etc.
The price was just a shot-in-the dark, but quickly became standard for many other programs that copied my business model. Though it worked out extremely well for me, it didn't for anybody else. I was hoping that someone would try different price-points so I could use them as a test-case, but most either gave up or continue to limp along with the same plan.
A few months ago, I lowered the price for MA2.6 to $14.95. This was done so that people who recently bought the program wouldn't feel cheated if they get charged $5 to upgrade to MA3. When the price was lowered, the volume went up a proportionate amount so that revenue was virtually unaffected. But when you increase sales by lowering prices, you have a lot more customers to deal with and need to pay more people to deal with them.
I'm always open to suggestions, but it would be difficult for me to change a formula that is already known to be successful.
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