Wolfram Alpha's iPhone app now only costs $1.99

The app has created custom keyboards for typing mathematical formulas. Makes for a much better experience.

I highly doubt that.

I think Wolfram and the folks at WRI were just off their rockers when they made that price hoping that they could get some sales at that price and then depending on the reception go from there.

That or Wolfram was kidding himself into believing that people considered a WolframAlpha app was that much of a value to them rather than using the site in Safari.

Since everyone balked they just reacted.

My guess is that they were trying to skim off as much revenue from the potential customer pool as possible. If you charge $49 and only get 100 takers, you still make more than if you had 1000 paying $1.99. I know there's different thresholds to consider, but this is a fairly common pricing strategy. Remember Apple's original $599 iPhone?