Ask HN: White Label Pricing My iPhone App? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: White Label Pricing My iPhone App?

2 pointssfalbo2 comments

I've had a request to license a white label version of one of my iPhone apps and update it with new artwork that will be provided to me from this client.

Personally, I charge $.99 for the app but for this client it will be part of a marketing campaign and given away for free.

I know the details are a bit vague but what strategies have you used to determine a license fee for white label versions of your apps/software?

Do you use past sales history and factor in premiums for the risk removed for the client (it's already developed and proven)?

Do you use other methods to determine a reasonable cost? Thanks in advance for the advice.

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I'd charge a standard consulting fee for the effort involved in rebranding and building the client's version of the app and charge them $.66 (your price - apple's cut) per download for the lost sales.

Now, if you think one of the following may be true: 1) there may not be many downloads 2) there may be issues getting paid regularly I'd get a lump sum to cover the lost download revenue.

The marketing campaign should have a targeted # of impressions (i.e. downloads) so you should be able to get that number from your client and multiply by the $.66 to come up with the lump sum.

If you want to take Aqua_Geek's approach which doesn't take into account your lost income going forward I would see if I could add a differentiating feature to the original app and release it soon after their version of the app goes live, this way there is a reason for someone to purchase your app even if they have already installed the other one.

EDIT: fixed some grammatical errors and removed some duplicate information

Figure out how much time the original app took to build and multiply that by the going rate for iPhone development. This will give you a ballpark figure of quotes this client might have been given for the app. Then charge a percentage of the estimated cost that you think is fair, keeping in mind that it's a huge win for them: there is little technical and timeframe risk as 99% of the development is already done. Worst case scenario, their campaign doesn't do as well as they would have liked.

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