On App Friday February 3rd, many people reported having trouble downloading the free featured apps. When they tried to download, a “price is being modified” message came up consistently throughout the day.
The rumor mill indicated it was a result of an iTunes software upgrade, and the problem was felt universally. As I learn more, I’ll post the updates on the Moms With Apps Facebook page, and in the comments of this post.
Lorraine
Developers who had trouble with their price changes last #appfriday will have “Make Up” visibility in the post next week if they want to re-list their promotion. Meanwhile they are still troubleshooting independently. Updates are being posted on the Facebook Wall at MomsWithApps direct from the developers: http://www.facebook.com/momswithapps.
I had the same difficulty. I appreciate that you’re following up with this issue. My students & I certainly enjoy all of the apps to “try before I buy”.
This problem is still occurring. We just dropped the price for iTouchiLearn Words and this triggered that message. It’s really hurting sales:(
Lorraine,
I’ve seen this sort of thing a number of times. My belief, and I’m fairly sure I’m right is that we’re dealing with a simple time-zone issue. When an apps price is changed, that change is pushed by Apple across their network of “stores” around the world such that the price changes on the date specified when the developer changes the price. What I’ve noticed is that the price will change in one store ahead of others if that store is further advanced in time than the others. If you wait until the other stores reach the specified day, I think you’ll find that the problems go away for people that would be purchasing/downloading from that store. This has certainly been my experience. Back in December when you had the appfriday event started in Australia, we saw this problem for a number of hours for people in countries other than Australia.
Further to the above, I suspect that the problem may also be exacerbated by Apple starting a price change in the store that is “local” to the dev, but that’s more of a gut feeling than an observation.
Hey @peter. But the issue is that this particular appfriday generated a ton of messages about downloading. Most appfridays are smooth (in terms of my inbox), and sooner or later folks get the app. But this day, it was causing problems, specifically in the US store, all day. It was the “outspoken” influx of messages that made me realize it was another level of issue than ones I’d seen before in the past two years doing the promotion.