Apple’s Free Apps ⇥ fastcompany.com

Austin Carr, Fast Company:

Apple products are usually seen as expensive if not out of reach for average consumers; rarely are they associated with being free. But today the company took a big step toward changing that perception at a splashy event in Cupertino. “For the last several years, we’ve been on a mission,” Apple SVP Craig Federighi said on stage, “[and] today we’re going to revolutionize pricing.”

And revolutionize, they did: Mavericks, iLife, and iWork all became free, though the latter two require the purchase of a new Mac or iOS device for that price. But, while Carr (and others) are focused on how this compares to Microsoft’s pricing strategy for Windows and Office, note too that this competes favourably with Google’s free offerings. But while Google offers products for free in exchange for targeted and tracked advertising, Apple’s able to make enough money by selling real, physical products that they can offer their software for free, or for a nominal price. That’s a pretty good deal.