Sarah Perez for TechCrunch: Over Half of Vision Pro-Only Apps Are Paid Downloads, Far More Than Wider iOS App Store

According to a recently released report from app intelligence firm Appfigures, over half of Vision Pro-only apps (52%) are paid downloads — a surprising percentage given that across the wider App Store, only 5% of apps monetize this way.

My impression is we’re more in gold rush territory than sustainable business territory when it comes to Vision Pro software. There are a few hundred thousand people out there with cash to spend who want to justify their major purchase, and they’ll YOLO on more paid apps than they normally would for their phone. This isn’t judging, I’m one of these people too!

I will also say that in a world where most software has a free trial, paid-up-front apps are actually great for someone like me who makes a modest business of reviewing apps on YouTube. When an app has a free trial, I think a lot of people will just try the trial and see how they like the app. But if an app is paid upfront, they could be more likely to search YouTube for some hands-on impressions to get an idea of whether the app is worth their money. The open question is whether the relatively tiny market for these apps right now will pay off for me as a YouTuber. Candidly, I hope I can be someone showing how visionOS works in practice so other people can get an idea for when and if they want to jump on board.