4,188 sales out of 6,200,000 impressions. That's a 0.0675% conversion rate. The exposure is what's driving the numbers.

When the author said "charge more" that's correct when the initial price was $1. I wonder the conversion rate on this if it had been $7. Maybe at a quarter of the price there would have been five times or even ten times the sales. We don't know because no data was gathered. Clearly the conversions would have been higher at a notably lower price, but it's unclear where the crossover point for total profits would be. Alternately, some portion of those 4188 buyers would have purchased at $60 or even $80.

Something to remember here is while you can as a consultant make more money in 40 hours if you charge more per hour for your time rather than working extra hours or turning away excess work, the point the author made about leveraging digital distribution should prove it's not the same scenario. Once your development cost is sunk, distribution (outside of an app store) is nearly free. Selling fewer units at a higher price isn't necessarily any better than selling more units at a lower price. The total's the thing.

People who just want something that sets them apart from their peers.

Why are you blown away? People pay 50 USD for a personalised phone cover. Is this different because it's software?

There is no difference between these two kinds of insane behaviours.

Okay you seem to have a weird worldview. I’m intrigued. Why do you think it’s insane? Did you ever buy clothes? What did you buy and what was your reasoning?

> Just ask what you want and they will pay for it?

Consider that, for many, spending $28 on a meal is something they do without a second thought.

If they are willing to spend that on food, which is a need they have much more often, why wouldn't they spend it on frivolous one time purchases?

That's consumer culture in a nutshell.

People pay to activate windows 10 which is 3x the price.

I'm an Apple user since 2007. I didn't buy this icon pack.