Paul Kafasis (Rogue Amoeba) writes about The App Store Effect on iPhone software pricing.

If developers could charge a price lower than 99 cents, there’s no doubt that some would, and the price curve would shift even lower.

Update (Dec. 28, 2008):

Daniel Jalkut (Red Sweater Software) ads his take in Touch and Go Pricing.

iPhone applications are too cheap, and changes are needed to encourage the development of premium applications that sell for a fair price.

Brent Simmons (NewsGator) follows up with On the App Store and Free Markets.

Some of the response Paul’s and Daniel’s recent writing about the App Store has gone something like this: It’s a free market — deal with it.

Here’s the thing, though: it’s not a free market.

Recently, I had need to provide a back button similar to the one used in Mobile Safari for a consulting project.

Many of the buttons used in the built-in iPhone applications are made available via the SDK with built in button types and graphics. Unfortunately, the back button is not one of these.

Because I needed to display the toolbar button from inside a static library which can not include images, I had to render the back arrow directly in code.

Since this was a bit time consuming, I thought I would share in hopes that it saves someone else a little bit of time.

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- (CGContextRef)createContext
{
   // create the bitmap context
   CGColorSpaceRef colorSpace = CGColorSpaceCreateDeviceRGB();
   CGContextRef context = CGBitmapContextCreate(nil,27,27,8,0,
                            colorSpace,kCGImageAlphaPremultipliedLast);
   CFRelease(colorSpace);
   return context;
}
 
- (CGImageRef)createBackArrowImageRef
{
   CGContextRef context = [self createContext];
 
   // set the fill color
   CGColorRef fillColor = [[UIColor blackColor] CGColor];
   CGContextSetFillColor(context, CGColorGetComponents(fillColor));
 
   CGContextBeginPath(context);
   CGContextMoveToPoint(context, 8.0f, 13.0f);	
   CGContextAddLineToPoint(context, 24.0f, 4.0f);
   CGContextAddLineToPoint(context, 24.0f, 22.0f);
   CGContextClosePath(context);
   CGContextFillPath(context);
 
   // convert the context into a CGImageRef
   CGImageRef image = CGBitmapContextCreateImage(context);
   CGContextRelease(context);
 
   return image;
}
 
- (UIBarButtonItem *)backButton
{
   CGImageRef theCGImage = [self createBackArrowImageRef];
   UIImage *backImage = [[UIImage alloc] initWithCGImage:theCGImage];
   CGImageRelease(theCGImage);
 
   UIBarButtonItem *backButton = [[UIBarButtonItem alloc] initWithImage:backImage
                                        style:UIBarButtonItemStylePlain 
                                        target:self.webView 
                                        action:@selector(goBack)];
 
   [backImage release], backImage = nil;
 
   return [backButton autorelease];
}

Mike Rohde posted some of the design work he did for me on Bullfrog Touch. I always find it interesting to see preproduction artwork for games.

Mike took the icon that Jordan Langille created and produced the Bullfrog Touch logo which you can view here:

Mike also helped design the look and feel of the high scores list by creating some concept art that we then modeled the final interface on. You can see Mike’s original artwork here:

For comparison, here’s how the final high scores screen turned out:

Update (Dec. 20, 2008): Mike posted a more detailed write up on the process: Bullfrog Touch Logo & iPhone UI Design

TidBITS readers voted Bullfrog Touch as one of the favorite iPhone Games for their 2008 Gift Guide.

The top three vote-getters were Bullfrog Touch, Scrabble from Electronic Arts, and MotionX Poker

Thanks to everyone who voted.

Bullfrog Touch is in the running for Best iPhone Game for the upcoming TidBITS Gift Guide 2008.

You can help decide what makes it into this year’s guide by placing your vote. But hurry, the deadline is December 5.