They’re probably not quite there yet but many people have been questioning this.
A part of this article from Macworld seems to ring especially true in the context of this week’s $20 January update – see the section titled ‘Sticker Shock’ and here’s an excerpt which makes a good point about Apple’s pricing for ringtones:
Another clue that a company has monopoly power is when you find yourself suffering sticker shock…..
That same shock rippled through the iPhone enthusiast community yesterday when Jobs announced with a straight face that iPhone ringtones based on iTunes songs would cost the full price of the song, plus 99 cents extra. What? The full song costs 99 cents! How on Earth can Apple seriously charge the same amount again for the ability to hear just 30 seconds of the song — the same length as the free iTunes “samples”?
If Apple charges $.99 for a 30 second segment of a song that you’ve already purchased then $20 for some UI tweaks and a few old apps isn’t such a surprise after all.
