Apple to increase app prices in Australia: Report

Apple will increase its App Store prices in Australia and several other regions within the next 24 hours, according to an email sent to app developers on Tuesday 1 April and posted on MacRumours.

According to the message sent to developers notifying them of the changes, App Store retail prices will increase in a number of markets, including Australia, India, Indonesia, Turkey and South Africa in order to account for changes in foreign exchange rates.

The message also indicated that Apple will lower App Store prices in Israel and select price tiers in the New Zealand market.

In the email, Apple said that price adjustments on the App Store are made periodically due to changes in foreign exchange rates.

Over the course of the past year, the Australian dollar has gone from being worth more than US$1.00 to less than US$0.90. As of 1 April, it was worth US$0.93.

Although Apple has not indicated how much its App Store prices would change in the affected regions, developers have been told that the new pricing will be available to them on the developer pricing matrix within the next 24 hours.

This is not the first time Apple has adjusted its App prices in response to foreign exchange fluctuations. In mid-2011 it reduced App Store prices in several markets including Australia and Japan.

At the beginning of the year the company reported a drop in net profit after tax in Australia to AU$58.4 million, down from ther previous year's AU$95.4 million. This was despite recording a 22.9 percent boost in revenue in the 2012 financial year ending 29 September 2012 to AU$5.9 billion.

The move to increase App Store prices locally comes only months after it was revealed that Apple had moved almost AU$9 billion in untaxed profits from its Australian operations to an Irish tax haven over the past decade.