Apple's example Mac app prices land around $15-20

Reader Shane did a little zoom and enhance on Apple's promo image for the Mac App Store, and divined some potential prices for Apple's official apps. These same apps are the ones that set the pricing bar on the iPad, and so if these are real (and not just photoshopped in), then they're the first official indication we've gotten of just where Apple imagines pricing should be on the App Store. And where is that? Turns out they're pretty close to current software prices -- the iLife apps are priced out at $15, while the iWork apps are priced at $20, and when you add them all up, they cost about the same as the bundles you can buy in the Apple retail store.

There's also a few other titles (which appear to be just placeholders, not official Apple software, unless they're going to premiere some new apps with the App Store) at various prices. There's a dice game called Roll 'Em which is priced for free, an app called Color Studio at $29.99, and another game called Fast Lane priced at just $4.99. So as you might expect, there will be prices all over the place. Just like the iOS App Store, developers will probably come up with all sorts of ways to fund and profit from their apps, so I'm sure we'll see some popular free games as well as premium specialized apps.

But it sounds like Apple is aiming to hit about $15-20 for a standard full-featured Mac app. The question, then, will be what customers are willing to pay -- obviously each app is different, and each customer has their own priorities, but it'll be very interesting to see, as the Mac App Store debuts, just what happens to prices on this software.