1) When you buy software, you often aren't paying for the brand. As was stated in the original post, purchasing software is often done blindly and is a total gamble. Given that the brand of most software is worthless and the cost of production is nothing, where does the value of that software come from?
2) Granted, there are some arbitrary restriction on cars, but they are still a lot more open than software. You can easily alter them, fix them yourself, etc. None of that is remotely possible with commercially-distributed software. I can't just fork Tweetbot, add in support for Orkut, and redownload it to my phone. However, if I want to install a better radio into my car I can. Software (especially on mobile) exists as an immutable "black box" that you have no access to other than the user interface, and that makes it less valuable.
3) No one is arguing that it is inherently wrong to charge for software. People refuse to pay not because they are principally opposed to it, but because the average price of an app in the app store is far below $.99, and thus $.99 seems like an inflated price.
4) It's true that apps like Photoshop are valuable, but it's apparent that their prices are absurdly inflated. Pixelmator can make an app with 90% of the functionality at a little over 2% of the price. Is that 10% extra functionality really worth all those hundreds of dollars? For most, it isn't. The same can be said of apps. Sure, that $.99 app is cool, but this free one does 90% of what the paid one does. Is that 10% extra functionality really worth all those dozens of pennies? For most, it isn't.
2) Granted, there are some arbitrary restriction on cars, but they are still a lot more open than software. You can easily alter them, fix them yourself, etc. None of that is remotely possible with commercially-distributed software. I can't just fork Tweetbot, add in support for Orkut, and redownload it to my phone. However, if I want to install a better radio into my car I can. Software (especially on mobile) exists as an immutable "black box" that you have no access to other than the user interface, and that makes it less valuable.
3) No one is arguing that it is inherently wrong to charge for software. People refuse to pay not because they are principally opposed to it, but because the average price of an app in the app store is far below $.99, and thus $.99 seems like an inflated price.
4) It's true that apps like Photoshop are valuable, but it's apparent that their prices are absurdly inflated. Pixelmator can make an app with 90% of the functionality at a little over 2% of the price. Is that 10% extra functionality really worth all those hundreds of dollars? For most, it isn't. The same can be said of apps. Sure, that $.99 app is cool, but this free one does 90% of what the paid one does. Is that 10% extra functionality really worth all those dozens of pennies? For most, it isn't.