Pushing the App Store price envelope

For people who had been waiting since January to watch TV on their iPhones, price doesn’t seem to have been an object.

Within a day of its release Wednesday, SlingPlayer Mobile for the iPhone had shot to the No. 10 spot on Apple’s (AAPL) closely watched Top Paid Apps list.

The $29.99 program, which communicates wirelessly with Sling Media’s video streaming Slingbox to display TV programming on the screens of iPhones and iPod touches, is the most expensive application to have ever climbed that high.

By Friday morning, SlingPlayer had dropped to No. 12, but it was still the only app among the top 100 bestsellers listed for more than $9.99 — a price point that, until now, seemed to be the upper limit for iPhone bestsellers.

According to Jeff Scott, editor of 148Apps.biz, the closest any other high-priced apps had come to No. 10 were Jaadu VNC ($24.99), which made it to No. 19 in September 2008, and LogMeIn Ignition ($29.99), which hit No. 74 last December.

The vast majority of sales on the App Store are much smaller. Of the 38,356 applications currently active, according to 148Apps.biz’s stats,

• 23.4% are free
• 67% cost less than $1
• and 97% cost less than $10

SlingPlayer for the iPhone, which was first demoed at Macworld in January, has been available for months on a variety of other mobile devices, including certain BlackBerry (RIMM), Palm (PALM), Nokia (NOK) and Windows Mobile (MSFT) smartphones.

But it never got the kind of attention on those devices as it has on the iPhone. See, for example, the fuss stirred up this week when reporters discovered that the iPhone version worked only on Wi-Fi, and not over AT&T’s (T) cellular networks.

A spokesman for EchoStar (SATS), which owns Sling Media, declined to release sales figures. But applications in the top 10 paid apps list have been known to sell hundreds of thousands of units.

Jackson sued over reunion concert

A promoter is suing Michael Jackson for $40m (£24.4m) for allegedly breaching a contract to play a reunion concert in the US with other family members.

Allgood Entertainment claims it made a deal in November with Jackson's then-manager to produce the gig this summer.

It says the deal called for Jackson not to perform elsewhere before the event or for at least three months after it.

He will play 50 dates at London's O2 arena from July. Promoter AEG will not comment while Jackson was unavailable.

Allgood say the concert would have involved the singer, sister Janet, and the other members of The Jackson 5 - Marlon, Jackie, Tito and Jermaine.

Compensation hope

In legal papers filed in Manhattan, Allgood accuse the singer and manager Frank DiLeo of breaking the contract by signing up to do the O2 shows.

AEG is also named in the papers.

The papers add that AEG knew of the agreement between AllGood, DiLeo and Jackson, "but due to their dominance and power in the live performance industry, coerced and/or induced DiLeo and Jackson to disregard the agreements with AllGood and to work with it instead".

"We've given Michael Jackson and AEG every opportunity, publicly and privately, to resolve this matter and to date we have not heard from anyone," said Patrick Allocco, a managing partner for Allgood.

Allgood's lawyer Ira Meyerowitz said the company was not looking to stop Jackson from performing at the O2.

"What we're looking for is for our clients to be involved in the London concerts or be compensated for agreements they entered into," he said.

A spokesman for AEG said the company would not comment on pending litigation.