The 280 Norths (the same people who made iReddit) are making one. I suggested they charge $5 because they won't sell as many. Arguably it's worth it, because having fewer users is part of what makes HN good.
I don't read Reddit myself, but for those who do, $1.99 shouldn't be a deal-breaker. People will plunk down two bucks in an instant on the app store if they find something cool that would enhance their experience. (And good on them; if everyone thought free was the only price point, we'd all be out of our jobs.)
All startups trying to play the "Charge nothing, grow ginormous, then monetize with ads" game should read the above comment and then ponder "Now, what company would really, really like to pay me to show their advertisements to this chap?"
Actually, what I find interesting is that I see an increasing number of websites make a non-free iPhone application of their site, while the site itself remains free. In the discussion whether or not many '2.0' (yeah, i know..) sites out there will ever be able to make a profit, it seems strange that a fair amount of said websites do not offer a non-free version of their sites as well. People obviously don't mind paying for something they see value in; and the iPhone app might prove that the site's readers actually see value in reading the site. Of course it might just be the "iPhone effect" that makes people get used to the fact that software can also have a price tag. Just had to think of this as I remembered a nice anecdote about a forum that started charging money to get rid of spammers and made quite some money as a 'side-effect' ;)
(I actually don't know reddit that well myself, so I don't know if they offer a paid option to see the websites without ads; so it's more a note about free websites in general)
Free is weird for people. It causes them to make bad decisions as to the value of things that they looking at. So people do mind paying for things that they see a value in if there is a free alternative. Even if the free alternative is not as good (relative to the price difference) to the expensive one.
http://www.reddit.com/r/reddit.com/comments/7xgql/i_read_it_...