In App purchases now available to developers of free apps

Cleve Nettles
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October 15, 2009
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Until now, if you wanted to sell items inside your app, you had to make the app a paid app.  Today, Apple is letting free apps sell services in-app.  Will this be the end of the paid app?  Why not just make all apps free as a trial and make in app purchases activate the full version?

 the problem with free is then how do you replace the affiliate linking - which is certainly popular.

Comments (10)

AcidR4in (not verified) | October 15, 2009 - 3:16pm

I remember the In App Purchase introduction: "Free Apps will stay free".

Good that mine is Jailbroken

the Cappy (not verified) | October 15, 2009 - 9:30pm

Good because why? Because your way even paid apps can remain free? Yes, indeed: theft, greed, selfishness, irresponsibility... that IS good.

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | October 15, 2009 - 3:54pm

They said that the Free Apps will stay FREE. Come on.

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | October 15, 2009 - 4:01pm

I agree, making free apps paid apps is not cool. Definitely not good for the customer. How will you know when an app is really free or if it's a crippleware trial? While I understand developers may like the idea of making a few extra bucks, I think consumers will be very confused without some sort of concerted effort by everyone to make clear where their apps stand (required disclaimer maybe?).

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | October 15, 2009 - 4:40pm

what the hell are you (and the above 2 comments) talking about? This thing helps me (and many many others) as an iPhone game developer; so instead of having a lite free version of a game and have ANOTHER full paid version of the same game, now I could now have a single version which you can download for free (lite version) and if you like it, instead of going and buying the full version, you can buy it from within the free version?! capiche?!

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | October 15, 2009 - 10:20pm

Yeah, I get that. Not downing that. Honestly, it's great you have less work to do. I'm just worried about this:

"Oh, look! A free game that looks cool. Let's get it."

(time and bandwidth later)

"Oh wait, it's not free..."

Just saying, you gotta pick up both ends of the stick.

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | October 15, 2009 - 10:43pm

The one thing I don't like about in-app purchase is that it's not transferrable. Example - I buy an app and want to share it with my wife, I can't just sync it to the computer and let her sync it to her phone. We have to buy it twice.

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | October 15, 2009 - 11:56pm

You got that wrong... I'm the Mac guy in the family so I try all sort of applications on the store and if I like them, I usually sync it with dad's, brother's and fiancé's iPhone... You've got up to 5 iPhones to sync it with!

Chakita (not verified) | October 16, 2009 - 1:48pm

Polyghost is the FIRST free-to-pay app! Check it out

http://bit.ly/2BUmRh

Chakita (not verified) | October 16, 2009 - 1:48pm

Polyghost is the FIRST free-to-pay app! Check it out

http://bit.ly/2BUmRh