Disqus
Apple has opened up the AppStore to a whole new world of Freemium iPhone apps. In a move that’s sure to change the way the AppStore works, Apple (which previously said in-app purchases would never be available for free apps) has announced that the AppStore will now support in-app purchases for free iPhone apps. Finally, iPhone developers can offer users a free iPhone app through which users can purchase premium content.
This is big. The adoption of in-app purchases for free iPhone apps should effectively eliminate the need for iPhone devs to offer separate “Lite” versions of a particular app as a trial version of the full-featured premium app. Rather than having to maintain two separate iPhone apps (a Lite version and a Full version), developers can put all their resources into a single app – offering the app for free with limited functionality and giving the user the option to purchase an upgrade license to unlock premium features within the app. If this all sounds familiar to you, it should. Desktop applications have been using this model successfully for years.
Welcome to a brave new world of freemium iPhone apps!
[Via: Apple]
About The Author
Simon Sage
Simon Sage’s education largely surrounded writing, technology and online community, leading him to begin his blogging career at www.BlackBerryCool.com and to quickly discover a vibrant and active community surrounding BlackBerry and mobile technology. In exploring RIM’s platform, he has learned what enterprises are looking for in mobility as well as what makes the innocuous BlackBerry so appealing to them. Recently Simon’s been covering RIM’s gradual move into an already-crowded consumer market, and the impact of burgeoning challengers, such as the iPhone, as well as long-time leaders, like Nokia, on BlackBerry’s advancement. With plenty of content under his belt, Simon will be branching off a bit to see what other smartphone manufacturers are working on while still using BlackBerry as a barometer. At IntoMobile, you can count on his posts being even-handed, well-informed and thought-out.
