In-App purchasing within free apps allowed

Written by Philip Roy | 16 October 2009
Posted in News - Apple

Apple has previously not allowed in-app purchases (buying something within an iPhone app) in free applications. This has meant for example, if a developer wanted to build an application that users could repeatedly buy from, they had to charge even before users got their hands on any additional features. Whilst in some sense this makes sense (Apple were apparently worried that people would complain that "free" apps were suddenly asking for money), it has caused annoyances for some developers...meaning complete segregation between Lite/Free versions of their apps and paid versions.

The Unofficial Apple Weblog is reporting this will be a thing of the past, meaning people can upgrade from a free app to one with additional features within the same application. This has been a very common process in the shareware world (buying a license to unlock additional features) and it now appears Apple has appreciated the benefit for iPhone apps.

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Philip Roy said: October 16, 2009  

TechCrunch says it better than I can, and explains the impact more... http://www.techcrunch.com/2009...lications/

Cuby said: October 17, 2009 | url   

This is great news! Perhaps some apps like Tap Tap Revenge 3 will become free?

iphoners.org said: November 12, 2009 | url   

Great It's really great news when in-app purchases is allowed.

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