Apple said Thursday that it will let iPhone application developers offer their users the option to buy additional content or features within a free app on its App Store.
App developers said they received an email notice from Apple informing them that the in-app purchase feature was now available for free apps and that it would “simplify your development by creating a single version of your app that uses in App Purchase to unlock additional functionality, eliminating the need to create Lite versions of your app.” A spokeswoman for Apple confirmed the news.
The in-app purchase feature, which was first introduced in March, allows developers to offer fresh content for purchase within an app such as new levels in a game, additional books in an e-book app, or expanded capability in productivity apps. The caveat, however, was that the feature was only available for paid apps, which meant that developers had to charge at least 99 cents.
Developers say that the latest announcement helps in two ways. First, it makes it much easier for them to make a business out of free apps. Until now, developers sold ads within their free apps or tried to convert users to a paid version with more content.
“The reality is that the vast majority of apps have been free. If you were going to monetize your app, you were always going up against free apps,” said Jamie Berger, senior vice president of an IGN Entertainment division that provides digital distribution services to developers.
The new capability could also help clean up the App Store because it would make it less necessary to offer both a free “lite” version and a paid version of the same app, a strategy that many developers used to try to make money.
“This is really big news because we’ve been having conversations with Apple as have other publishers,” said Clive Downie, vice president of marketing at Ngmoco, which publishes iPhone games. “This enables increased choice for customers.”
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