How Apple badly messed up with in-app purchases on Lion and didn’t tell anyone

http://gorban.org/post/10455358440/apple-messed-up-in-app-purchases

by grayprog • 15 years ago

173 48 15 years ago

gorban.org

sambeau3• 15 years ago

I can't stand apps that appear free but require an in-app purchase to work fully. It feels really dishonest to me.

Yuck.

mchanson• 15 years ago

I'm not sure what is dishonest unless the product mis-represents itself. Crippleware was big in the shareware scene all through the late 80s and 90s and still works today.

Perhaps Apple could allow a new category, but it is an honest model.

younata2• 15 years ago

problem is that crippleware was, and still is, universally hated. The only areas where it succeeds is where there is no other real competition.

BlueMourning• 15 years ago

It is a model which allows people to try before they buy, which also expands the audience and allows the game to spread. It is a good thing when implemented well.

r00fus• 15 years ago

It would easily be sufficed with a "free app" and "paid app". Apple just doesn't make this seamless. Consequently, the "freemium" model is born through in-app "upgrades".

As someone who hasn't bought a single in-app purchase (I might if Carcasonne add expansions), are these transferrable across devices like the apps are?

timeuser• 15 years ago

It's really the only way to do a trial of any kind in Apple's app stores. It's better than a lot of apps in the App Store where you have to pay in full for it without being able to try it at all, including Apple's.

AndyJPartridge2• 15 years ago

It's more about defeating dishonesty actually.

You can download full version of apps for free very easily with a Jailbroken phone.

As a developer, by using in-app purchase you have a very good chance of defeating that loophole.

AndyJPartridge2• 15 years ago

(I guess I should clarify that this is an analogy, and that the same applies for desktop software. Dial home = one extra layer against piracy if someone pirated the app.)

pixelcloud• 15 years ago

There is an inapp purchase cracker on cydia now... Most apps dont actually check to make sure you purchased the content.

sambeau3• 15 years ago

It's been fun watching this comment's points go up and down like a yoyo. At one point it was at -1; it's currently at 10. This is clearly an issue that divide HN readers.

I obviously fall in the against camp — though I can see the argument for it (and many good points have been made).

There is no simple answer other than very clear labelling.

achompas• 15 years ago

Didn't shareware work like this back in the day? Or are these apps selling themselves as "free!!!!!" and hiding the "(extra features cost $$)" in small, hypothetical print?

psychotik• 15 years ago

I experienced something similar with the iOS in-app purchases but I did avoid damage like bad reviews, etc. Details here: http://crazyviraj.blogspot.com/2011/08/dont-let-apples-laten...

cmatthias2• 15 years ago

My honest opinion is that the only solution here is to pack up and leave Apple's closed ecosystem, because they clearly don't care about their developers. If you are continuing to do business with them you are sending them a message that it's OK to continue to do this. If it's a Mac app, sell it on your own website; if it's an iOS app, rewrite it for Android and sell it there.

veyron3• 15 years ago

easier said than done. How do you distribute apps to people outside the app store?

w1ntermute• 15 years ago

The same way you did before there was an app store - through your website. As for Android, you can sell APKs through your site that people can sideload onto their phones.

generalk2• 15 years ago

For Mac OS X apps: over the intertubes, of course. In fact, there's lots of awesome things (Sparkle auto-updater framework) that make this easy.

For iOS apps: Most of the time you don't. You could write your app as a mobile web app, but that doesn't cut it for a lot of apps. If you're determined to have a legit iOS app, you're playing Apple's game.

For Android apps: You can distribute on a number of app stores, in addition to or instead of the official Android Market. You can also offer downloads that can be installed manually, although this requires users to change a setting to allow so-called "sideloading" of apps.

ryannielsen• 15 years ago

Interesting assertion. Are those other distribution vectors as profitable and trustworthy as the Mac and iOS App Stores?

From my own experience as an app developer, selling the same app on the Mac App Store and through my own FastSpring based store, the Mac App Store is fantastically more profitable. We have a free trial which offers a seamless in-app purchase through our FastSpring store, and we also offer bulk purchases and enterprise discounts through that store, yet the vast majority of our sales are through the Mac App Store. From my numbers, only one day have we seen more copies sold through our own store, and the revenue that day was still less than the Mac App Store's.

From my own experience as an app purchaser, the App Stores rock. I can quickly download and install any and all purchased apps on any and all of my devices. I don't have to worry about serial numbers or registration files. I don't have to worry about nefarious acts that might compromise my download. Hell, I don't even have to worry about installing. The app just appears on my system, ready to go with a single click.

So, from both sides of the field, Apple's App Stores offer a fantastic experience. Are there downsides? Sure. As a developer, I need to worry about bugs like the OP hit and I need to deal with Apple's approval process. But that said, I have to worry about bugs in my own store and purchase validation code (bugs happen there, trust me!), and the approval process leads to the huge upside I and everyone else experience as consumers. And if that process makes consumers more willing to purchase my product, I'm willing to pay that price.

You can call the ecosystem "closed" and you may feel Apple doesn't "care about their developers" but, from my point of view, Apple's provided us with a fantastic platform, some of the best dev tools out there, and the single best software storefront that exists today. Personally, I'm feeling quite cared for and don't see any other platform or storefront offering the same experience. Not by a mile.

subpixel• 15 years ago

Slightly OT: I notice that your apps are for sale both in the App Store and through your own site.

I'd be interested in hearing about your experience maintaining your own sales/fulfillment channel while also taking advantage of Apple's. What advice would you give other developers?

Thanks

grayprog4• 15 years ago

Not sure I'd advise to those starting out today, except for the following cases: 1. You consider enterprise or other large sales, which are not comfortable through Mac App Store. 2. You want to participate in bundles or other promotions. Technically, you don't need a store for this but you need to create a version which can be licensed outside of Mac App Store.

Personally, I started selling ImageFramer (my first Mac application) in 2006, so we first had our own store and Mac App Store came second.

hitonagashi• 15 years ago

I hit this with Pixelmator...I actually assumed it was their fault, and just uninstalled it and reinstalled it again, after which it worked fine.

I'm on Snow Leopard still though, so might not just be a Lion problem.

grayprog4• 15 years ago

In-app purchases don't existing in Snow Leopard. I think it was some other issue.

joely• 15 years ago

You could have tested your in-app-purchase, yourself, and minimized the damage. #2020hindsight

blahedo• 15 years ago

It didn't fail for all users, just some users.

grayprog4• 15 years ago

If you think we developers don't test in-app purchases before releasing, think again.

It's one the most critical parts of user's experience and certainly this is not a place where we'll just write code and ship without testing.

The problem is that it didn't happen for all transactions and appeared to work for some users but not for other. Sometimes it worked for some user on one machine but not on another.

And another developer who hit it with his app in testing didn't understand it was Apple's issue. He created another test-user Apple ID and it worked then so he supposed it was kind of a glitch related to his use of the previous test Apple ID. Really, the last thing you'd think is that Apple has bugs in the payment system.

Jyaif• 15 years ago

Also, it should be known that in the SDK terms of use, Apple warns that it's a bad idea to tell the press when there's a problem, so developers are actually afraid of publicly complaining about Apple...

Arkid• 15 years ago

Exactly the way Google treats customers when it messes up. Google, Apple and all these big silicon valley companies suck at customer service.

innes• 15 years ago

I remember Google having reported various problems with their app store in the past, so the accusation is not valid, at least with respect to what we're discussing here.

alimbada• 15 years ago

Expecting anything more than this from Apple is deluding yourself.

If they can't get fixes out for security holes until they're in imminent danger of being in the spotlight (Pwn2Own - and that's only one example; Apple are especially notorious for only fixing things when it affects their public image), then expecting them to fix issues like this is extremely naive.

How Apple badly messed up with in-app purchases on Lion and didn’t tell anyone

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