In-app subscriptions now available, should be interesting.

[chriskzoo]

The obvious use is for things like magazines and newspapers, but a developer on Macbreak Weekly brought up the possibility of exploiting that to get people to pay for updates. For example, you coul pay 99 cents for an app and then have a 1-year subscription for 99 cents that will cover all updates.

 

[bukalemun]

And how will said developer prevent those who don't pay from updating? Will he bind every new update to a new in-app consumable? I don't think that would be worth the effort.

 

[chriskzoo]

And how will said developer prevent those who don't pay from updating? Will he bind every new update to a new in-app consumable? I don't think that would be worth the effort.

Honestly, I don't know how the subscriptions work. For instance, for magazines, do you get access to back issues? If so, could someone subscribed to a weekly publication sign up for a day, download all back issues, then unsubscribe for a month, resubscribe, and download the missed issues?

We'll just have to see how it all sorts out, but I do think it makes sense to allow developers to make users subscribe for updates now that app prices have been driven to such a low level that anything over 99 cents is viewed as overpriced.

 

[bukalemun]

Actually, I think in-app purchases (not subscriptions) make much more sense.

You can create a $3 app, give it for free using iAd or other Ad mechanism, then remove the ad banners for that $3. At least that's what I am planning to do for removing the ad banners on my app.