Android – In-app purchases to unlock paid functions

androidin-app-purchase

I am looking to release two version of my app: free and paid. The paid app will have a few more functions but no extra content as such. Originally I was going to release two separate apps on the market but it is proving difficult to keep a single code base and have two separate apps.

Would in-app purchases be a better way to do this? So I release a free app and then allow users to purchase a unlock for the extra functions. This would also mean that I wouldn't have to explicitly use the licensing part of the Android development as that is taken care of within the in-app purchasing.

Best Answer

There are three strategies which come to my mind:

Release two versions, a free version and a paid version. The paid version contains additional features. To make development easier, you should use Android Libaries. These prevent the duplication of code.

Advantages:
- Simpler to implement.
- Works on other markets as the Android Market because it is not dependant on it.
Disadvantage:
- If the user has some data in the free version, you must provide a import functionality for the paid version or the user will loose the data.
- You have to versions on the market which get different reviews.
Release two version: a free version which contains all features but some features are locked. Unlock them using a "unlock app" which is a simple paid app released on the market.

Advantages:
- Simple to implement.
- Works on other markets as the Android Market because it is not dependant on it.
Disadvantes:
- Is not that intuitive because the user has a "useless" app installed.
Release one version: a free version which contains all features but some features are locked. Unlock them using in-app purchases. Advantages:
- Finegrained solution: You can unlock different features for different prices.
Disadvantes:
- Not that simple to implement, the In-App-API is tricky
- Does not work without Android Market

Related Solutions

Iphone – Transition an existing paid for app to free version with In App Purchase

is there's some way you can tell if your app has been run before? (like settings you write on exit, data files created, date stamp of first run?)

if so, you could put code in your upgrade like:

NSUserDefaults *defaults = [NSUserDefaults standardUserDefaults];
if (nil == [defaults objectForKey:@"app_v2_has_been_run"]) {
    if (nil == [defaults objectForKey:@"some_key_v1_makes"] {
         // they never had v1 of your app
    } else {
         // they had v1 of your app, so unlock some stuff for them
    }
    [defaults setObject:[NSDate date] forKey:@"app_v2_has_been_run"]; // or whatever
}

Iphone – Using in app purchase to unlock features vs. using free & paid app versions for iPhone

I would highly recommend using the in-app purchasing over having different versions available.

If you have different versions, users need to re-download the whole thing if they want to upgrade. This means they need to have twice the storage space and use up twice the network bandwidth to upgrade.

I don't think your review concerns are founded. If your application is well made and users like it, you'll get positive reviews. To avoid having users be confused, make sure the application clearly states what can be purchased. Also, some people just dislike everything and will give you one star. These users are unavoidable, but if your app is good, there should be enough good reviews to balance them out.

You're correct in your assumption that you would have to have conditionals for locked/unlocked content. However, this shouldn't be an enormous issue. Just persist what the user's purchased in a plist (suggested by Apple) or other persistent storage and make a class that you can query to find out if a particular feature has been purchased.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Iphone – Transition an existing paid for app to free version with In App Purchase

Iphone – Using in app purchase to unlock features vs. using free & paid app versions for iPhone

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