
Case history of the freemium model on the iPhone - roder
http://www.davidedicillo.com/iphone/christmasfy-me-case-history-of-the-freemium-model-on-the-iphone/
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mtrichardson
They use us ( <http://urbanairship.com/> ) to deliver their in app content.
Huzzah!

We've seen some good use of in app purchase (ChristmasfyMe included, of
course) and I'm definitely excited about the platform; however, it would be
nice to see microtransaction support. In app content is limited to app store
pricing - in other words, the smallest amount you can charge is $0.99. This is
great for content packs, but doesn't allow smaller transactions. For example,
a small item in a game might only be a nickel instead of a dollar. As it is
now, you have to offer 20 items instead of just the one a user might want.

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quizbiz
A bit unrelated, but based on my own purchasing habits, I have been wanting to
express how effective a free Mac OSX app is with a priced iPhone app.

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Splines
With the increasing proliferation of freemium apps, digging for bargains is
now a little harder, as you now need to dig into the app descriptin/reviews a
little to see if it's a freemium app or not (I admit, I'm a cheapskate).

It'd be nice if Apple labelled applications that used in-app purchases
accordingly, so you could filter on those. As it stands, the app developer
usually does a decent job of putting warnings in the description, but not
always.

Also, I'd be mad if I had paid for an app that moved to a freemium model (e.g.
F.A.S.T.). There should be a way to support these users instead of asking for
their money twice.

That said, the in-app purchase model solves the trial problem rather neatly
(at least for a subset of applications). I've never written an iPhone
application, but it seems like having 1 less application to manage (even if
it's a trial version built from the same codebase) is a great benefit.

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jordankasteler
a good read

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weaksauce
I understand you a new here so this is not a rebuke but more a gentle prodding
to keep the quality of the site up. Please keep comments to the form of a
discussion instead of a vacuous statement. People here will downvote something
if it does not further the discussion.

What made this a good read?

Also here is a link to the site guidelines:
<http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html>

