Filed under: iPhone, App Store, iPod touch
Paid app upgrades coming to App Store?
Developer Fraser Speirs came across an unexpected iTunes dialog earlier today that could be a hint of a new, long-sought App Store feature: the ability to offer for-fee upgrades to apps, complete with discounts for those who bought older versions.
Up until now, App Store vendors have worked around the lack of a paid upgrade feature by offering different "versions" of their apps, but this has also meant there's been no ability to offer discounts to loyal purchasers of the previous version of the app, short of applying a temporary price discount to everyone and raising the price later on. Assuming this dialog box isn't a simple error (notice that it asks you to click OK, even though the button says Buy) and is an indication of the future direction of App Store purchases, it's indicative of far greater pricing flexibility for App Store vendors, and it could also mean the App Store won't be cluttered with old versions of apps that are no longer updated. Developers have been asking for an option like this since the beginning of the App Store -- it looks like Apple might finally be listening.
Editor's Note: Several commenters have noted that this dialog is also visible when you attempt to upgrade an app while logged into the 'wrong' iTunes store account, and may not actually signify the policy change that Craig Hockenberry wants to see.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Leslie Nassar said 5:52PM on 3-04-2010
I've noticed this dialog popping up when I'm signed into the wrong iTunes Store account.
Used to be that the only apps that appeared in the upgrade page were the ones that were purchased using the current account; now it seems to show all available upgrades across all accounts.
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mrman470 said 5:52PM on 3-04-2010
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO I want updates to be freeeeeee :(
if you've already paid for an app once why should you have to pay again??
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Rick Maddy said 6:03PM on 3-04-2010
Same reason you pay for the OS X update or the MS Windows update or the update each year. If an iPhone app provides a major update roughly once a year (or whatever time frame), why should it be free? Sure, smaller updates should be free but if a developer spends a lot of time adding major new features, why shouldn't the developer be properly compensated for all of that work? Or, better yet, why should you get all of that extra functionality for free?
coolaaron88 said 6:18PM on 3-04-2010
At Rick, when have you paid for Microsoft Updates, because I never have. Someone informed you wrong.
Rick Maddy said 7:18PM on 3-04-2010
I was talking about major updates like Win 2000, XP, Vista, etc. Just like paid updates for OS X Tiger, Leopard, etc.
Robert said 11:19PM on 3-04-2010
@ Rick: There's a difference. OS X and Windows are operating systems. We're talking about applications that run on an operating system, not the operating system itself.
I feel that the iPhone OS users are quite used to free app updates, and would respond negatively to this change if Apple were to go through with it.
In fact, I think the only people who would respond positively to this are developers who want something like this.
Tyler said 5:53PM on 3-04-2010
I get this alert practically every time I update my apps from within iTunes. It does it when the app updating is one I "borrowed" from someone else (i.e. signing in to App Store on iPhone as someone else and downloading an app THEY purchased, not me). Since I don't "own" a previous version, it wants me to buy it. All you have to do is update the app from your iPhone and enter THEIR password when it prompts you to.
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Olek said 5:54PM on 3-04-2010
Got the same dialog yesterday and as Leslie writes - i was signed into the wrong iTunes Store account.
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frank.lowney said 5:58PM on 3-04-2010
Ha! Could educational and volume discounts be next?
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Ben said 6:02PM on 3-04-2010
It's as some others have said. You get this dialog when you are trying to redownload an item you got off a different iTunes account. I get this quite a bit as in the past I used a family account and now I use my own so when I go to update apps, ones I've had from before will throw up this message.
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Steaps said 6:10PM on 3-04-2010
As a developer, bug fixes should always remain free. Feature upgrades should come at a price.
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Jordan said 6:17PM on 3-04-2010
As a consumer, developers need to make the updates worthwhile for there to be a price.
Mike Pro said 3:58AM on 3-05-2010
THE CAKE IS A LIE!
Aaron said 6:13PM on 3-04-2010
I bet it would go down well with publishers considering the frequency with which revised editions are released. Would be good to pay a small fee to get a revised textbook for example, rather than shelling out for the whole thing again.
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Zoomwire said 6:18PM on 3-04-2010
As said, this message comes, when you have more iTunes Accounts and you are logged in with the wrong account for the app. Previously you just got an overview of the app-updates for your one account, now you get a overview of all updates for all accounts
For exemple:
Account 1: GTA update
Account 2: Remote update
When you are logged in with Account 1, you previously just got the GTA update in the overview. Now you get the GTA and the Remote App update in the overview, but you can just download the GTA update.
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Stephen said 6:29PM on 3-04-2010
This isn't really anything new, in my opinion.
I recall seeing this same error back when iPhone OS 3.0 came out, (at the same time when there was the error where you couldn't re-download an app onto the iPhone for free.)
Both errors passed pretty quickly.
So I really doubt there'll be any change here suddenly.
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Carlos said 6:29PM on 3-04-2010
This happened to me trying to update Evernote and Dropbox a couple of days ago. At the end I was able to download both apps.
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AeronPeryton said 6:41PM on 3-04-2010
Am looking for the OK button...
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Peter Beddow said 7:01PM on 3-04-2010
I'm glad somebody noticed that.
Dwightgolfer28 said 9:10PM on 3-04-2010
no me gusta
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