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for App Store vendors, and it could also mean the App Store won't be cluttered with old versions of apps that are no longer updated.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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Source: http://twitter.com/fraserspeirs/status/9983153017

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iPhone App Store iPod touch

Developer Fraser Speirs came across an unexpected iTunes dialog earlier today that could be a hint of a new, long-sought App Store...

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shellysandlin

I was playing mobsters and my screen turned black and wrote go to apple apparently to upgrade. I DONT KNOW HOW can someone PLEASE HELP!

April 19 2010 at 9:28 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Jrmy_macias

Sorry TUAW but you guys got the wrong idea about the notification. As some of you have noticed in the comments, the only new thing going on is that you can now see ALL the updates for ALL accounts at the same time instead of only being able to see the available apps for one account at a time. That's why the message comes up. You took it the wrong way. You can't update an app that you haven't paid for with a different account. THEY ARE NOT MAKING YOU PAY FOR UPDATES! Steve Jobs promised free updates at the launch of the app store.

March 09 2010 at 12:38 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Keenan

I bet it is a future that will be released with the ipad, so that if developers want to make their apps pacifically for ipad they can for a upgrade price if they already have a iphone

March 05 2010 at 9:00 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Harkonian

I think this is good news for developers and consumers alike. If developers have a way to recoup additional development costs for an app they will continue to make them better.

March 05 2010 at 10:47 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

brian.gillespie

You gotta figure iPad upgraded apps is the motivation for this. An app that properly uses the iPad's will be a better experience and cost more to develop.

March 05 2010 at 9:31 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

TIM

I received that message last week. It was because of the home sharing in itunes, I had an app that my wife had purchased on her account so it wouldn't update until I logged in as her on my itunes or home shared and copied the updated app from her mac.

March 05 2010 at 9:09 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Marko

So I go to Check for Updates in iTunes and see that there's six apps that need updating, so I click on Update All. Then I get a message saying "You Do Not Qualify For This Price... To purchase this item at full price click OK."

I have no idea which of the six apps this message is referring to or how much the "full price" is. I'm an idiot, so I figure if I click it I'll be asked to log in and then I'll be shown the name and price of the app and then I'll have the option to buy or not. WRONG. No log in, no nothing. It's bought.

So now I've bought God knows what, for God knows how much. I'll just have to wait for my next iTunes Store statement to see how bad it is. This is NOT COOL, Apple. Beware, folks.

March 05 2010 at 5:24 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Dwightgolfer28

no me gusta

March 04 2010 at 9:08 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

AeronPrometheus

Am looking for the OK button...

March 04 2010 at 6:41 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

1 reply to AeronPrometheus's comment

Peter Beddow

I'm glad somebody noticed that.

March 04 2010 at 7:01 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Carlos