With exactly 208,413 iPhone, iPod touch and iPad applications available as of writing, the App Store is a great place to find what you’re looking for. But currently, it has one fundamental flaw … especially for developers.
You see, once a person buys a single version of an application from the App Store, currently they get FREE updates for life, unless the app is either an entirely separate application to the original one purchased, or simply has in-app purchases.
Now this is great for us as consumers, but what about the developers?
Lets take out of the equation for a minute the possible addition of in-app purchases as an extra revenue stream for developers, and you then start to see that while developers are putting in countless hours to update these apps, most of the time adding new and exciting features, they’re doing so for practically nothing. Their existing customer base already receive these updates FREE of charge, with that developer then left with the hope of new sales from new customers to re-coop the work put in.
Today, Twitter user Josh (@Digeratii) points to his sudden realization that paid app updates may be on the way to the App Store, citing that the iTunes ‘app updates’ screen currently sections out the updates under the heading ‘Free Updates’. Old news, right? Yes.
The news today is, if all App Store updates are to remain FREE forever; Why does Apple feel the need to re-clarify this to us? … Unless they are planning on introducing a second section in the future, entitled ‘Paid Updates,’ which would list all the app updates we as consumers would have to pay for.
Its a touchy subject and definitely something we think consumers would be against. That said, this is still entirely unproven speculation. But, this could still be a sign for good things to come for App Store developers in the future.
[via @Digeratii]
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