Apple Unlocking Upsells With Free-to-Paid Apps

CUPERTINO, Calif. — Apple, in a move that will help iPhone app upsells, told developers Thursday that they will be able to distribute free-to-paid apps.

Developers now can offer a free trial version of their apps, unlocking features from directly within the app as users request them and pay for them.

Until now, developers had to deliver two applications, with two unique identities, without a way to share data from the trial to the full version.

iPhone OS app developers were emailed the following message by Apple on Thursday:

“In App Purchase is being rapidly adopted by developers in their paid apps. Now you can use In App Purchase in your free apps to sell content, subscriptions and digital services.

”You can also simplify your development by creating a single version of your app that uses In App Purchase to unlock additional functionality, eliminating the need to create lite versions of your app. Using In App Purchase in your app can also help combat some of the problems of software piracy by allowing you to verify In App Purchases.”

Apple, in the email, invited developers to go here for more details.

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