5 ms·

Apple opens "Try Before You Buy" section in App Store, Step to fight app piracy

35 points by donohoe 16y ago

fragmede 16y ago
The solidly financial reason for Apple to do this would be to fight refunds. No idea if there are app-return-rate numbers, but doing refunds isn't a cheap process.
- ben1040 16y ago
  Under what circumstances does Apple even issue refunds? The app store terms of service is pretty clear within the first few paragraphs that all sales are final. http://www.apple.com/legal/itunes/us/terms.html http://www.apple.com/legal/itunes/us/terms.html
  - drewcrawford 16y ago
    That may be true, but in practice Apple issues refunds to anyone who asks.
    - SoftwareMaven 16y ago
      My understanding of this is that the developers have to pay 100% of the refund, even though they only got 70% of the revenue. Does anybody know if that is, in fact, the case?
      - xsmasher 16y ago
        That was not the case for me. I've seen some refunds in my financial report, but apple only took their 70% back, not the full 100%. There is a scary clause in the agreement which says they could do that, but to my knowledge they never have. All of the scary blog posts on the subject were worried speculation, not actual applications of that policy.
        rmc 16y ago
        This is worrying. Apple have a history of treating developers badly with the App Store. They might start enforcing that rule someday.
        loewenskind 16y ago
        >Apple have a history of treating developers badly with the App Store. Citation?
  - fragmede 16y ago
    In iTunes, Go to Purchase History, 'Report a problem'. Give a reasonable sounding reason why, and it's usually granted. It's widely accepted that there's a 90-day refund policy [citation needed].
    - adriand 16y ago
      If I'd known I could do this, I wouldn't be so cautious about app purchases!
      - DLWormwood 16y ago
        Be careful of this, due to Apple’s current policies, each refund costs the developer money beyond the money they receive. Apple keeps the 30% commission on the sale, and bills the developer the full purchase price. (I’m not sure how the IRS W-9 cut is handled; that’s about 28% in the U.S. It would suck if the IRS keeps that cut until tax time.)
        drewcrawford 16y ago
        There's no W-9, you are not an Apple employee. You're an independent contractor / company. Normatively the IRS only witholds taxes on employee pay.
        gte910h 16y ago
        Your comment has nothing to do with the policy's of apple. They keep the 30% of the cost and take the 100% out of revenue.
        drewcrawford 16y ago
        It has everything to do with the comment I was replying to. Specifically the part quoted below: > (I’m not sure how the IRS W-9 cut is handled; that’s about 28% in the U.S. It would suck if the IRS keeps that cut until tax time.)
        16y ago
- thought_alarm 16y ago
  The solidly financial reason for Apple to improve the quality of the App Store is to sell more software, encourage quality app development, and ultimately sell more devices. In reality, Apple adds sections like this to the App Store all the time, in order to feature quality software. It's nothing remarkable.
credo 16y ago
I hope they also introduce a real "try before you buy" option for all paid apps that wish to support a trial period. Today's new feature seems like a promotion of apps that offer a "lite" version. It makes "lite" apps more discoverable, but doesn't come close to offering a trial option (and I'm not sure why 9to5mac believes that making a few free apps discoverable will help "fight app piracy")
- pkaler 16y ago
  It looks like it's more of a curation strategy. It looks like they want to reduce the amount of noise in the App Store by getting rid of the Free vs Paid Apps split. The first step was allowing In-App Purchase for Free Apps.
dlsspy 16y ago
Lack of this prevents me from buying tons of apps. The idea of spending money with no promise of ROI is pretty hard for me.
companionsphere 16y ago
I really hope this practice extends into all app stores. It would only be bad for people who make bad apps.
jsz0 16y ago
I'd like to see the addition of videos to go with screenshots on the app description pages. A good video walk through is sometimes better than a lite version or a time bombed trial. It would be fantastic for games.
sshumaker 16y ago
Apple needs to build in proper software support for app trials. You shouldn't need two copies of the apps in the app store (each with their own ratings and comments). You should be able to purchase the full version of the app and keep your existing data (tricky to do unless the developer builds in code to send your data to the server and load it back into the paid version of your app, since apps can't share data).
- tomstuart 16y ago
  You're right that trials should be represented as a first-class concept in the App Store, but right now the best solution is already fairly elegant: in-app purchases for free apps. That lets you sell the upgrade to the full version from inside the trial version, and avoids any issues with data migration.

35 points by donohoe 16y ago

The solidly financial reason for Apple to do this would be to fight refunds. No idea if there are app-return-rate numbers, but doing refunds isn't a cheap process.

ben1040 16y ago
Under what circumstances does Apple even issue refunds? The app store terms of service is pretty clear within the first few paragraphs that all sales are final. http://www.apple.com/legal/itunes/us/terms.html http://www.apple.com/legal/itunes/us/terms.html
- drewcrawford 16y ago
  That may be true, but in practice Apple issues refunds to anyone who asks.
  - SoftwareMaven 16y ago
    My understanding of this is that the developers have to pay 100% of the refund, even though they only got 70% of the revenue. Does anybody know if that is, in fact, the case?
    - xsmasher 16y ago
      That was not the case for me. I've seen some refunds in my financial report, but apple only took their 70% back, not the full 100%. There is a scary clause in the agreement which says they could do that, but to my knowledge they never have. All of the scary blog posts on the subject were worried speculation, not actual applications of that policy.
      - rmc 16y ago
        This is worrying. Apple have a history of treating developers badly with the App Store. They might start enforcing that rule someday.
        loewenskind 16y ago
        >Apple have a history of treating developers badly with the App Store. Citation?
- fragmede 16y ago
  In iTunes, Go to Purchase History, 'Report a problem'. Give a reasonable sounding reason why, and it's usually granted. It's widely accepted that there's a 90-day refund policy [citation needed].
  - adriand 16y ago
    If I'd known I could do this, I wouldn't be so cautious about app purchases!
    - DLWormwood 16y ago
      Be careful of this, due to Apple’s current policies, each refund costs the developer money beyond the money they receive. Apple keeps the 30% commission on the sale, and bills the developer the full purchase price. (I’m not sure how the IRS W-9 cut is handled; that’s about 28% in the U.S. It would suck if the IRS keeps that cut until tax time.)
      - drewcrawford 16y ago
        There's no W-9, you are not an Apple employee. You're an independent contractor / company. Normatively the IRS only witholds taxes on employee pay.
        gte910h 16y ago
        Your comment has nothing to do with the policy's of apple. They keep the 30% of the cost and take the 100% out of revenue.
        drewcrawford 16y ago
        It has everything to do with the comment I was replying to. Specifically the part quoted below: > (I’m not sure how the IRS W-9 cut is handled; that’s about 28% in the U.S. It would suck if the IRS keeps that cut until tax time.)
        16y ago
thought_alarm 16y ago
The solidly financial reason for Apple to improve the quality of the App Store is to sell more software, encourage quality app development, and ultimately sell more devices. In reality, Apple adds sections like this to the App Store all the time, in order to feature quality software. It's nothing remarkable.

credo 16y ago

I hope they also introduce a real "try before you buy" option for all paid apps that wish to support a trial period. Today's new feature seems like a promotion of apps that offer a "lite" version. It makes "lite" apps more discoverable, but doesn't come close to offering a trial option (and I'm not sure why 9to5mac believes that making a few free apps discoverable will help "fight app piracy")

pkaler 16y ago
It looks like it's more of a curation strategy. It looks like they want to reduce the amount of noise in the App Store by getting rid of the Free vs Paid Apps split. The first step was allowing In-App Purchase for Free Apps.

dlsspy 16y ago

Lack of this prevents me from buying tons of apps. The idea of spending money with no promise of ROI is pretty hard for me.

companionsphere 16y ago

I really hope this practice extends into all app stores. It would only be bad for people who make bad apps.

jsz0 16y ago

I'd like to see the addition of videos to go with screenshots on the app description pages. A good video walk through is sometimes better than a lite version or a time bombed trial. It would be fantastic for games.

sshumaker 16y ago

Apple needs to build in proper software support for app trials. You shouldn't need two copies of the apps in the app store (each with their own ratings and comments). You should be able to purchase the full version of the app and keep your existing data (tricky to do unless the developer builds in code to send your data to the server and load it back into the paid version of your app, since apps can't share data).

tomstuart 16y ago
You're right that trials should be represented as a first-class concept in the App Store, but right now the best solution is already fairly elegant: in-app purchases for free apps. That lets you sell the upgrade to the full version from inside the trial version, and avoids any issues with data migration.