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IPhone In-App Purchases Already Leading To Bait And Switch

18 points by vaksel 17y ago

tptacek 17y ago
The market may solve this problem, by punishing companies who pull egregious bait-and-switch scams. It doesn't need to be impossible to try to scam customers, just economically irrational.
- Periodic 17y ago
  In a way this will be taken care of by the review process. All apps can be reviewed by anyone who purchases them, and the aggregate rating gets displayed in the app store. The lower your rating gets, the lower you'll show up in searches. It's a way of crowd sourcing the review process. I know that at my wife's company (which makes iPhone games) they are very paranoid about bad reviews. Getting good reviews and getting featured seem to be the keys to success on the App Store. Of course, some people will lose some money in this process, but that could be considered a cost of the system which will average across the users willing to experiment with un-reviewed apps.
alex_c 17y ago
Part of the "bait and switch" aspect is that in-app purchases are only allowed for paid apps. The $0.99 price of the app in the article, coupled with the $9.99 monthly fee, leads me to believe that the app developer would've actually been happier to distribute a free app with a $9.99 monthly fee - which is no longer "bait and switch", it's just a subscription.
- Periodic 17y ago
  This sort of thing has been going on for a long time, really. There are plenty of software programs doing this online already. In fact, many online games are experimenting with micro-payments now. Essentially they sell the product low or for free, but make the majority of their profits off sale of digital goods. The true cost of playing the game will not be apparent when you see a box on the store shelf for cheap.
jseifer 17y ago
This is a pretty dramatic conclusion to draw from seeing one app that charges $0.99 and a monthly fee. If you look at the screenshot in the article, it seems to make it pretty clear that it's $9.99/month for the turn by turn directions aspect of it.
- rufo 17y ago
  The article mentions that they've changed the wording, and I'd assume the new wording is what's in the screenshot.
  - jseifer 17y ago
    I saw that. It sort of struck me as a company learning from their mistakes. I still think extrapolating a bait and switch doom and gloom catastrophe is a bit much :)

18 points by vaksel 17y ago

The market may solve this problem, by punishing companies who pull egregious bait-and-switch scams. It doesn't need to be impossible to try to scam customers, just economically irrational.

Periodic 17y ago
In a way this will be taken care of by the review process. All apps can be reviewed by anyone who purchases them, and the aggregate rating gets displayed in the app store. The lower your rating gets, the lower you'll show up in searches. It's a way of crowd sourcing the review process. I know that at my wife's company (which makes iPhone games) they are very paranoid about bad reviews. Getting good reviews and getting featured seem to be the keys to success on the App Store. Of course, some people will lose some money in this process, but that could be considered a cost of the system which will average across the users willing to experiment with un-reviewed apps.

alex_c 17y ago

Part of the "bait and switch" aspect is that in-app purchases are only allowed for paid apps. The $0.99 price of the app in the article, coupled with the $9.99 monthly fee, leads me to believe that the app developer would've actually been happier to distribute a free app with a $9.99 monthly fee - which is no longer "bait and switch", it's just a subscription.

Periodic 17y ago
This sort of thing has been going on for a long time, really. There are plenty of software programs doing this online already. In fact, many online games are experimenting with micro-payments now. Essentially they sell the product low or for free, but make the majority of their profits off sale of digital goods. The true cost of playing the game will not be apparent when you see a box on the store shelf for cheap.

jseifer 17y ago

This is a pretty dramatic conclusion to draw from seeing one app that charges $0.99 and a monthly fee. If you look at the screenshot in the article, it seems to make it pretty clear that it's $9.99/month for the turn by turn directions aspect of it.

rufo 17y ago
The article mentions that they've changed the wording, and I'd assume the new wording is what's in the screenshot.
- jseifer 17y ago
  I saw that. It sort of struck me as a company learning from their mistakes. I still think extrapolating a bait and switch doom and gloom catastrophe is a bit much :)