The App Store is the best way to combine the paid and free versions into the free version with IAP

Question

My company currently has two apps in the app store: a full, paid version that includes two books and a "lite" version that does not include both books. We just developed a new version of the application that instead implements two books as IAP, with the intention of merging the two applications into one. I am at the point where I would like to submit the application, and I am not sure what is the best way to proceed.

Current plan:

• Upgrade the free app to the new version with IAP books.
• Rename the free version by removing "Lite".
• Delete an existing paid version from the app store.

Potential issues with this plan:

• Those who have already paid for the existing full version may be disrupted, as their version will not receive any other updates in this new version.

• There will be a name conflict, since we want the new application to get the name of the old paid one (deleting the typical "Lite" character). This will not be a big problem in the App Store if we immediately remove the paid version from the store, but can do it for a confused user if the user downloads the new version along with the old paid version.

• On the same lines, if we delete the old paid version as soon as we upload the new free version (with the same name as in the old paid version), it is easy to imagine that some confused users of the old paid version will delete their existing paid version and downloading the new free version, only to realize that they have lost books that they have already paid for, without the possibility of re-downloading the old paid version.

My questions:

• From a real high level are we handling this wrong? I have Googled and Googled, but I could not find many recommendations on how to combine paid and free versions of applications into one.

• Is there any way I can determine who has already bought the paid version and give them the IAP book in the new free version? If we thought it was before, we could register the unique identifiers of all these paid versions, but I believe that now it’s all the same with regards to the rules, correct it?

• What other problems might arise if you give the "- Lite" version the same name as the old full version?

Thanks in advance for any help or feedback.

Answer 1

We just did it with our FileApp Pro and free FileApp. We got rid of FileApp Pro, and now the new FileApp has In-App purchases. However, we wanted all users who bought FileApp Pro to receive all AppApp In-App purchases for free.

Here is the method we used: We use the flags between FileApp and FileApp Pro using the iOS "Keyfob Access Rights", which allow two applications to share the same key data. This allows FileApp to know that FileApp Pro is installed. Then we wanted to make sure that FileApp Pro rights remained available in FileApp through the user's iTunes account, so we used the free In-App purchase for this. When FileApp Pro is first launched, FileApp is offered to purchase a free In-App purchase, so all of his privileges remain on all devices, even if he reinstalls FileApp.

You will find the full article about our swamp describing the method: http://blog.digidna.net/post/74246563623/how-to-release-a-whole-new-app-and-keep-all-things

Answer 2

I would think that it’s best to turn the paid version into the free one, so at least your initial paid customers will take care of this. Depending on your user base, you can even make sure that the original paid users did not show any ads or other restrictions by making an interim release so that these users retain something by default for users. You can then provide an update to the free version using UIAlertView, which asks them if they want the full version for free and send them to the application store to download it. I assume that you still have many free users, but you would probably be less upset with this path.

Answer 3

I know two applications that did something very similar. The Economist and the USAToday app, which literally warned the user about stopping the current app and downloading a new one. (I don’t know why they should have done it that way). Therefore, I am absolutely sure that you are not the first to think about it.

If you have the opportunity to provide account features + synchronization, this is the best way to combine both applications. One of my favorite apps, Gas Cubby, did it pretty well. Gas Cubby has a free and paid version. If you want to upgrade your free Gas Cubby to a paid one, you download another application and then synchronize the data.

To worry about how to restore content for paid clients in your Lite application, you can use the URL scheme in the Lite application, which, when you call the current paid application, will allow you to use these books for free.

As @ rooster117 explains, it’s best to turn the paid version for free and ask people with a light version to go to the free version with a free download. Of course, add a hard stop date to the application that you stop, so that everyone who uses it will go to one application of your interest.

Answer 4

Your problems:

• This will happen regardless of the fact that you cannot make everyone happy.
• I would go with the removal of the free version of the application, although before you send a push notification to all versions of "Lite", stating that support for this application will be discontinued and redirect them to the paid version
• To continue C # 2, if possible, before terminating the Lite version, if you have an account system installed on your server, you will receive an update for both versions that synchronizes all your books with your own server (and not iCloud ) Thus, when downloading a new version (after termination of Lite), the application automatically synchronizes books with the device.

Your questions:

• As you believe, there is no real way to combine the two applications, from what I saw in games for utilities, is to uninstall the lite version as a particle all together, and if the user needs future content updates, then they have to download the application in App Store
• Refer to my answer to Problem 3
• I believe that this will be incorrectly rejected by the process of viewing the App Store, primarily due to the fact that they perform the same function, I would suggest completely deleting the free file