Reading this title you will probably be a little surprised, but if you read the article to the end you will understand why some applications bring significant income to developers even though they are distributed free in the AppStore. We are not talking here about free applications with advertisements in them, but about the so-called "freemium apps", i.e. applications that are distributed for free in the AppStore, but have included the in-app purchases system that allows you to expand the functionality of the application by purchasing various options even from the application. At the moment, almost a third (depending on the AppStore) of the top-grossing iPhone applications consists of free applications that generate these revenues through these in-app purchases.
Last year, Apple introduced the option for in-app purchases and opened new possibilities for developers to make money even from free applications. Let's say you download a free game from the AppStore, start playing through it and find that there is a menu where you can purchase various items/actions/powers for your character in that game, well those purchases are called in-app purchases and through through them you can extend the functionality of your application. But this example is not only limited to games: let's say you download an application that allows you to read news about football, but to be able to see video clips you will have to buy this option from the application, well through in-app purchases the option to see videos as well. In-app purchases have been successfully implemented in the AppStore and developers collect handsome amounts monthly depending on the applications made and the options available.
In January of this year, there were 2 freemium applications in the AppStore and now conform according to some statistics companies, this type of application amounts to approximately 30% of the total revenue generated by the sale of iPhone applications from the iPhone AppStore. Of course, in-app purchases give results only if the application is worth it, otherwise it's just a business model that won't work for everyone. Unfortunately, the freemium applications for the iPad do not have the same success for now, but I am sure that in the future they will represent an important source of income for Apple.
Remco van den Elzen, CEO of analytics firm Distimo, said he believes in-app purchases now represent about 30 percent of all iPhone App Store revenue. "We're seeing more developers implement more in app-purchases especially with games," he said. "Freemium Apps are also picking up significantly. A lot of developers realize it's a successful model."
