Late last month, Apple launched a new "Free App of the Week" promotion on the App Store, featuring a single app on each of the iPhone and iPad platforms and offering the normally-paid titles for free. Apple's digital content stores have of course offered free apps for years, but the new promotion seeks to bring greater visibility to content being temporarily discounted from paid to free.
In another sign that Apple may be looking to increase exposure for free content, the company earlier this week registered two new domains: freeonappstore.com and freeonibookstore.com. There is currently no content located at either of the sites, but it seems that Apple may be interested in either creating specific websites featuring free content or using them as redirects to point to existing features.
The two domains were registered the day after Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference keynote, but they do not appear to have any direct relationship to announcements made during the event. Consequently, Apple's intentions for the domains remains unknown.
Outside of the digital stores themselves, Apple has a number of other venues for promoting free and discounted content, including a partnership with Starbucks for free "Pick of the Week" offerings such as apps and book samples. The current Free App of the Week promotion also began as a Facebook promotion on Apple's App Store page, but has since migrated directly into the App Store.
Thursday October 10, 2024 8:26 am PDT by Joe Rossignol
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Tuesday October 15, 2024 6:07 am PDT by Tim Hardwick
Apple today announced a significant upgrade to the iPad mini, now featuring an A17 Pro chip and support for the company's new Apple Intelligence system. The refreshed seventh-generation tablet maintains its compact 8.3-inch design while offering notable performance improvements and new capabilities. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos. The A17 Pro chip brings a 30%...
On this week's episode of The MacRumors Show, we discuss the unprecedented leak of Apple's M4 MacBook Pro models and the company's rumored move to more staggered hardware and software releases. Subscribe to The MacRumors Show YouTube channel for more videos Multiple leaks surrounding Apple's unannounced 14-inch MacBook Pro with the M4 chip recently surfaced online. The leaks began with unboxin...
Monday October 14, 2024 10:10 am PDT by Juli Clover
Apple today provided developers with the seventh betas of iOS 18.1 and iPadOS 18.1 to continue testing Apple Intelligence features. The seventh betas come a week after Apple seeded the sixth iOS 18.1 and iPadOS 18.1 betas. The updates can be downloaded from the Settings app on a compatible device by going to General > Software Update. Note that Apple Intelligence features still an iPhone 15...
Friday October 11, 2024 8:55 am PDT by Joe Rossignol
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Tuesday October 8, 2024 6:16 am PDT by Tim Hardwick
Rumors strongly suggest Apple will release the seventh-generation iPad mini in November, nearly three years after the last refresh. Here's a roundup of what we're expecting from the next version of Apple's small form factor tablet, based on the latest rumors and reports. Design and Display The new iPad mini is likely to retain its compact 8.3-inch display and overall design introduced with...
Promoting paid apps that are temporarily free helps devalue the paid apps. Such promotions are a large part of the reason for the move towards freemium and ad-supported models.
I would rather Apple promotes normally free games, and choses games that have quality, but are unknown, rather than games that are already successful.
A problem for developers is that the downloads are concentrated onto a few massive hits, while other great apps go unnoticed. Apple promotions should be widening the circle of success, not narrowing it.
They should have free trials that last for 10 full hours of usage. there is no way I would download a $10 or $20 app without trying it out first... They would sell a lot more paid apps ( to me at least:)).
I would like to add that I also hate with a passion Freemium apps.
Never heard that term before I like it.
There should be 3 types of apps.
1: Paid for apps 2: Free apps that only give you say a few levels/and or require payment to advance or do much with the product 3: Free apps
Jeez, we are even getting full paid for apps now that try and get you to buy things in-game. It's a nasty trend that's growing and I've never experienced it before I bought an iPad.
Hope they limit it to truly free aps. i.e. no freemiums. Nothing more annoying than seeing a "free" app only to discover it's freemium.
Freemium is applied in many different ways, not all bad. I have played Jetpack Joyride for many hours, yet never felt pressurised to use in-app purchases. While some others are in your face as soon as you launch the app and have little value before paying out.
Freemium is not inherently bad, but it is applied badly far too often, giving it a bad name. Don't write off the potential because of some applications of it.
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Does anyone know what fraction of the original price (0-100%) apple pays the developers for the downloaded free copies?
Considering the developers have to pay to be on some other free app promotions (I know, it sounds daft to pay to give stuff way for free), I suspect Apple won't have to pay anything.
