Transactions Further Muddies “Demo” vs. “Lite”

Last month, Ars Technica reported on the distinctions of “demo” vs. “lite” and what was allowed on the App Store. According to Ars, “demo” or “beta” is cause for instant rejection from the store, while “lite” is OK, provided the lite version stands on its own and is not crippled.

Last week, Transactions was released, which processes credit card charges through Authorize.net or PayPal. The “lite” version is limited to two transactions within a twelve hour period. I’m scratching my head how this made it through the approval process. Two transactions is useless for real world use. It’s clearly only useful to trial the app’s functionality before buying the full version. A much better “lite” differentiator is to limit the amount that may be charged.

It is well past time for Apple to implement demo functionality for apps on the store. Allow developers to opt out if they wish. Apple controls the platform. It can’t be hard to add a marker to the FairPlay wrapper. Some period of time after download (even this could be up to the developer), iPhone OS will refuse to launch the app, telling the user that the demo period has expired. Buying the app at that point removes the marker and the app may be launched again.

If (hopefully when) Apple does this, I predict we’ll see average app prices start to rise, since the “risk” of buying something disappears. Higher app prices means a bigger 30% cut for Apple. Isn’t this a no-brainer?