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Apple Swaps "Get" Button For "Free" To Avoid Confusion Over In-App Purchases
New submitter lazarus (2879) writes Apple is falling in line with the European Commission's request that app sellers do more to stop inadvertent in-app purchases. Following Google's lead, Cupertino has removed all instances of the word "free" within its iOS and Mac app stores (with the exception of its own apps, like iMovie), and replaced them with the term "Get." The new label clarifies what users can expect when downloading an app. Apps previously labeled as "Free" will now have a "Get" label. If those apps include in-app purchases, a small gray "In-App Purchase" label will appear below the "Get" button.
In-app purchases can be used to approximate the old shareware system very closely. Provide the app for free, then unlock the rest of the features (or episodes past the first) with one or two IAPs. For example, Idthesda could put out an app called Doom that contains an 8-level episode "Knee-Deep in the Dead". Then an IAP called "Ultimate Doom" would include 8-level episodes "The Shores of Hell", "Inferno", and "Thy Flesh Consumed", and an IAP called "Doom II" would unlock another 32-level episode. The only difference is that Apple's App Store Review Guidelines doesn't allow "use past 30 days" to be an IAP; only noninteractive content can be provided on a rental basis.
You paid for WinZip? That bloated piece of crap? When there's only about three dozen different free compression applications? You don't even have to resort to classical freeware, there are FOSS programs that will do the job quite nicely, with a polished GUI for those who don't like CLIs.
I want peace on earth and goodwill toward man.
We are the United States Government! We don't do that sort of thing.
Because an app that doesn't offer in-app purchases now, might do so next month.
This story is literally about changing a string from "Free" to "Get".
Further, the headline has it backwards. Swapping X for Y means you swap out X and swap in Y.