As game companies like EA move away from one time app sales toward a pay-to-play better approach, the app business model is changing rapidly. The game is no longer about how to get as many people to fork over $0.99 cents as possible. Now it’s about putting games into people’s hands for free and asking them to pay later for upgrades, faster manifestation of goals, etc.
A recent report from IHS Screen Digest division predicts the number of in-app purchases will move from 39 percent of app revenues in 2011 to 49 percent by the end of 2012. By 2015 in-app purchases will account for 64 percent of all revenues.
As a casual gamer I have yet to see this in-app purchase model work well for me, but apparently I’m one of the few.