[justinmolineaux]

I don't work for Apple, but I think they would point a developer to in-app purchases (IAP) as 'the way' to do paid upgrades.

Still, auto-renewing IAP subscriptions are limited to a narrow class of applications (see AppStore review guidelines #11.15), forcing most to use churn-prone manually-renewing subscriptions. Outside payment systems are largely prohibited for digital goods under #11.13. The combination of these rules forces multi-platform subscription based apps (i.e. Autodesk's 123d-line of apps) to juggle multiple payment systems. Integration between those payment systems is often weak due to lack of a published web service or hook-system for IAP.

AppStore review guidelines can be found here: https://developer.apple.com/app-store/review/guidelines/#pur...

The state of in-app purchases leaves much to be desired.

[clarky07]

I think they are quietly loosening 11.15. It started as just magazines, now it has:

Apps may only use auto-renewing subscriptions for periodicals (newspapers, magazines), business Apps (enterprise, productivity, professional creative, cloud storage), and media Apps (video, audio, voice), or the App will be rejected

On top of that, I know of at least 2 very high profile sports and health and fitness apps that are currently using auto-renewing subscriptions. Now, it's possible they get to do it BECAUSE they are high profile, but the precedent exists. They don't fit in any of the above categories.

[lpsz]

IAP doesn't work too well for trials. You have to label it a free app, and then users get angry that you're charging for features.

   2.6 Apps that are "beta", "demo", "trial", or "test" versions will be rejected [1]

[1] https://developer.apple.com/app-store/review/guidelines/mac/