[timeuser]

As I said in my other response it seems likely Apple won't allow these upgrade schemes any more than they are allowing Omni to do upgrades around the App Store. Why would they block what Omni was doing entirely outside of the App Store and allow apps distributed through the App Store to accomplish something similar?

[gojomo]

Because outside the App Store, Apple doesn't get their cut, and external payments or software-deliveries don't bind people to the habit of App Store purchases and in-app purchases.

With this pseudo-upgrade process, even as convoluted as it is, it all remains inside Apple's system.

I suppose the key question is: does Apple allow promotions that give some people the same effect as in-app purchases, while others still have to make the paid purchase? (I think they do.) I could see Apple objecting if the feature-turn-on is in any way a reward for outside-of-App-Store valuable behavior - that's circumventing Apple's role.

But if it's an extra bonus for an earlier in-App-Store action – the N-1 version purchase – Apple's role hasn't been circumvented. In a way, it's been reinforced. So the same logic driving the prior veto wouldn't apply.

[timeuser]

Perhaps. It's an interesting theory. I've seen it claimed in the past that Apple has given explicit permission to activate in app purchasable features through other means such as contacting a developer's server with an unlock code. I'm still leery of going through the effort to build and support a kludgy solution like that and still have the risk of Apple not approving of it.