Major announcement from Apple today that has made application developers (like the one below) very excited: free applications can now be directly monetized through “In App Purchasing” – which is a key component to what is driving the success in the booming online-gaming space. Now developers have choices beyond the current options: premium applications and/or in-app advertising (standard units, sponsorship, interstitials):

“In App Purchase is being rapidly adopted by developers in their paid apps. Now you can use In App Purchase in your free apps to sell content, subscriptions, and digital services.

You can also simplify your development by creating a single version of your app that uses In App Purchase to unlock additional functionality, eliminating the need to create Lite versions of your app. Using In App Purchase in your app can also help combat some of the problems of software piracy by allowing you to verify In App Purchases.”

Popularity: 2% [?]