Apple has just sent out a letter to developers introducing in-app purchasing for free apps.

UPDATE: Developers Erica Sadun on TUAW, and Marco Arment delve deeper into the subject, as does Techcrunch (twice).

ORIGINAL: Here’s what Apple had to say:

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.

Visit the App Store Resource Center for more details about how you can add In App Purchases to your free apps.

So in one email, Apple ends the clutter of Lite apps, provides a real possibility for demoware (a developer can provide 1 level of a game, for example, for free, and 10 more via in-app purchase), and offers developers the carrot of anti-piracy measures at the same time.

Previously, Apple was resolute about “free apps stay free” so as to avoid user confusion. What changed their mind, all of the above? And will in-app purchases in free apps be extra-carefully marked to avoid just such confusion?

[Thanks everyone who sent this in!]

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Updated: Apple Introduces In-App Purchase for Free App — Buh-Bye Lite, Hello Demo!

One of the highest profile iPhone games to state, EA’s Spore, retails on the iTunes App Store for $9.99. Now, however, you can also get a “free” version, Spore Origins Lite Edition (iTunes link). The catch? It’s teaser consisting of 1 level. Since Apple doesn’t (yet?) have a model for demoing apps (”try” instead of “buy”), it’s likely the only thing developers can do to give potential buyers a real preview. They hope, after one or a short number of levels, you’ll be hooked enough to pony up the bucks for the full blown version.

How’s this working? Well, Spore Origins Lite is not in the iTunes App Store Top 10… Pac Man Lite, which uses the same model, sits at number 5 in the free listings as of this posting, but it’s full blown counterpart in nowhere to be found among the top 100 paid Apps.

What does this tell us? That people would rather pay nothing for a Lite edition than something for a full game? Or is it simply that the whole App ranking mechanism still broken?

Have you downloaded any free “Lite” Apps? And if so, how many have convinced you to move on up to the full version?

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

1 Level Free! Are “Lite” iPhone Games an App Store Deal or a Dud?

Last month, Dieter let us know that Facebook’s popular, but feature-thin App Store application would be getting an update to (hopefully!) bring it up to par with the older WebApp version accessible via MobileSafari browsing. The due date was September, and boy did they just manage to sneak it in under the wire! Check out the iTunes App Store for Facebook 2.0 (still free!).

So what’s in the Facebook 2.0 update?

• Notifications
• Full news feed
• News feed story comments
• People search
• Friend requests
• Photo tagging
• Photo captioning
• Photo posts to friends’ walls
• Full mini-feed combined with the wall
• Entire inbox, including sent and updates
• Inbox search
• Message attachments
• Speed and stability improvements

(Thanks to Gregory for sending this in!)

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Facebook 2.0 Hits iPhone App Store

TUAW (nice redesign, guys!) notices that the iTunes App Store no longer has a link on the lefthand side to browse all free apps. The best we have now is the Top 100 Free Apps over on the right. TUAW is hopeful that Apple will bring back the link to browse all them free apps, and indeed, so are we. Even stores that traditionally only sold for-pay mobile apps like the Mobihand store sister-site WMExperts have seen the writing on the wall and added a link for free apps.

Fear not, though, loyal TiPb Readers. We have the link to browse all 90 pages of free apps, over 1850 apps in total, right here. Go on, browse those free apps, don’t let the man keep you down. Browse all Apps

Update: Turns out that you can, in fact, stop the signal. The “Browse all free apps” listing linked above contains, well, a lot of apps that ain’t free. Could it be that Apple got sick and tired of developers listing their apps as free to move up the top apps chain, then switching to for-pay to bring in the cash? Our best guess: Apple must not have a good, automatic way to categorize “free,” so they took the above link down to tweak the store.

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

App Store Drops Link to Browse “All Free Apps,” TiPb Tries Valiantly to Bring it Back