Is it just me or are more and more developers taking paid apps and screwing them up by taking away stuff and then calling them "in app purchases"? I can't tell you how many apps I have on my app updates screen that I won't download because of reviews saying that things that used to work in the paid app now don't and are being called IAP? If that's not bad enough, it seems like they're bugging you every time you open apps up with ads for their "new features." I've complained about it before, but they need a separate area where you can keep apps that you use but don't want to update. I'm tired of having to weed through 20 or 30 apps that are screwed up with the latest updates, in order to get to those that, thankfully, aren't. Sorry for the rant (and sorry if this is a duplicate. I should have checked.)
Another thread was just discussing this over the last day or 2 - actually I think a few. Anyways, I agree with you. The "problem" is that IAP or the ads models are doing much better than the straight sale model - or so that is what I have read - so the devs, who want to make a living, turn to this model. What I really can't abide is that these "features" are hidden in an update that says "UI changes", or "minor bug fixes", or something equally devious - so you d/l the new app, it erases the old one, and you are screwed unless you make backups of all the old apps on your computer - what a waste of time is that? So, there are lots of us that agree with your sentiments, but I don't think your desire is going to happen without a lot of pressure from people to change the business model in the app store....
I'm right there with you. It's also called lying to your first and best clients. Since they are not about to get paid twice from the same clients, they could at least mention IAP's oder ad integration to the ones who already bought their apps. I mean, if they cared. I also have 130 app updates pending because of apps which are in many different ways (ads, crashes, slower, spyware, inferior functionality, removed content) getting worse with newer versions. I do not expect the dev's to get honest since being honest does not pay off. Best examples: Shazam (free, minimalistic, fast, unlimited tagging -> then paid, bloated - about 15x of its initial size by now -, slow, limited tagging) and Angry Birds (very basic at first and with a sleek ui, then bloated with more and more buttons in the menus and spyware at last).
I'll pay for expansion packs if I really like the game as far as DLC goes and that's really about it. I think honestly this current trend of DLC and freemium have actually put me off the app store altogether. I think next year I'll be solely playing Vita titles as things stand.
