If you actually go that route ( start at 0.99 and then drop to 0 with freemium model) just make sure to give something at conversion time. For example if in the freemium version you sell gold at 100 for 0.99, send 1000 to all active accounts when you convert.
I released my first game in late 2009, it sold a few tens of thousands of copies at everything from $0.99 to $3.99. By the spring of 2010 it was down to a handful of downloads per day but we were given the chance to get on FAAD when it was still a new idea. This generated almost half a million free downloads. After it went back to paid ($2.99 I think) we made several thousand dollars from the extra exposure before it sank back to the handful of downloads. We did FAAD again in the autumn, again generating almost half a million free downloads and rather less when it went back to paid. Stupidly, I didn't cash in on the fact we now had a million users by adding IAP, I was simply to busy. During that time I only saw a couple of one star reviews saying "WTF I paid good money for this, why is it now free?" or "how come I had to pay? my friend got this for free". There was no negative reaction in these forums at all as, even as early as 2010, people here had come to accept that game prices change as devs try to earn a living. I guess what i'm saying is that very few users out in the big wide world know enough to even think they were ripped off and people here, where iOS gamers talk more than anywhere in the world, seem to be pretty forgiving about it. I'd say it's extremely unlikely that price changes will cause any negative PR unless you have millions of paid users but that'd be a pretty nice problem to have...
Is it not the same thing because they didn't intentionally do it from the start? Only after they found out it wasn't making money anymore they turned it into freemium? I believe Temple Run was the same thing.
It all depends on how many downloads you receive. If your game did not get any exposure with less than 100 downloads for the first week, then I think you should make it free. If thousands of players bought your game on the first week then you should just stick with the paid model. I'm thinking about making my app freemium with one IAP. It will get more exposure when its free. That way, at least players can test the game before thinking about buying the second half of the game (the size of the app is large). I also made sure to make it clear that they will receive free updates if they purchase the second half
Crazy thought Why not release as a paid app but alongside the release also publicly announce and post the date when it will become free?
Thanks? This is actually a really awesome idea. Label it as the pre-launch special - pay to get access before others.