BlackBerry App World™ Development

[eaoliver]

Does anyone know how to configure try and buy options when submitting apps?

I have three releases

1.3.0 is a full release for $5

1.4.0 is a trial version

1.4.1 is a full version with a free upgrade from previous versions.

My friend just downloaded the trial version and got a free upgrade to the full version.  Does anyone know what I could be doing wrong?

Earl

[rafo]

What is difference between trial and full versions?

From my point of view there has to be a way to specify a registration code to get a full version.

without this registration code a product works for a limited period of time or has a limited functionality.

[Nelvin]

Hi,

I had the same issue (see other threads here with Try & Buy topics) and gave away free full versions for a few days.

Tried to solve the problem with great help of the storefrontmanagers, but in the end nothing worked so I switched back to paid/static without any demo.

These were the steps I've been through (you might skip some :-))

- initial release, paid/static, worked as expected

- added a demo release, switched to try & buy + static, deme release pending -> free full version available as "demo"

- storefront manager helped with a quick approve of the demo ... don't know exactly what happend, but got 0 sales only demo downloads

- switched back to paid/static, no more demo downloads but now, even paying customers got the demo files

- submitted a new revision, only fullversion, paid/static, now everything's back at the initial state and it works as expected

Storefrontmanagers told me, that it's probably not working due to the change of license and that it does work if you use try & buy on your first submission - so I guess it's some kind of backend bug/problem.

Michael

[eaoliver]

Thanks Nelvin!  I'm keeping an eye on my download/purchase records :-)  So far, everyone is picking up the trial version and only one person (me when I was testing last night) has managed to upgrade from the trial to full version for free. 

Earl

Message Edited by eaoliver on 05-14-2009 11:23 AM

[eaoliver]

Hi Rafo,

The trial simply has limited functionality.  The trial mode is a different set of cod files with a public static variable DEMO_MODE set to true.  I don't really want to deal with entering registration codes.  Although it is less efficient in terms of downloads, I prefer the Try/Buy method enforced by the App World.

Thanks for your feedback.

Earl

[cwong15]

I'm seeing the same issue too. Not all downloads of the full version of my product are registering as purchases. People who download the free trial version (1.0.0.0) seem to be getting free "upgrades" to the full version (1.0.0.1). I configured this product as try&buy with static licensing from the very beginning, so this is not a licensing conversion issue. 

[Nelvin]

Hm I only got the info that it works if you start with Try & Buy with your initial submission - maybe the problem appears only after you add a new release/update and it doesn't matter what your initial license model was.

Well for now I only use paid/static - works as expected at the moment. AppWorld is still very new so I'm sure RIM will release updates and fixes over time ... and hopefully adds additional territories as I still can't even have a look at AppWorld from Germany (which made my early problems even worse as I was not able to see what's going wrong :-))

[eaoliver]

Thanks for your feedback cwong15.  I sent RIM the App World store manager an email on Thursday about this issue.  So far there is no response.  I suspect they are well aware of this issue.  I'll forward them an email of with a link to this thread on Tuesday (after the Canadian long weekend).

Earl

[cwong15]

Earl, let's keep each other up to date with our findings, since we seem to be in the same boat. I have contacted the store front manager too. I did receive one reply, asking me if I checked the "this is a trial" for only one of the releases (yes). So RIM is responsive and responding. I have a feeling it will take few more emails to sort this out.

Chris 

[cwong15]

I would like to post an update on my problem. Ryan of the BlackBerry App World Team has been quite responsive. We have established that there is a problem. I'm waiting to hear about a solution. I am actually experiencing two problems:

Product 1: users who download the trial version can apparently download the full version for free.

Product 2: users who purchase the full version end up downloading the trial version.

The difference between product 1 and 2 is that the former's trial version has a smaller version number than the production version. With the latter, it is the reverse. Personally, I think the second problem is worse because I will soon have a bunch of disgruntled customers possibly leaving bad reviews. 

Message Edited by cwong15 on 05-20-2009 08:15 PM