Apple five In-App purchase types are not matching with my app feature.

Hi everyone,


In our app, we plan to implement an in-app purchase feature to buy fish. User can buy many times whenever he wants but fish will be a bit off after a week if he doesn't use to cook. I think two types of in-app purchase can be applied:

1. Consumable

2. Non-renewing subscriptions


I know a consumable In-App Purchase can be purchased every time the user wants fish. But fish is not expired until used

I also know non-renewing In-App Purchase subscriptions have been used with a limited duration. But user cannot buy many times whenever users want. They have to wait a week later to be possible to buy again.


Do you guys have any experience or same situation like my feature? Which in-app purchase type should I select? Please advise.


Thanks

Chanh

Replies

Please explain what you mean by "a fish". If you are refreing to a real physical fish the answer is simple, you can't use IAP to purchase a real world good (Guideline 11.3). If you are talking about something different you must explain it more clearly.

Hi PBK,

fish is a product of our game, it looks like real fish.

It is a game simulating that a housewife (one of characters) who can buy fish in the game supermarket and bring to her home to cook.

Ok. You wrote:


>I know a consumable In-App Purchase can be purchased every time the user wants fish. But fish is not expired until used


That is correct, a consumable, if not used, cannot 'go bad' after a few days like a fish. But that does not mean that you can't purchase a fish and upon purchase you have the fish as a display item (that would constitute 'use' of the consumable). Then over time the appearance of that fish and the taste of that fish can change. After a few days that fish can be quite rotten and suitable only for throwing away or composte. That's a perfectly good consumable.


Or, perhaps even better, you could allow the user to purchase not 'fish' from the Apple App Store but coupons as a consumable IAP where each coupon is good for one fish at the fish market. The coupons don't expire (like a consumable) but once exchanged for a fish the fish starts to go bad. Then your app can play out the purchase experience whenever and however it wants. The purchase of the 'coupons' or 'fish dollars' is done seperate from the app experience. That fits better into Kid's apps and would allow someone to purchase 100 fish and play for a few months.



You also wrote:


>...non-renewing In-App Purchase .....user cannot buy many times whenever users want. They have to wait a week .....to buy again.


That's not correct. You can rebuy a non-renewing subscription over and over again whenever you want. Each purchased subscription must last 7 days - it is unclear what that means in the case of your fish.


Go with consumable. Trigger the 'use' on purchase -