Recently, I blogged about the importance of in-app purchases in mobile apps and the difficulties involved in supporting such commercial aspects in the SAP Store.
Usually, SAP - indeed many mobile SAP partners as well - price their mobile apps on a per user basis. The per-user price varies based on the characteristics of the apps (largely based on the assumed savings associated by their usage). Despite the critical importance of in-app purchases in their commercialization, I have yet to see any of these apps include in-app purchases. I found this absence interesting.
At first, I thought that in-app purchases were just restricted to games and more consumer-oriented apps. On closer examination, I found a whole series of business / productivity apps that use in-app purchases.
Here is a partial list:
App | Type of In-App purchase |
---|---|
Increase number of business cards uploaded to SalesForce. First two are free. | |
Link app to other social networks beyond original 6+ | |
In-app purchase of SpringCM cloud content service | |
Free app must be purchased after a trial period ends | |
They can also save and protect their data using an in-app purchase called Backup My Stuff. | |
Increased records | |
Upgrade to the Licensed Version (in-app purchase) to Unlock the Premium Features! | |
PDF Attachment Support, Custom Splash Screen Logo, Advanced Data Export Formats Multiple Currency Support |
Note: Before we continue, there is the need to discuss how enterprise users would pay for such apps. In many enterprises, there are restrictions regarding which the mobile apps can access enterprise data. Often, such apps are purchased in bulk and provided to end-users free of charge. For such scenarios, in-app purchases are probably not relevant because the end-user already has the full-featured app. I’m thinking more in terms of Bring your own application (BYOA) scenarios. Of course, there are governance issues (who can / will authorize specific in-app purchases?) that must be solved.
As I looked at the examples above, I became aware of the difficulty in designing effective in-app purchases.
In search for more information, I found a ReadWriteWeb article that described the following strategies for designing successful in-app purchases:
The challenge is applying these suggestions to mobile apps in the enterprise software space.
Here are some possibilities that I thought up:
What are your ideas about possible in-app purchases for enterprise apps? There are no wrong answers. Don’t forget that users are used to crazy in-app purchases. Use your imagination.
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