Smurfs Sneak into Apple's App Store, Rob Parents

A massive number of Top Grossing games use this model. Just looking at the Top 20: Tap Zoo, Restaurant Story, FarmVille, Kingdoms at War, Touch Pets Cats, Zombie Farm, We Rule.

I suppose there should be a setting (perhaps even the default) that allows parents to always require a password for every in app purchase. Wonder how much it would affect sales...

What's funny is I bet that most people who complain about "expensive" (read: more than $5) apps wouldn't blink at spending a bunch of money on virtual coins/berries/gems/stars/whatever.

I'd love it if we could get a better breakdown of app-types: 1) paid download 2) free-to-download and play 3) free-to-download with in-app purchase

This would not only be more reflective of the state of the game but also allow me to make better informed decisions when downloading apps for my child (or myself).

Good point! I've never seen this model shoot straight into the top spot on grossing list, I guess that's probably because Capcom jacked up prices on their items. I don't think they'll be allowed to continue this, or Apple will have a revolt on their hands.