Developers Can Now Issue Free "Promotional" Copies of iPhone Apps | Hacker News Reader

Developers Can Now Issue Free "Promotional" Copies of iPhone Apps

macrumors.com

6 pointsdhyasama12 comments

Wonder why the limit is set at just 50 and not letting developers give out as many as they want. Apple shouldn't give a shit. If it's a revenue problem with not getting cuts, then make those developers who use up a gargantuan amount of promo codes (i.e. 500+) apps free.

50 is fine (it's for each release, not just total).

That's many hundreds over time, which should be plenty for reviews/bloggers/etc.

This would have been good for the person asking us to review his app yesterday.The limit of 50 seems pretty arbitrary though. Having a secret free iTunes link would seem to make more sense to me.

The free link info would spread like wildfile.

But isn't that the choice of the App developer. It just seems really arbitrary of Apple to pick a set number.

Is this true? Could some of you with awesome but expensive apps send me a promotional code to try it out? I promise to return the favor when my apps are ready.

Sure, sent one for Grafly (http://grafly.com) as a test via email.

(Well, it's only $5 right now, but we think it's awesome. ;-)

Literally a graphing (only) calculator, or do you plan on expanding functionality?

I would be willing to help implement features that emulate my TI-89. Carrying something that useful in my pocket would be absolutely amazing.

(integration, differentiation, solving systems of equations, polynomials, etc etc etc)

I completely agree. I don't own an iPhone, but this would practically be a killer app for me.

A relatively simple concept, but I think the iPhones user interface could be excellent at it, and I think it could be extremely popular within a niche. There's a lot of scope for features and development, and you could certainly charge more than $5 considering the real cost of a graphics calculator.

It could also be better than current graphics calculators in some ways despite the lack of physical buttons - every graphics calculator I've ever used has seriously struggled with making a decent UI.

Thanks! I'll test it soon. I'm still syncing my phone with a new computer.

I don't see a redeem link anywhere.

Neat. Now I don't have to give out iTMS gift certificates anymore.

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