Look Behind the “Feature Veil”
I’ve been thinking about a decision Apple made awhile ago to allow free iOS apps to offer in-app purchases. My recollection of their argument against doing this is that users would be frustrated by downloading a free app only to have to purchase something in-app to get it to work.
Around the same time Apple decided to allow free apps to offer in-app purchases, the App Store also began promoting each application’s “Top In-App Purchases.” This feature is pretty silly (who cares?), but it’s positioned prominently at the top of each app’s page.
It seems clear that Apple’s intention here is to denote which apps ask you to buy more stuff. This is a valid objective, but they’ve accomplished it in a strange way. The feature, when taken at face value, appears to do something unrelated.
This particular “feature veil” is pretty easy to see through, but I’m guessing the technique has been used before, by Apple and others, in less obvious instances. Can you think of any?
