Apple App Store

Apple has dealt another blow to freemium games by adding a 'Pay Once & Play' section to the UK App Store. The new section highlights paid games that do not feature in-app purchases, such as Leo's Fortune.

While freemium games rake in a lot of money for both developers and Apple, a lot of hardcore and casual gamers despise so-called "free-to-play" games. Hardcore gamers claim that they rather pay a onetime download fee rather than suffering through timers and in-app purchases, and casual gamers are tired of being misled by the promise of a "free" game that actually cost money to play.

The iOS 8 installation rate continues to tick upward ever so slowly. Upgrades have slowed since late last year, with 69 percent of compatible devices currently running iOS 8.0 or later. Two weeks ago the number stood at 68 percent, which points towards a plateau in updates to iOS 8 amongst iPhone, iPad and iPod touch users.

Apple's App Store Distribution page illustrates current iOS usage in a pie graph, with iOS 7 at 28 percent and previous versions comprising just 3 percent of the total. All of the statistics were collected as of January 19th, 2015.

Apple today updated its terms and conditions for App Store, iBooks, and iTunes purchases made in EU countries such as UK, France, Germany, etc.. The new TOS institutes a 14 day return policy on any apps, games, music or books purchased through Apple services on Mac and iOS devices.

If you choose to cancel your order, you may do so within 14 days from when you received your receipt without giving any reason, except iTunes Gifts which cannot be refunded once you have redeemed the code.

To meet the cancellation deadline, you must send your communication of cancellation before the 14-day period has expired.

Effects of cancellation: We will reimburse you no later than 14 days from the day on which we receive your cancellation notice. We will use the same means of payment as you used for the transaction, and you will not incur any fees for such reimbursement.

Exception to the right of cancellation: You cannot cancel your order for the supply of digital content if the delivery has started upon your request and acknowledgement that you thereby lose your cancellation right.

Holdouts with iOS 7 installed on their iOS 8 compatible devices now account for just 33 percent of total users. Apple metrics collected on the App Store point to a slowdown in iOS 8 installations, which initially soared in the early days after release. Still, the number of iOS 8 adpotions continues to tick upward.

The total number of iOS compatible devices running iOS 8 currently stands at 63 percent. This leaves only four percent of newer hardware running iOS 6 and earlier firmware. The jump from iOS 6 to iOS 7 was a more dramatic redesign, with users installing the update at a much faster clip.

Most of the Free buttons in the App Store have recently been changed to Get. Apple has quietly modified this feature of the App Store across all platforms. The move follows better delineation of apps that include In-App Purchases, which are often referred to as Freemium apps. Get may better describe the action of downloading, and avoid descriptions of what's actually free.

The Free buttons haven't entirely disappeared, however. Apple apps such as iMovie, Pages, Keynote, and Numbers are marked Free, presumably because they will never offer In-App Purchases. In contrast, third-party apps that do not offer In-App Purchases are still marked with the Get button.