Game companies are all the way in for bait-and-sell IAP model. In other words push some pain intermittently and then try to sell the painkillers. Which seems to work for them at least for now. I wish we would have a more healthy model to cover the production+marketing costs, but it's not gonna change anytime soon...<p>For apps with more utility, still there is a chance to go for upfront payments, but then again significantly slowing down user traction especially when there are free alternatives (even if they are not any good)<p>And there is the ad-supported model, which boils down to how much traffic your app generates, from which countries and how engaging your app is. A reaaalllly long shot for all the apps except for a lucky few