On Monday, Apple launched a new feature that enables customers to pre-order an app in the App Store. It is a pretty basic feature, but nonetheless quite useful to developers, as it allows them to market their apps and games more efficiently with a pre-order feature.
"Build excitement for your new app by making it available for pre-order. Your product page will be published on the App Store and customers can order your app before it's released for download," based on the Apple's official announcement.
With the new feature, developers can publish their apps as far as 90 days before and up to two days before the official launch. Once the app is officially released, users will be notified and the app will download automatically on their phone within the day.
It's safe to say that games would benefit more from the new pre-order feature, especially now that the newest App Store update has delegated a new tab just for games. Coming next year, a lot of anticipated games would be coming to the iOS, such as the newest augmented reality mobile game "Harry Potter: Wizards Unite." With the new pre-order feature, players wouldn't miss a release date for a certain game anymore.
If a pre-ordered app is paid, the users will only be charged once the app is ready for download. Also, if the price of the app changed within the pre-order period, users will only be charged at a price where they would get the cheaper end of the deal. If the pre-ordered price is cheaper, that's the price they will be charged. It works the same when the launch price is far cheaper than the pre-ordered price. The new feature isn't a binding promise either. Users are free to cancel their pre-orders any time.
The pre-order feature is available to all iterations of the App Store and just in iOS, so macOS and tvOS apps are also eligible for pre-order. Google has a similar feature which launched years ago, but unlike in Apple, users are only notified when the app is ready for download. It's not automatic and it doesn't allow them to lock them on an app price when they pre-register.
