Share in-app purchase IDs across premium and free versions of iPhone apps?

Question

We're releasing free and paid versions of our app. Both versions contain the same in-app purchase elements.

As far as we know, we cannot reuse the same IAP IDs in both apps. Even though the virtual good is the same in both as well as the code for processing a transaction, we need to use distinct IDs.

The default solution is to set a flag and then process the orders differently based on whether it's a free or paid version, but we're wondering if there is a better way where we can somehow share the same IAP IDs across both.

Answer 1

The easiest solution is to have a single version of your application with an in-app purchase to switch between paid and unpaid modes. You could also use your own server to keep track of the purchases, where users create and login to accounts to transfer purchases.

Is there a pressing reason to have separate paid and unpaid versions?