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Amazon lifts $20 in-app limit following tightened parental controls

Drops 1-click for password

Amazon lifts $20 in-app limit following tightened parental controls
After rolling out an in-app purchase system for its Android store, Amazon has lifted the maximum charge of in-app purchases alongside newly strengthened parental controls.

Charges for in-app items can now exceed $20, a move that will encourage Android developers who rely on these purchases to support their free-to-play models to the platform.

Amazon's new parental controls see the retailer dropping its signature 1-Click purchase system for an Amazon.com password or a four-digit pin approval with each in-app purchase.

Learning from your peers

Parental controls have proven troublesome for rival Apple which came under fire when a loophole that allowed in-app purchases to be made without passwords during a 15-minute window landed some disgruntled parents with hundreds of dollars of charges.

A lawsuit from that era is currently going through the US courts

Apple currently allows a maximum in-app purchase of $99.99 while Google Play's offers $200.

Indeed, Amazon's decision to allow developers to up the price of in-app purchases beyond $20 could see the platform's overtaking Apple for average revenue per user.

Recent research from Flurry found that average revenue per users on Amazon's store was about 89 percent that of iOS while Google Play's average is behind with around a quarter Apple's total.

[source: TechCrunch]

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