LIVE FROM OPEN MOBILE SUMMIT LONDON 2012: Developers expressed their belief that in-app payments are now the best approach when looking to monetise mobile apps.

Speaking at the Open Mobile Summit in London today, president of developer Bottle Rocket Apps, Calvin Carter, said: “The in-app purchase model we believe is the way to go.”

“There’s obviously a shift towards freemium and downstream monetisation,” director of Amazon’s Appstore for Android, Aaron Rubenson, added.

Providing high-quality content for free will help users to “fall in love” with the product, the Amazon executive continued, meaning they will continue to engage until they make what they then see as “low consideration purchase”.

“This is like a medicine for the masses. You dose out one pill to everyone right now – a free app that provides a good and simple experience – a little sex and sizzle is worth that first experience. [Users will] say ‘this is cool, maybe I’ll come back later’,” Carter said.

By giving users simple tasks within the first 25 to 90 seconds of them returning to an app, users will be drawn further in until they are prepared to invest in the user experience, he added.

However, Rubenson said up-front payment still works for some apps where there is high brand recognition or where other competing apps are charging a similar price for the services.

This is certainly true for fellow panel member, John Loughlin, Hearst Magazines’ EVP and GM, who said brand recognition allows his company to charge up front for e-editions of titles that include Cosmopolitan and Esquire. “The reality is that the brand is an opportunity for recognition,” he said.

“The difference is when you charge for an app [consumers ask] ‘do I want to pay for something I don’t even know I want’ whereas in-app purchase is ‘do I want to pay for something I know I want?’ That’s the big difference,” Carter argued.

Although in-app purchase is likely to be the better bet to monetise apps, developers need to be patient, according to Rubenson.

“If you look at dollar flow for in app-purchasing in the Amazon store what you’re finding is that it’s actually a small amount of revenue that occurs in the day of the app’s download. So you need to extend out multiple weeks from the engagement perspective to take full advantage of the monetisation potential of an app when you’re using in-app purchasing,” he said.