I am developing an app for a client who wants to use a non-autorenewing yearly subscription revenue model. Basically, the user would have very limited features in the app, unless they purchased a yearly subscription. I cannot talk about the details of the app, other than to say it has been designed to use tab navigation. 4 tabs: one tab with a list-based screen populated from data form a backend server; another tab with a Map showing annotations (related to the list items from the first tab); another tab that contains some different data from a backend server; and, lastly, a tab that contains "resources" (basically publicly-accessible information) related to the theme of the app.
The client wants to only make the Map tab accessible, with very limited content and interactivity, for free. Selecting any other tab or trying to drill down from a limited number of map items to more detail would require that the user purchase a subscription. I have tried to stress to the client that this is a poor user experience, and that the app should give the user more limited access to other parts of the app, so they can experience the app in full (in a limited way), which would give them some idea whether they would want to purchase a yearly subscription. Imagine downloading an app where all you could do is see a map with just a few map markers. If you tapped on any other tab, or you tried to drill down from a map annotation to more detail, you'd be presented with the UI to purchase a subscription. Yeah, sounds pretty worthless to me too. Basically, 80-90% of the app would not be accessible to the user without a subscription. It begs the question, why not just make the app paid from the start, and then you don't have to worry about managing subscriptions in the app. But, this is what they want. I suspect that Apple app reviewers will have something to say about this and may, rightly, reject the app. I have expressed this concern to the client very strongly, but they are very adament that this is the way they want to go. I know Apple app reviewers look these sort of things, but I don't have any experience with to what extent they look at how in-app purchase (subscriptions, especially) are integrated into the app flow. Anyone have any thoughts on this? Is it just me, or is this a terrible app experience? Is it likely that Apple will reject the app for not giving the user enough access to features they would be getting with a subscription purchase?