Apple has announced today that they have made a major change in the way they deal with in-app purchases or downloadable content (DLC). Previously, back in July this year, when Apple introduced the notion of in-app purchases, they restricted this to apps with a minimum chargeable fee of $0.99 each.

In App Purchase is being rapidly adopted by developers in their paid apps. Now you can use In App Purchase in your free apps to sell content, subscriptions, and digital services.

You can also simplify your development by creating a single version of your app that uses In App Purchase to unlock additional functionality, eliminating the need to create Lite versions of your app. Using In App Purchase in your app can also help combat some of the problems of software piracy by allowing you to verify In App Purchases.

Visit the App Store Resource Center for more details about how you can add In App Purchases to your free apps.

Do expect a major shift in the way things would work right now in the Apple App Store. For example, developers could now completely eliminate a Lite version altogether, and simply provide a Free version with the rest of the content as downloadable in-app purchases. This, however, also changes the dynamic of the top 100 lists. Such an app would be ranked only in the Top 100 Free and may never show up in the Top 100 Paid.