How to handle application upgrades from free to paid version while preserving any data

Posted by cdonner on Stack Overflow See other posts from Stack Overflow or by cdonner
Published on 2010-06-10T01:58:19Z Indexed on 2010/06/17 3:03 UTC
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android

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versioning

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android-market

Here is the context. I want to have a free version and a premium version of the same application. When people buy the application, I want them to be able to "upgrade" without losing their data, i.e. the premium version should install over the free version. I want to use the same code base and just switch a setting to build the premium version. Andoid Market does not let me convert a free app to a paid app, so the trivial option is not available.

I am curious if someone has tried this successfully. How does Android Market identify an application - will it think that the premium version is a different app and just install it in parallel?

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