I would like to develop an HTML5 app that I could then package and sell on android market and the app store. I also want to make two versions of this app lite (with ads) and pro (paid). When I think about it I have no idea how I can check whether the user has paid for an app (it will be a normal html5 with cache manifest for offline mode). I need to check, because it will be site accessible to everyone.
Is there any mechanism that can trigger db updates in my app when the purchase is complete? E.g. save the apple userid when purchased and then check the userid when the user enters the site…probably not, but you know now what I am looking for.
How should it be handled? Does anyone have good articles/links covering this topic?
You are still going to need to develop an app for both iPhone and Android if you want to sell something on each of the stores. The app will be simple in your case, just a WebKit instance pointing toward your HTML5 site. But the fact you have this app will allow you to track the paid state without gathering user-specific data (which you cannot have).
Good Luck!