Now, more than ever, the App Store includes demos of paid apps which folks can download and decide whether the program is worth the buy

Feb 17, 2009 13:34 GMT  ·  By

Some developers learned the hard way that pricing an app too high, or just slapping a price onto an app that does almost nothing will not pave the way to success. In contrast, others learned coding the hard way, and the benefits of their strivings were enough and some to spare. Some of those successful iPhone developers are the ones who decided to offer up a free version of their app, thus maximizing their chances of having folks like it and eventually buy the full set of features.

We've just finished covering Ethan Nicholas' success story, and decided to check up on everyone's favorite iPhone app tracker (Apptism) to see exactly how many free apps are there in the App Store at the moment. Not surprisingly, there are currently well over 5,000 freeware programs to download onto an iPhone or iPod touch, according to the tracker. Most of them, though, are actually Free, or Lite versions of paid apps and games. But, as the developer of iShoot has proven, a Free / Lite version of an app can make all the difference in the world.

So, where did this Lite initiative stem come from? Well, developers have long complained about the rating / reviewing system in the App Store. Moreover, while new apps were making their way onto the venue, older applications receiving mere updates were climbing onto a much better position, for one reason or another, preventing the new titles from being displayed for a fair amount of time. Some devs went as far as giving their apps strange names, just so the alphabetical system would push their apps in line.

But all this was about to end with Apple soon regulating the way apps were being approved, ranked, listed and so on. Rumor has it that premium apps are also getting their own private box. The system isn't by far flawless now, but it's certainly not the mess it was a few months ago and, with developers being treated more equally, a new trend has been born - application demos.

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Developer Kelvin Beecroft encourages those browsing the App Store to get Ambience Lite for free as a try-before-you-buy demo of the full version of Ambience. According to the app's maker, the full version includes 40 sounds and many more backgrounds.

Some of you may be wondering “why so late?” Well, you can imagine how hard it is to make the app, let alone get it to pass Apple's approval board. Some developers may feel that passing a free version of their app around may actually reduce their chances of selling the full version. Those developers may know that something about their app might not appeal to some members of the iPhone community all that much, so they'll try success in the short run.

Or perhaps, others simply can't decide over which features to leave out of the free version. And again, if the recipe for the demo isn't just right, who's to say folks will still want the complete experience afterwards? There were dozens of other situations keeping developers from offering demo versions of their apps a few months ago, but now that fear seems to have died away.

There's also the issue of piracy. Surely a lot of developers have realized that the war with pirates will never end, maybe even intensify. So, what else are you going to do if not create a free version of your app? Should the user like it, he / she may actually feel compelled to reward you (the developer).

Of course, some devs used the oldest trick in the book - throwing in a free, ad supported application.

These are just a few of the reasons we could see developers had for creating free versions of their apps. What else do you think influenced devs to give iPhone users a small taste of their work?

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App Store icon - modified (was originally blue)
A screenshot of Kelvin Beecroft's Ambience (Lite) app in action
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