One of the biggest complaints about the App Store thus far has been that users have no way of really trying an application before they spend the money on it. And even if they do wish to “return” the app after purchasing it, it requires quite a bit of work, from what I’ve heard. Apple has launched a section of their App Store entitled “Try Before You Buy,” but while this may seem like a way to demo applications, it technically isn’t. This part of the App Store simply links to applications that offer a “Lite” (free or ad-supported) version of the full paid version. While this is certainly a nice feature, searching for an application would bring up its free and paid version anyways.
I welcome Apple’s attempt to inform users that there are some ways to try applications before you lay down money for them, but I also hope this is a first step towards the capability to actually demo applications.
For instance, how great would it be if you could download any application for free and have access to it for a certain time period or a certain amount of launches? This would have a few benefits. For one, it would make users happier as they could try applications before potentially losing their own money on them. Two, I’d say it could also help make developers happy. If users could try an app before spending money, they would be less motivated to write negative reviews that harm the app’s rating based off of some misunderstanding they may have had about what the app does.
It may also help to sift out some of the $0.99 crap apps, too, as users could simply try it quickly before losing a buck. Do you agree?
Read [Mashable]
I like things the way they are. Because there is no real shareware, apps are offered at a much cheaper price than if they were purchased for a Mac or PC. If it takes me three tries to get to the right app for a specific task, the total "wasted money" often is still less than what I would have spent on shareware.