iPhone App Store: Where Are the Free Trials?
July 10th, 2008 by Joanna Stern 
Matt Miller at ZDNet beat me to the punch about the lack of free trials in the iPhone App Store, but boy have I been thinking that all day. I spent the last 8 hours downloading applications to determine which ones we here at LAPTOP Magazine liked the best. I downloaded tons of stuff, including applications like the MLB At Bat, which costs $4.99, and Moo-Cow-Music’s Band for a hefty $9.99. Granted, I don’t pay out of my own pocket for software, but I racked up a bill of about $75 today in iPhone applications.
Sure, there are loads of free applications—and it turns out some of the best applications are the free ones—such as Facebook and Pandora. But other apps, such as games, can cost anywhere between $2.99 and $20. (LionClock Lite, which God knows what that is, costs $29.99.) Why download a $10 application that you may not even like? This is the reason software companies offer full, or even limited, versions of its software for 15- to 30-day trials. (Plus, it’s a great way to reel in the addicts; after 30 days of playing Bejeweled, you try to live without it.)
So why has Apple decided against free trials? Probably because they want you to pay for a non-refundable game or application. On the other hand, this will probably mean the end user will want to read more reviews of mobile applications, so in the end that keeps the money coming to me, and then I can buy all the iPhone Apps I want.
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5 Responses to “iPhone App Store: Where Are the Free Trials?”
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July 10th, 2008 at 9:40 pm
Maybe the “free” apps ARE the free trials… and once they get the addicts hooked to those, they’ll charge you to keep using them…
July 11th, 2008 at 7:59 am
because they are apple that is why. I love how when you type in your iTunes password it shows the character then encrypts it Brilliant man.
July 21st, 2008 at 11:50 pm
I think the reason why there is no free-trial apps is because Apple’s partners are afraid people will just hack them after jailbreaking the iPhone/iPod 2.0.
What I really didn’t understand is why an app (I don’t remember which one, I only know it’s a financial/business app) has two version: the lite, for free, and the full for “just” US$ 499,90. My God, I think it has a link to the future so I can know the stocks prices for next week!
July 31st, 2008 at 9:45 am
There are some trial or “light” versions of apps. one for example is the vnc-client for the iphone. it has reduced functionality and is for free. You have to buy the full version if you need the full functionality. but often it would be more interesting to test the full functionality for a few days to check it in reallife.
maybe this is coming - appstore is a very young platform and will grow with time.
September 19th, 2008 at 1:14 am
Apple is making a big mistake by not providing built-in trials of any $$$ apps. I can afford to buy apps, but am frugal and don’t want to waste my $$$ on junk. How hard could it be to have the BUY button be TRY instead. Then, after XX days the app stops working and the phone/touch says “BUY / DELETE” if I try to run it.
Obviously SW vendors on PC/Mac have done the calculus and realize that they make more $$$ via trial->purchase path then they lose via piracy that results from trial cracks.
Apple, you are missing out on lots more $$$. I hope this is just something they are working on.