Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Best App Way

$2

Which do you prefer for testing an app before you buy: a free app with adds, an app with partial functionality or full functionality a trial period? Initially, I preferred free apps and I didn’t care whether there were adds, really. They were mildly annoying, but harmless- or so I thought.

As it turns out, those adds that support your free app use a lot of battery, especially if the app continues to run in the background, periodically pulling new adds onto your phone without your knowledge. In fact, this sometimes reduces your phones longevity by a few hours, which is a big deal if your phone barely makes it to the end of the day in the best of circumstances. My preference has shifted, evolved, and returned to the free apps with adds again.

I used to want to never pay for an app, so I preferred to partial functionality option, which usually worked fine, but I really like to get the whole program at once. I always ran out of trial period before I was ready to pay for the app, so I didn’t like that at all. My new philosophy is that I believe in supporting the developers of apps that I like. I want them to succeed and continue updating these apps and develop other apps that I might also like. I’m happy to pay for a good app that I regularly use and will migrate with me to new phones as the years go by. Despite that, it would still be worthwhile just for the increased battery life. So I download the free version first, and if that app works it’s way into my habits, I buy the no-adds version.

Image background courtesy of photos-public-domain.com. Foreground created in the GIMP by Jack Turner.