Before I released “Tweet Library”:www.riverfold.com/software/… I talked to everyone who would listen about the price. Several people suggested I go with a free app, but use in-app purchase to upgrade to the full version. Two apps that handle this well include “Twitterrific”:twitterrific.com and “SimpleNote”:simplenoteapp.com/. Countless games also take this approach.
It’s the closest thing the App Store has to demos, but it comes at a cost: anyone can leave a 1-star “too expensive” review of your app without even upgrading to the full version. At that point they are not even rating the app they downloaded (a free, limited version that probably works just fine); they are simply commenting on a portion of the app they didn’t want to buy.
There are two ways to give me feedback about Tweet Library:
- Email support, post to Twitter, or write on your blog about the software. This is free.
Leave a review in the App Store. This is $9.99.
I'm very comfortable with this model. The quality of feedback I get in email is extremely high, whether the customer has bought the app or not, and the App Store reviews aren't cluttered with pricing rants.
