I haven’t added any paid apps to my iphone (which I’ve had since before the App Store opened). I find the free apps help with what I need. While a couple of paid apps sound good, I won’t buy unless free trials are offered (these are the kind of Apple policies that helped drive me from the Mac platform). I’m also considering the Android platform — I still prefer a physical keyboard to a virtual one.

To get around this, many developers have created “lite” versions of their apps for free, which in many respects is better than a trial.

The problem for developers is that if they don’t allow the lite version to do enough, then it isn’t a valid test for the user and they won’t buy the full app. However, if they do provide enough to be useful, then the user may decide that the lite app is all they need, and they still don’t buy the full app.

Moonlight Mahjong, Ecco Note, Labyrinthe LE, and iDoodle2 Lite are just four examples of the latter case. I did eventually buy the full Mahjong since I use it quite a bit. But the other three great apps are used seldom enough by me that I just can’t see springing for the full versions, though I may have bought one or two had they only been trials.

Not that I’m complaining, since the user wins in this scenario, but it is more effort for the developer.