Well 60 million apps for 30 million dollars = 50 cents per app average. So it’s obvious that the majority are free apps as that’s lower than what the cheapest app costs and takes into account the 8 geniuses that bought “i am rich” :-)

I agree with Christopher. I have apps thast I never intended to use every day, free and paid, same as I did on WinMo. BUT, when I want them they are invaluable. The tide tool for example, and the free maze game I downloaded purely for the kids to play occassionaly.

After all do you use all the apps on your main PC everyday. I have software that I paid thousands for that doesn’t get daily use on my pc, so if I don’t use a .99 app on my iphone it’s not the end of the world.

Gordon

I haven’t really read the original source, but your story says 60 million downloads. I’d say that doesn’t support the headline “many bought…” because we don’t know how many of the 60 million were actually free apps. For example, I have so far downloaded maybe 15 apps and paid for exactly one. Got my iPhone on Friday. Without trials I’ll expect this ratio to continue…

This is interesting (though vague) data, but honestly, how many apps can anyone use daily? Urbanspoon is awesome, but it gets the job done in less than five minutes and I don’t go out to eat every day. Same with Evernote since I use it primarily for photo and short voice notes. I hardly think daily use and duration are accurate metrics for utility. Besides, if I spent five minutes each day on each app, I’d lose more than an hour a day.

The use issue is baloney. How many apps are *supposed* to be used every day?

I agree, James. I pick up a lot of free apps; and I’ve only purchased 2 apps from the AppStore (Crash Bandecoot, and NetShare) for this very reason. The description and screen shots will never be able to take the place of a test drive.

Appke needs to prioritize updates over new releases. RIght now its taking far too long to get the fixes we need to make many of the apps stable and more useful. Free Trials would be in my opinion pretty useless right now as well. The apps are too green and anything you buy right now is more about how you feel about the developer e.g. will they be around to see this app grow into a real product? Its becoming all too common for me to see app descriptions that say “Version 1.1 already submitted to Apple please wait to install/review the app until you get 1.1, version 1.2 already submitted with these improvements….” under these conditions what good is a free trial?