On Tue, Mar 16, 2010 at 7:35 AM, westmeadboy <[email protected]>wrote:
> However, I've now received a couple of comments down-rating the free > app on the basis that it did not also get upgraded with the extra > features. > I think this is a matter of expectation. If you start off with one free app and have that out for a while, people expect that that's the way it's going to be. Now you throw out a paid version and say "OK, no more updates for the free version, you have to cough up some cash now to get more features", people will get pissed. Similarly if you have an app that's been ad-free and randomly throw in some ads - people will revolt because the expectation had been set that the app was ad-free. I don't know if it's limited to Android, but based on reading comments of some of the apps I have, it seems like people overwhelmingly feel entitled to ad-free, feature-rich, perfect free apps. So you have to kill this expectation from the beginning. In my case, I've had a free, ad-supported version and a paid version with more features from the beginning. The description clearly reads "limited / basic" and in the app it lets you know something is limited when you try to use it. So the expectation was set up front that that's the way it worked so people have nothing to complain about. I've had maybe one comment along the lines of "I think X feature should be free" but that's about it. While on the other end I've had one comment saying "good balance between free and paid features". At the end of the day, don't worry about the rating so much. People are fickle and will down-rate you because it's too cloudy outside that day. Keep improving both versions of your app (with some limitations in the free one) and eventually they'll get used to it and get over it. > One commented that they would give 5 stars (to the free app) if the pro > version was free! > What a douche. > Maybe its a valid point, that a free app becomes (relatively) worse once > there exists a better paid alternative elsewhere... > A free version will always be rated less than a paid version IMO. Obviously there will be many more people using the free version (because it's free) and again being fickle and self-entitled, will rate down anything that's short of perfection. And those that are using the paid version are generally people that are happy with the product and / or want to support the developer, so they'll rate it higher. It is what it is. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- TreKing - Chicago transit tracking app for Android-powered devices http://sites.google.com/site/rezmobileapps/treking -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Android Discuss" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/android-discuss?hl=en.
