When you look at the paid apps (as opposed to the free ones) many of the negative reviews are based purely on price, or more specifically, the fact that the developer is asking any price, as opposed to giving it away for free. A quick tour of the paid apps will uncover a high proportion of “this app should be free” and “I’ll wait for this app to be free” reviews that have clearly been written by people who didn’t buy the app.

In fact, I’d go further and say that of the top paid apps, otherwise very positive feedback from customers is being diluted by negative feedback from people who obviously didn’t buy the app. People are also quick to criticize paid apps and believe that free alternatives should be made available. Many seem to honestly believe that the App Store should be entirely freeware and that developers who have put time and effort into an application should be giving it away for nothing. That’s an extremely unhealthy attitude, and one that is likely to put off many developers in the future.

That said, I do feel that there should be some method available at the App Store that would allow users to try out applications before they buy – maybe a trial system or some ability to see a demo. I think that people would feel better about spending money on an app if they could see it in action first.

Article courtesy of Datamation.