Windows Phone Thoughts: Free Apps Do Better Than Paid Apps With Trial

"It's been about 2 weeks since I rereleased Tic-Tac-Toe 3D for WP7 as a free version. First days have seen a peak of interest from being a "new" free app, so I waited for some time to pass before making any conclusions. It seems that usage has stabilized over the past week, so let's take a look at the stats."

The statistician in me says: not enough data. One app isn't enough of a sample to make general conclusions, even if you have lots of data points for that app. Having said that the difference in behavior is significant enough (40x greater usage) to make it worthwhile polling other developers to see what their experiences are. Funny thing is, Alan notes that the gross revenue generated is approximately the same, if you don't net off Microsoft's cut from marketplace sales. He's also got some good recommendations for changes to the Trial API that developers use. Personally I'd pay for ad-free versions of apps, but judging from this data I'm in the minority. So which is your preference - free with ads, or paid for and without?