Ask HN: How important is it to have a "lite" version of your mobile app?

2 points·Rabidgremlin··8 comments

I've just released my first paid app into the Android market and I was wondering how important it is to have a "lite" version of your app.

It makes sense for games but what about other kinds of apps, such as my MeterRec app? http://blog.rabidgremlin.com/2010/10/17/meterrec-released/

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Why not try a limited/free with ads version if you are going to do one? With the Android Market having a 24 hour return period on purchases, seems a "lite" or "try before you buy" version would be more suited towards iOS.

I'm not a big fan of ad-supported apps as they leak so much info: http://appanalysis.org/demo/index.html

So was avoiding them on principle...

Clickable: http://blog.rabidgremlin.com/2010/10/17/meterrec-released

Much better...

How do you do that BTW? I had a look through the FAQ etc. but didn't see any formatting help.

EDIT: I see it just works if you don't have a trailing slash?

No, from what I've seen I think the main box has links disabled while comments have linkability.

How about making a Blackberry version?

Ah I see.

Don't really like the Blackberry platform, however if MeterRec is a hit (unlikely) I may port it to other platforms. If I did then iPhone would be next likely platform I would target.

What don't you like about the BlackBerry platform?

Also, your app may become a hit faster if you offer a freemium version. It will be great exposure and promotion for ya!

Well its been a few years but the RIM Java framework was very messy and its J2ME support was average.

Last thing I built that had Blackberry support was this http://blog.rabidgremlin.com/2008/11/01/mpass-is-live/

Blackberry devices had the most support issues :(

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