Might upgrade to the paid version someday

> In most cases, the conversion rate will be so poor that it’s not worth the cost of maintaining two apps and supporting the free users.

I'm an anecdote, not a statistic, and I am addicted to Instapaer now, but I would never have bought Instapaper if I hadn't tried out the free version for a week. It's not even a question of money -- it just really bothers me that any developer would be asking me to pay for their app without being able to try it out.

I'd also prefer to see trial versions that have, say, time limitations instead of using ads. Ads just make the experience crappier, instead of letting you discover what the full version actually feels like.

More generally, it's a fault of the Apple store -- ideally it would allow developers to have trial versions that simply cut you off from an app after 30 min or a day or something.

I'm one of those that really wants trial versions, but I wonder if this evidence suggests that trial versions would be equally pointless for conversions to paid. The primary reason I search for ad-supported versions of apps is because I always want to try something first, and then I upgrade to paid if the option exists. It sounds as if I'm in a small minority, though. Still, a trial version, which forces an upgrade to paid after a while, might be more effective for conversion than an ad-supported app that remains forever functional.