I rarely purchase apps, although I do download free apps. Waiting for a promotion, I've saved tons of money!
Ask the Readers: Do You Buy Apps?
Photo: Morgan
Editor's Note: Congratulations to Guest, Christina Martin, and Happy Love for winning this week's contest!
One of the joys of having a smartphone is the ability to download apps! From games to productivity tools, apps enhance the usefulness of any phone. While some people are willing to pay for an awesome new app, others try to only download them for free.
Do you buy apps? Why or why not? If no, do you opt to download free apps? What is your favorite app to use?
Tell us if you buy apps and we'll enter you in a drawing to win a $20 Amazon Gift Card!
Win 1 of 3 $20 Amazon Gift Cards
We're doing three giveaways — one for random comments, one for random Facebook "Likes", and another one for random tweets.
Mandatory Entry:
- Post your answer in the comments below
For extra entries (1 per action):
- Go to our Facebook page, "Like" us, and leave a comment on this article telling us you did, or
- Tweet your answer. You have to be a follower of our @wisebread account. Include both "@wisebread" and "#WBAsk" in your tweet so we'll see it and count it. Leave a link to your tweet (click the timestamp for the individual URL) in a separate comment.
If you're inspired to write a whole blog post OR you have a photo on flickr to share, please link to it in the comments or tweet it.
Giveaway Rules:
- Contest ends Monday, March 12th at 11:59 pm Pacific. Winners will be announced after March 12th on the original post. Winners will also be contacted via email.
- You can enter all three drawings — once by leaving a comment, once by liking our Facebook update, and once by tweeting.
- This promotion is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered, or associated with Facebook.
- You must be 18 and US resident to enter. Void where prohibited.
Good Luck!
Like many others I know, I try the free or lite versions first. If I like it, I buy the full/ad free version. If not, I delete it and find something new to try. I do like to support the developers of great apps, so they will keep updating the apps and developing new ones :)
Definitely! I do like apps that let you try a light-weight version first, but I will pay full price for something that comes highly recommended by friends or family.
I liked your FB page!
Per your question - I've never bought an app that cost more than a dollar or two. There are so many free apps that mimic paid ones, I just try a few and see which works the best. My most used apps are Instagram, Facebook, Bank of America, Flixster, My Fitness Pal and The Weather Channel.
I rarely buy apps, and only if there is no suitable free replacement. Google did run a promo in December, selling good apps for $.10, so I picked up a few there, but the only two I've paid full price for is Tasker and Tapatalk.
My favorite app is My Tracks by Google. I'm a triathlete and this app tracks my time, distance, and pace while running and biking.
I've purchased a few apps over the years. They have mostly been games. I try to get free apps if possible. My favorite app is evernote.
I rarely buy the apps and one a free version to test first so I know what I'm getting. The majority of the apps I've bought are for my daughter such as learning games and a security app to prevent her using or deleting items on the phone.
The one exception is the Bookmooch app. This was created by a user and will not be replaced by an official version, so for the low price I decided to risk it despite no trial version.
Very rarely will I buy an App -- I can usually find something suitable for free. But, if there's something specific that would be really, really useful, I'll buy it. It better be pretty cool, though. :)
I have only bought one app, and that one just the other day. It was a severe weather alert. we had tornadoes come through my area, and I realized if my power went out I wouldn't know what was going on. Otherwise, I only get free ones
I don't pay for apps but I do download free apps even though they are ad based. My favorite app so far has been SoundHound. Being able to find the music you are currently listening to is nice (plus it is much better than Shazam).
I do. I try to stick to free ones but if both the product and price are good, I will pay for the app.
So far I haven't purchased any apps, but I will if I find something I really want. I've downloaded free ones that have met my needs and been happy with them. My favorite is Aces Solitaire that I downloaded on both my android phone & Kindle Fire.
Nope. I don't have a smartphone, and I probably wouldn't spend the money on them if I did. The only ones I might buy are maps or guides while I'm traveling if they seemed like they would be worth the money. But as I don't have a smartphone, it's a moot point. :)
I do purchase Apps if I believe I'll get a sufficient dollar per hour usage ratio. If I'm using an app for 15 hours, it's worth $2. If I'm using it for an hour, probably not.
I don't have a smart phone - the monthly fees are outrageous. My prepaid cell gets me all the talk time I need at about $10/month. And my laptop is a free phone anywhere there's wifi.
I've spent about $3 in total on all of my app purchases (they all came from the $0.10 sale the Android Market place had recently). There are enough apps out there that pique my ADD-esque interest in phone-apps that i haven't felt the need to buy much.
My favorite app (aside from the default music player app) is Yelp. It feeds my food addiction.
I buy apps every once in a while. Usually out of the ones that I've tried and which I feel are nicer to have ad-free. :)
I "Liked" your fb page! Yes, I occasionally do buy apps, sometimes just because I want it or it has excellent ratings by user's. I definitely buy a FREE app if I like it, for the FULL version! :)
I buy apps only if I can assure myself that they are more than just a novelty item- and I never spend more than $3 on apps-- there's probably a non-iPhone way to do the same thing. I figure if I lived just fine before the iPhone I can live fine without it. For instance, I'll buy an app that helps track my fitness or spending, if there absolutely isn't a free version out there- but I never buy games or entertainment apps. It's just not worth it for me.
I liked on facebook.
I almost never pay for apps, because you don't really know if they're going to work for you without trying them.
Dinosaur here: I don't buy apps because I haven't yet bought a smart phone. :-O
I expect that when I do buy a phone I will limit the number of apps I buy, in part because I'm frugal and in part because I'm of a different generation and look at phones mostly as, well, phones. Not that I won't check e-mail. I just doubt I'll play games et al. because I look at a screen all day and don't want to keep looking at one when I get out of the house.
I think most apps are a huge waste of money. My husband, however, disagrees with me and loves to spend money on them.
I already like your Wisebread FB page - that's how I found this contest! Always have. I usually go for the free apps but will buy one on occasion. Have far too many as it is - should probably ull some from early on...
Favorite kind is productivity apps and croswords, sudoku, WWF!
Mad(elyn) in Alabama
I rarely find an app that I want to buy, but I do have quite a few free ones and also a few that I bought with store credit from a gift card. My favorite app is Clear, it is a really awesome to do list app that my husband found for me. I alsolove the Camera+ app.
I download tons of free apps, but I haven't yet purchased any. If I ever find an app that meets an important necessity and isn't just for frivolous entertainment, then I'll consider buying.
I've purchased maybe 2 apps in my life - one was a photography app for my MacBook that went on sale, and another one was a tethering app for when I travel so I can connect my phone for internet! Both are pretty useful & productive apps!
Nope - I've had an iphone for nearly three years and I've never paid for an app. No need! There are so many great free apps out there.
Once in a great while I will buy an app that I have a specific need for. Usually, however, I download free apps, and I check to see what the daily free app is on my Fire every day.
I've bought a few, like StarWalk, How to Cook Everything Vegetarian (on sale) and Camera+. I won a promotional code for PetersonBirds, which is a more expensive app than I'm likely to buy. But I have mostly free apps.
I buy apps, but only if I have credit from iTunes gift cards I've received as gifts. I don't pay for them myself!
We have bought a few 99cent apps for the kids ipod touches, and only because we had itunes giftcards. Otherwise it is just the free apps!
I buy apps only on rare occasions, when they get great reviews from friends and family. Most of the apps I use all the time were free to begin with, like Facebook, Twitter, the Weather Channel, etc.
I look for free apps first, the ads do not bother me and I would rather look at the ads than pay for the aps. That said if the product is really good, or offers some special feature that I like with the paid version and the price is $1 or $2 then I will buy it.
rarely. only for something that's useful (ie medical as i'm in the field) or camera-related (which i love)
I'm a college student with an iPod as my only app-running item. I never buy apps, partially because I can usually find a free substitute that works just the same and partially because I just don't use my iPod enough. Also, nowadays, a lot of great apps are just free, easy and simple.
I usually download a "lite" version first to see if I like it or if that lite version will meet my needs. Some favorite apps are Cozi for the lists, journal and shared calendar and Mint for a quick look at our spending and finances. Both are free, too!
I mostly just get free apps, but I have bought a few on occasion. I bought Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything app and I use it very frequently. My grandson loves the Angry Birds app when I visit him.
Some apps deserve the money. Many do not. I think the best ones are the gems that don't require money and still deliver. Ones that I've bought include Cut the Rope and Sleep Cycle. Cut the Rope is a very fun game and I use Sleep Cycle everyday to record my sleep. But I still think Words with Friends free and most recently, Draw Free, are king.
I love my iPhone apps! However, I am a cheapskate and have only paid for two apps: bejeweled in a moment of weakness andgood reader but that was more for work. My facorite, if I had to pick ONE is probably the kayak app.
My favorite app textnow recent trip to India I could text home usa for free with wifi.
Love free travel apps with city state or country info.
My wife and I do buy apps, but are very selective about it. For anything not directly related to business/school, we always start with a free download. If it's an app we use daily, we'll fork out up to $3 to remove the ads and support the developer. A few large, full-featured apps for our tablet get used for hours each day for business/school. For these, we've paid up to $15 for when a free version was unavailable, but only after lots of research and reading through forums and comments.
I usually download free versions of apps to try them out and see if I like them. Sometimes I go ahead and get the paid version, sometimes not. The last app I bought, unfortunately, was one that didn't have a free version, and I wish it had. Really poor, and it was reported on excitedly by a site that should have been more trustworthy.
I have not purchased any apps. I have downloaded a few free ones, but have yet to find one that I needed enough to buy. My wife, who downloads far more apps than I do, has found plenty of free ones to keep her occupied without having purchased any to date.
I only buy apps when they're on sale. A couple of months ago, Android Market featured 10 apps every day, each for 10 cents, so I picked up Read It Later, now one of my favorite, most used apps. Fyi, Market is now selling certain apps for 49 cents, some reduced from $5 or even $10!
But it is also easy to get free apps on Android if you just comparison shop. Between Android Market, the Amazon Appstore, and Getjar, you can find great apps to fit your every need.
I agree with most of the commenters here, I hardly pay for apps, I find that most of what I need either has a free version or a free alternative all together.
I do purchase apps after trying them (lite versions or on a friends phone). I have a lot of apps that I bought over the last year, most of them cost under a dollar ($0.99). But I do have a few that I bought for much higher prices too.
