It's the difference between disappointment and success. It's the difference between getting your application on 1000 and 100,000 smartphones. It's the difference between getting almost no coverage in the press and getting plenty. And the difference can be bridged with only a little effort.

I'm talking about releasing an application or game with no trial version, of course. Why do some companies persist in forcing users to make a $20 buying decision based on a single screenshot and a (highly biased) description of the game written by the developer? As a reviewer of Symbian OS software for Palmtop User, PDA Essentials and AllAboutSymbian, I know that an application has to be pretty special for me to want to go to the hassle of contacting the company and arranging download of the full version for review. Most of the time I note the absence of something to download and move on immediately, thinking “If they can't be bothered to put in a few lines of code to make this work in a trial mode, then I can't be bothered to make the effort to get hold of their program either.” There are plenty of other programs to review that do have trial versions, so it's their loss. No publicity, way fewer sales.

From your point of view, as an AAS user, unless you have lots of disposable income you're going to wait for reviews before handing over your hard earned money. And the review won't come because the reviewer is in the same position as you. So you'll never know whether the app is any good and the developer waits in vain for sales which never come.

Am I exagerating the situation? Maybe slightly – there are a few programs with nominal purchase price (e.g. $5), small enough that most people will take the risk of purchase. And, for really special applications (TaskSheet for Series 60 being an example of this from today's app release list), reviewers like me are usually happy to bite the bullet and make a little effort to get hold of something to play with.

But, as a part-time programmer myself, I know that it's the work of an hour or two at most to put in code for a simple trial/full mode switch, activated by an unlock code. At the end of the day, developers are simply being lazy. To spend 1000 man hours on a super-slick game and then restrict potential sales to only 5% of what they could be for the lack of a few extra hours programming seems a criminal waste, from everybody's point of view.

Steve Litchfield
http://3lib.ukonline.co.uk/