The Apple App Store has reached yet another milestone – 3 billion downloads .
After crossing 1 billion and 2 billion downloads now its 3 billion
On one hand this demonstrates that users are preferring to download Apps a lot. And many are even willing to pay for that app which seems to offer value.
On the other hand the app store is being flooded with apps nowadays and there is no way apart from using iTunes on the Computer or the App Store on the iPhone/iPod to find apps. You can easily get confused what app to choose.
Some developers offer a free lite version of their app alongside the paid app just to give end users a glimpse of the paid version. This is actually cool
But many developers are trying to act smart by making their paid-app free and charging for a premium upgrade inside the app.
And once the developer decides to do this , there is no way a user to download the Paid app from the store although he has paid for it in the past. He is just forced to download the free version.
This scenario occurs especially when users upgrade their device or move from an iPhone to iPod touch.
Although the App Store allows you download apps you have bought in the past such things hamper the user experience . The F.A.S.T.: Fleet Air Superiority Training game is one example. It was a top rated paid game on the app store. I had purchased it on my iPod Touch(1st gen) few months ago. Now the paid version of the app is gone ! Now i upgraded to the 3rd gen iPod Touch and all I got was the free version of the app without the premium features I had paid for !
This screenshot courtesy of AppShopper speaks for itself !
Developers have also started offering newer versions of their app as separate apps like Tweetie 2 for example when Tweetie is also a paid app.
At the end of the day , I just feel a bit cheated and will think 10 times before purchasing anything in future !
Who is got to take the blame for this ? Apple , the App Store , the Developer or the User ?