Developing a Lite Version of Your Application

The lite-version strategy is like the free samples at the supermarket. If customers like what they taste, then they will hopefully buy the product. The age-old method of the free sample works on the Android Market as well.

This has been working on the desktop and laptop for years, and I’m sure most of you have try-before-you-buy versions of applications on your Android device as well. Of course, the free versions always have fewer features then the ones their companies want you to pay for. They often have the word lite or free in their names to distinguish themselves from their paid versions. It is one of the most popular marketing techniques for an Android application on the market today.

Sadly, the conversion rate of free to paid versions of applications is quite low. Some say it is as low as 1 percent, which means that you are going to have to give out a lot of free product to make a profit on the 1 in 100 who upgrades to the paid version. This is something to consider in your sales plan, discussed in Chapter 4.

Most developers write and release their paid and full versions in parallel so that they can release both versions on the same day. The advantage of developing these two applications simultaneously is pretty obvious, and you will probably have many users scooping up the free version on the release date, and the few who might be willing to take a chance on purchasing the paid version. Assuming that the free version is good, but not as good as the paid version, some will upgrade.