Join our iPhone, iPod touch, iPad and Apple TV community today! Register Here | Login

iPhone App Store gains "Try Before You Buy". Sort of.

By , Thursday, Aug 5, 2010 at 10:09 pm
13

App Store Try Before You Buy

As part of their constant tweaking of all things App Store, Apple has added a section to the on-device (i.e. on iPhone or iPod touch) App Store that's called "try before you buy".

Here's the deal, on the Featured tab, under New, there are series of 4 banners at the top. If you're in the US, the bottom right one now says Free on App Store. Tap on it and you get a list of New and Noteworthy, Try Before You Buy, and Our Favorites.

Tap on Try Before You Buy and you get a listing of free or lite versions of popular apps you can sort by Featured, Popular, and Release Date.

So, it's not like the Android Marketplace where you can sample any app and get a refund if you hate it; it's really just the same content repackaged in a new way. However, the new packaging will probably be helpful to users looking for just those kind of free, sample apps.

Note: I'm not seeing it in the Canadian App Store yet.

[9to5Mac, image via Engadget]

Rene Ritchie

Editor-in-Chief of iMore, Executive Producer at Mobile Nations, co-host of Iterate and ZEN and TECH, cook, grappler, photon wrangler.

More Posts - Website

 TwitterFacebookGoogle Plus

← Previously

iPhone live podcast 111 - iPad live podcast 15

Next up →

Steve Jobs != flower + water
  1. Digit says:

    Sort of cool I suppose.

  2. I didn't say it. says:

    is it me or does the website font look different?

  3. Jaredkaragen says:

    It's just an easy way to spot anything with 'in app purchases'

    Not: 'try the full version' like people expect.

  4. Dionte says:

    Yeah not the same to me either

  5. Nati says:

    Hmmm... website overlay changed from black to white? TiPB knows something we don't know..... Could they know about an early white iPhone 4 release? Spill it :p

  6. carolinamic says:

    Seems like a spin to getting people to try lite apps. Lite apps are nothing new to the AppStore.

  7. Gegy says:

    It's also not in Austrian App-Store

  8. Jaredkaragen says:

    Just an advertising gimmick, nothing more.

  9. just_jeepin says:

    One word... LAME! Do what the Android Marketplace does, let us buy an app and have 48hrs to decide whether we want to keep it or not.

  10. Mitchell says:

    Possibly is this is real, jailbreak will surely allow users to double or even triple the try before you by time

  11. Find laptop accessories,iphone 3g accessories? Go http://www.feevoo.com , discount price, high quality.

  12. Deman says:

    When you get your personal ipad time, maybe you also wish to have your personal iPad Case and iPad Accessories to better protect the iPad. When you come to our internet site, the 1st you should know is that you'll be able to buy the best high quality and most expensive iPad case, also your favorite iPad cases and iPad accessories. There are hundreds kinds of ipad case

  13. sometimes i have a hard time choosing laptop accessories, there are just so many options to choose from *,,

Leave a Reply

Note: Comments must be civil, respectful, and on-topic. If a comment does not add to the conversation, if it contains spam advertising, or inappropriate language or content, it will be removed. Insulting the topic, author, staff, site, network, or other commenters will result in the comment being marked as spam and potential prevent future comments from appearing on the site. Do not post as a business or your comment will likely be confused with spam. Comments containing links may be held for moderation. Relax, enjoy, and share in the discussion.