No trial - No purchase.

Just a quick plea to software developers. It seems more & more of you are not offering free trial periods on your software. I find it hard to understand why? A trial period allows the end user to take the interesting idea your software offers and really put it to test, over a period of say 15 - 30 days. That way it is clear whether the app is going to be of use or not, whether the UI is good, how the colour scheme fits in with the theme on the phone, etc. No trial period makes, for me at least, a reluctant purchaser. I see an interesting idea, but unless I can try that app I'm hesitant to lay out €10 - €30 just to realise I might not use it as much as I had imagined. A trial period is going to make that a non-issue. I would know by the frequency I use an application in it's first few weeks whether it has value to me or not.

I don't know how trial periods would effect cracked software. I imagine if someone is determined not to pay, they won't. But I also know of people who use smartphone that put cracked software on their device to try the software out. They will buy the full proper program if they like it and use it. The ongoing support, upgrades, etc, make it worth their while. If the software they were interested in had a trial period then they wouldn't use cracked software.

So, developers, can you consider trial periods when you launch your new programs?