[OT] Mobile App - Should it be Paid or Free?

[Ender Nafi Elekçioğlu]

Hello all,

I marked the question as [OT] since it's not a technical one.
Recently, we've finished an app, it's ready to be published  
but we're uncertain to sell or give it for free.
Up to now, we were building business apps for corporates,
so it wasn't an issue for us to sell or give free.

So, this ground is new to us.

A little detail:
Two months ago we published an app for pre-school children much like an audiobook,
pages with static pictures were flipping while a voice-over's speaking the story.
And it was free.

It's downloaded ~2000 copies in 7 weeks.  
{I know that this is low but our market is very small for now, as our app is in Turkish.
Soon, we'll publish it in English, too.}

Now, we finished the second one in this genre.
This one has two significant enhancements compared to first one.
* The eyes and mouths of the shapes {it's a birthday party for the geometrical shapes like circle, square, etc.}
are blinking and opening / closing while they're talking.
At the party, there are flying notes by the music and swinging stars on the branches of trees.
So, it's more live, kinda like a cartoon.
* It has a color book for the children to color the shapes which they've met in the story.
You can find the base and not-fancy version of this drawing page here (http://cloud.keehuna.com/2J1a1n0B4035), if you want.


~
Scenario 1 as an answer:
Don't sell it, give this one and succeeding 3 ~ 4 apps for free.
Build a trust-relationship between you and your customers.
Get experience with animations and stories and sounds etc.
Maybe after a year or so and a couple of apps, you can start to sell the new ones.

~

Scenario 2 as an answer:
Time is money, sell this one; it's a cool app and worth a buck.
Otherwise, people will get used to obtain them free;
then they won't want to pay for new ones.
Besides, there's a saying as *I'm not rich enough to buy cheap things*.
People value expensive things.
Giving it free will depreciate this app.
Sell this one, then give another one or two free, then sell another one, keep going like that...
~



Which way seems right to you, could you give any advice?
Any insights much appreciated…


Best,

~ Ender Nafi

~… together, we're smarter …~