Features - QOTW: How much do you spend on apps?

[Noxvayl]

On my phone, none. My Nexus 7 came with £15 to spend in the store so I got Swift Key and some games. I have since bought the Humble Android Bundle which I am enjoying and will probably only be getting games through the bundle for my Nexus 7.

[Andrew McP]

The whole "app economy" thing has got me very puzzled. When I gave in and bought an iPad I was surprised at just how shallow and unappealing most apps are. The only thing I've bought in 12 months is GarageBand, which is a rare exception. Free versions are usually enough to satisfy the boredom itch.

On my Nexus7 I still haven't used up my £15 of free credits, and most of what I spent was only because it was "free". But in general most of the actually free apps I use are vaguely useful, but nowhere near important enough to pay real money for.

I've only had one Android smartphone and although there are plenty of distracting free apps to choose from, the only "life changing" feature is the combination of gps & maps, which has revolutionised my ability to find my way around easily. And that's built in.

I can see how it'd be easy to spend a lot of money on apps, chasing away boredom. But it usually only takes a few moments of thought to realise you're about to throw money down the drain. Which is fine if you're the kind of person who routinely pays for high street coffee and other daily money-sinks, but I'm quite resistant to temptation. :-)

[TaintedShirt]

Wow I'm amazed at how few people pay for apps.
I used Lastpass for two years, don't feel I need it as much on my phone now. I rooted my phone within 3 months of getting it just so I could use Titanium Backup. Next I guess was Tasker (from dev's site, not the play store version). As I changed rom's more often I paid for more apps, mainly as a way to say thanks to the dev's.

Currently on my phone I have paid or donated for Nova Launcher, whatsapp, beyondpod, poweramp, soundhound pro, tunein radio, Gtasks, notable, business calendar, sleep as android, 4ext, ghostly sms, secure settings. With the exception of soundhound pro, I use every one of these apps daily.

I have bought a lot more but just haven't installed them at the moment. I usually get the free version, try it out for a few days and if it is what I want, then I make a donation. I use XDA forums a lot, downloading apps direct from dev's and then I guess I just want to say thanks.

[hesham1516]

With all the free alternatives that much of the time seem to be just as good, I don't bother spending money on apps. The only things worth considering are some AAA quality games, but I'd rather spend that money on a PC or console title, than deal with poor touch controls.

Books and music however, is a different story entirely.

[jnutt]

I suppose in the 3 years I've been using android about £10

[flashpanther]

£5 a month. iTunes store as nearly sold 50 billion i think up to date. That's major business.

[3dcandy]

Nowt yet - never found anything that required me to spend any money that I couldn't achieve with something free. If something came along I'd willingly spend but it's not happened yet. On Android with an SGS3 to make it clear

[Percy1983]

Only paid for one app as the developer deserves it and the demo only got me so far.

[wasabi]

£5 once for a GPS app. Will probably have to pay a quid for whatsapp when the free version expires.

[jim]

I've probably spent about that amount, actually. I wouldn't have thought so, but I enjoyed a couple of game demos and for £2 decided, what the hell, I'll support the dev.

And playing GTA3 on my phone is frigging awesome.

[vinnyT]

I usually pay up for the pro version of an app I like, not just because I use and like the app but as encouragement to the dev (if he/she put the effort into and app I like, then they deserve my £0.69 - £1.49, it has to be something really special to make me pay more than that though).

[Dareos]

not paid for any, if there were time limited trials then I reckon I would have bought a lot more.

Apps i use regularly are

IMDB
Fing
Network Rail
Facebook
Soundhound


Theres a few others, like the Fringe app that I use once a year and so on, but I resent paying money for something I may never use, with a week long or month long trial I would then have the option to purchase something I saw as worthwhile rather than taking a chance.

[Onkston]

The only ones I've paid for are angry birds, so less than a fiver. Those do me well enough to pass the time if i need to All the stuff I use regularly are free ones and I'm not bothered enough to pay for them if they weren't free. I've looked at some that I might have used but don't because they weren't free. There isn't anything that I would need enough to pay for I don't think.

[ET3D]

I'd be interested in reading how much people spend on software which isn't Windows or games. Maybe next week's QOTW?

On my Nokia 6120c I spent tons of virtual money on games. Almost every time I contacted my service provider over some problem I had they offered me a trial of some content programme, and I used that to get games. Enjoyed them more than games on my Android phone, too.

On Android I paid more since I got a Nexus 7. Bought Kainy (though never managed to get it to work well with the games I wanted, and haven't tried lately), DosBox Turbo and some games for around $1 or less for (well, I think I paid $2-3 for Plants vs. Zombies, but that was an exception), as well as some bundles. I also started reading comics on the tablet, so bought a couple through Comixology's app. Still, total is probably still under £10.

Edit: I bought more than this, simply forgot. I'll make a new post.

[ultrasbm]

If it's worth buying, I'll buy it.
I even paid £80 for Tom Tom UK and Western Europe.

[Funkstar]

I've never bought an app for my phone, never had the need to.

My oldest boy has for his Android, that that was just a couple of games that "everyone else" had, and at 69p, I'll give in easy.

Once my wife gets an iPad, there will be a few commercial music production/recording apps being bought, but not general stuff.