Free trials · Empirical app-market analysis

The Implications of Offering Free Versions for the Performance of Paid Mobile Apps

Journal of Marketing · 2017

Sandeep Arora, Frenkel ter Hofstede, Vijay Mahajan

Summary

Offering a free version has measurable implications for paid-app performance; effects depend on app and market conditions.

For your marketing

Possible founder application

Treat freemium as a portfolio decision and segment app conditions before launching free access.

Reported result

What the study found

Offering a free version has measurable implications for paid-app performance; effects depend on app and market conditions.

Research question

What the authors investigated

How does the study’s stated design explain its reported outcome in this setting?

Design

Empirical app-market analysis

Sample and setting

Paid mobile apps and their free versions

Scope and transfer

Limitations to keep in view

The fetched page exposed this paper as a publisher reference rather than its own abstract; findings are kept high-level.

Research sources

abstract_only

Study strength

3.5/5 Abstract-level evidence is useful for framing questions; verify full methods before transfer.

How this was assessed

The 1–5 evidence-check score is a practical reading aid, not a formal peer review or a probability that a conclusion is true. It combines design strength (2 points), sample reporting (1), comparison/control clarity (1), and how much of the paper could be checked (1). Access affects how confidently this directory can assess a study, not the study's underlying quality. Blinding is reported separately because it is not relevant to every design.

Design transparency · 2/2

Based on the reported study design in the retrieved source.

Sample and setting · 1/1

The sample context is stated; a numerical count is preserved only when reported.

Outcome clarity · 1/1

The finding is summarized from publisher or article metadata.

Access for checking · 0.5/1

Only abstract or bibliographic access was confirmed.

Double-blind? The retrieved publisher record does not establish whether participants or outcome assessors were blinded.

Read the paper