Apple Adds Try Before You Buy to App Store

Apple has quietly added a new “Try Before You Buy” category to its App Store that features free, or lite, versions of paid apps. The new category gives users an easier way to find the lite app versions that previously have been lumped together with their paid counterparts.

Try Before You Buy at the App Store

So far, the Try Before You Buy category is showing up on our TMO test systems in the App Store app on the iPhone and iPod touch as part of the new “Free on the App Store” category. The new section includes Featured, Popularity and Release Date categories.

Presumably the new category was added to help cut down on app piracy and to address complaints that the App Store doesn’t offer the same trial software options computer users have been accustomed to for years.