I think compared to 'a new escrow platform' (which was the GGP), free trial is vastly more understood. I don't disagree that refunds are a better model, at least for my personal preferences, but most people who have used an app store understand free trials (even if they dislike them).
> most people who have used an app store understand free trials (even if they dislike them).
As far as I know, App Store doesn’t have an option for an actual free trial followed by a one-time purchase (the kind old geeks like me know back from shareware times). If you try to emulate it and make your app stop working after some time unless a payment is made, it will be rejected by the App Store. Instead, it has 1) IAP, which many developers abuse by promoting a “free version” with crippled functionality and possibly full of ads, non-stop upselling you the next subscription tier; and 2) refunds.
I think lack of trials isn’t an issue: there’s no reason an average customer should be even required to understand this concept if refunds (familiar to anyone since forever) exist. Meanwhile, abusing IAPs this way leaves a bad taste, and I don’t think in 15+ years I have purchased a single app using this model.
As a developer, you also don’t want to burden yourself by having to provide support to customers who have not paid yet and, probabilistically, in all likelihood never will pay.
