What's the best way to implement trials?

[BlueZumbrellas]

Hi there,

So I was about to submit the phone version of an app, only to discover much to my frustration that the phone marketplace doesn't automatically handle trial periods like Win 8. What's the best way to deal with this? I really want to have it be a straight up 7 day trial period like Win 8.1 but there doesn't seem to be an easy way to count the total number of days the user has had the app regardless of installs. Any help would be appreciated!

 

[0vZ]

There is no time-based trials in Windows Phone.
You can use "feature-based" trials, when some features of your app could be used only in full version.
You can try to implement time-based trials by yourself with a web-server.
Example:
When your app has first launch, it checks if it is a demo version.
If it is demo, it sends to your webserver request with device ID or anonymous user ID and gets server's answer how many days left.

 

[branedge]

telerik controls offers a way of doing time based trials....but if u use it the user can uninstall and re-install app to get around it...would be annoying but it is possible, the recommendation is to used a feature based trial (basically make something not available until the app is purchased)

 

[BlueZumbrellas]

Thanks everybody, I decided to take the extra time to code in trial functionality. The API is easy enough to use, though it would be cool if MS finally merged the two storefronts and their features together.