Functionality and Time Restrictions in Software Trial Version

Abstract

A major challenge for software developers offering a trial version of their software products is understanding the influence that restrictions have on prospective buyers. Such an understanding is instrumental to structuring trial versions of software that do not discourage users from initially downloading the software for evaluation, and from eventually expressing willingness to purchase the full version of the software. We attempt to address this challenge by first theorizing that software trial restrictions can contain both functionality and time restrictions. Functionality restriction limits the set of features available in the trial version, while time restriction limits the time period that the user can operate the trial version. We next conducted a field quasi-experiment, by subjecting users to varying combinations of software trial versions, and measuring their willingness to engage in the trial (as reflected by the action of downloading a presented software trial version), and their eventual assessment of the trial (as reflected by their intention and willingness to pay for the full version of the software). The findings reveal that, other than the imposition of both stringent functionality and time restrictions, users’ decision to download the software trial version was generally tantamount to other variations of imposing functionality and time restriction. Furthermore, the impacts of functionality and time restrictions on users dissipated over time, in that they became immaterial after users chose to engage in the software trial. These findings have important implications for the literature on restrictive trial versions of software applications, because they consider multiple types of restrictions simultaneously, and for software developers, because they provide directional guidance for the calibration of trial versions of software applications.

Keywords: software trial version, functionality restriction, time restriction, field quasi-experiment