Low Maintenance
Like most parents, I love my son very much; but I am thrift. I strive to meet objectives and needs with minimal and optimized means. When it comes to choosing iPad apps that are suitable for my son, I usually skip apps that offer in-app purchases, like games that encourage players to buy “points” to satisfy instant gratification. In the app store, you will find 3 types of apps:
- Free apps
Either a free-trial app or a free-free app - Paid apps
Either an one-time paid app or an unlocked free trial app - Free or paid apps that offer in-app purchases
Like buying points or weapons or solutions inside an app
We like 1 and 2. We don’t like 3.
Low maintenance means, we either don’t want to pay for an app (yay for free apps!), or we only want to make an one-time purchase to claim ownership and then never to have to pay another dime ever again. We all love free apps, but we should also appreciate the fact that, apps developers around the world have worked hard to develop good apps for people like us, spending a few bucks to support their good work is not so bad.
On the other hand, apps that offer in-app purchases are strictly developed to take your money. The concept preys on people’s addiction to instant gratification. This type of apps is considered high maintenance, especially when the original app is a paid app. Spending money for virtual goods, the only ROI is that moment of instant gratification. When the purchased virtual good is consumed, the entire cost depreciates immediately. As a developer myself, I don’t appreciate marketing-heavy apps.
Read the Reviews
I don’t think I need to say much here. I often find the reviews written for apps are quite useful and accurate when evaluating apps. One thing to keep in mind — we tend to register only the positive comments and ignore the negative ones. Don’t make this mistake! Read a few 5-stars comments along with a few 1 to 2 stars comments. Compare the context to get the full picture. It is very easy to identify the weaknesses of an app when multiple reviews convey similar messages. Give more credit to reviews that are more critical, and less to those that are just praises. Some reviews can be written because the app asks its users to give review in exchange for some in-app rewards. Those kind of reviews are useless.
Spend some time reviewing reviews can always help you decide whether or not the app is right for your purpose. To be honest, I am usually too lazy to read reviews when shopping for myself. Other people may have their opinions, I like to develop my own. But when it comes to shopping for my son, my motherly protective instinct overpowers my laziness, I do my due diligence.
Often I came across some 1-star reviews that criticize apps not meeting expectations, such as poor graphics, lack of intelligence, too simple and so forth. At first, I would hesitate because of these reviews. But I have learned that, some people have unrealistic expectations, or they have made assumptions that didn’t actualize, so they expressed anger in their reviews that reflect strong discouragement. Use your judgement wisely.
Try the Freebies
Just because you are an adult doesn’t mean you can’t install kiddie apps and play with them yourself. If you find a free app for your baby, but not sure if it is suitable, just install it and see! To help set your expectation, good free apps are rare. Very hard to find. But you can find a lot of free TRIAL apps that will either allow you to use only a part of the app, or will serve advertisements on top of the full app. It’s okay as long as you can install it for free. Try the app with the advertisements. Ignore the advertisements and focus on the value the app is offering. You can then decide whether or not to purchase the full version of the app for your baby.
Be mindful that some free apps are developed as marketing tools by some big name companies in the baby industry. Pay attention to the content served and find out what kind of data will be collected. We want to avoid obnoxious marketing schemes that are targeted at children. For instance, Fisher Price designs great children toys. They offer free iPad apps for children (my son really love their giggle app!). The apps aren’t exactly terrible, but, to my dismay, they have product placement on the main menu screen.
The bottom line is, do your due diligence, get involved in the evaluation process, use your judgement when reading reviews, and form your own opinion whether or not an app is right for your child. When choosing iPad apps for your children, these three rules apply universally, even when we all draw the line differently for our children.
