bada apps that I would pay good money for

I read a couple of thought provoking posts (links below) which point out that in the iOS/ Android marketplace model, app developers make very little profit per app given the expected pricing varies from free to 2-3 dollars. If consumers are not willing to pay for apps, this poses a serious long term challenge to the viability and growth of the app developer community. Unless they see the potential to make sufficient income, why would they be motivated to spend time and money in creating apps?

I have been thinking of my own experience with my mobile phone vs. laptop. I realise that I am more conditioned to pay for services on my mobile, than I am on a PC/laptop. This may be a function of how the mobile industry/ Value Added services have developed in India. For instance, I once paid Rs. 10 per month to subscribe to BBC News Voice blog on airtel. It was only temporary, because I was curious but I honestly cannot imagine paying to access any blog on my laptop! Also as I find myself using my mobile more for internet access, there are several services/ products that I would gladly pay for on my bada handset. So here is a list of things that I would like to see in the bada app store;

1. A better browser. I would gladly pay for a bada compatible Opera Mini or any other broswer that offers me better bookmarking, tabs and that basic feature of text re-flow

2. Push mail client. Exchange ActiveSync may be free but it is profoundly temperamental and I am ready to pay for a reliable push mail client and a customer service I can shout at when I have problems. For the latter privilege, I am even ready to pay monthly.

3. Facebook and Twitter Widgets. Both FB and Twitter have perfectly good mobile sites, but I would really like to have widgets with live feed updates and customisation.

4. Feed Reader : I would like a feed reader that would import my google susbscriptions and display the updated feeds in a mobile friendly format. Google Reader does fine on my mobile, but I am ready to pay for something even better

5. Keyboard : While I am getting used to Samsung's native keyboard, I would not mind investing in something which gave a different layout, more space or customisation option in keyboard layout.

6. Anti Virus software for mobile : I am aware that it is high time I installed this, yet it is not easily accessible through the bada store. It ought to be.

7. Phone security/ anti-theft system : It has to be niftily and intelligently designed to secure my data, it should remind me if I left my phone behind somewhere and it should send out alerts if stolen. I'm not creative enough to figure out how that will work, but I'm sure someone can, and then they can charge me a fat fee for it, which I will gladly pay.

These were the top of mind thoughts, but I'm pretty sure that if I spent more time, I could think of several others. And without exception, I would pay generously for each of these apps.I can see myself paying upto Rs. 500 for certain ones like mobile email client and anti-virus software. However, I would like to try before buying if I am going to pay so much money.

What are the apps that you would pay for vs. ones that you believe ought to be free?

Sources
Wild Chocolate
TUAW 

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