Astro Moves to Ad-Supported Model, Market Commenters Riot
In a move that everyone saw coming (basically because Metago’s announced they’d be introducing an ad-supported model for months), Astro File Manager’s been updated to support the company’s new ad-supported revenue model. Much like many other apps in the Android market, the app was updated to include ads which can be done away with by purchasing a full unlock key.
Something else that doesn’t surprise me is all of the flack they’ve been getting in the Android Market comments. They’ve been called “shady,” “wrong” and “stupid” for pulling a “bait and switch” on hundreds of thousands (potentially millions, but the Android market can’t verify this) of users. I don’t want to dive too deep into my thoughts regarding developers in the market and why it’s wrong to attempt to tarnish their reputation because of ads (you can find my thoughts in full about that here), but it does embarrass me to see how selfish a lot of people truly are.
I could go on and on, but I won’t. The app’s updated and it can now be found in the Android market (with support for plugins to add additional functionality such as Bluetooth FTP support and SMB on Windows).
[via Android Central]