Adam Grossman, of Dark Sky

But here is this woman that walks to work! She would derive a tremendous amount of value out of Dark Sky. I look at her martini, and it’s half gone. That’s how much Dark Sky costs. Four bucks. Half of a dirty martini. Certainly, amortized over the weeks and months, Dark Sky is more valuable than half a cocktail. I wish I had asked her if she thought that were true. I think she would have agreed.

The problem isn’t just that people are reluctant to buy apps in general. The claim that Dark Sky can tell you when it will rain at your precise location, down to the minute, sounds almost too good to be true. What’s the catch? How often does it work? What if it never works? Well, then I’m a dummy and I’m out $3.99.

The utility of a martini is much less uncertain.

Adam makes an excellent case for free app trial periods. It’s hard to believe that this doesn’t exist in any incarnation on iOS—something that Android has had (albeit with a different implementation) for a while.