Last week, we wrote about ShoZu that started charging for their former free application in the Apple App Store. We had a look at the impact of this on their ranking, check out the previous post for more info.

We talked to ShoZu’s Jennifer Grenz, Vice President of Products and Marketing, who made some interesting comments on the move to go paid.

Why did ShoZu go for a paid model in the app store?

App stores are where the customers are, and where they’re going.  So it’s the perfect place to find and engage users, and get paid.

App stores allow us to better deliver our app to users, with more frequent updates than would otherwise be possible with preloads and other methods. So it’s the best place to deliver and support our users.We believe that biz models for mobile app developers will increasingly include a paid or freemium option that balances other forms of revenue (advertising, subscription, sponsorships). We believe this is where developers are headed, and that this is the winning model for developers in the long term.

Even more importantly, having a user pay for our apps compels us to further invest in our customers with innovation in technology and partnerships.  There’s an implied informal contract between us and the customers… that, since they’ve paid, we need to continue to add significant value.

What was the impact after you started charging for the app?

We have not seen a massive drop-off in iPhone downloads, and we’re happy with the transition and the level of acceptance.

We love to hear comments back from developers that are upfront trying these different business models today for mobile apps. Thanks to ShoZu for sharing this.