The company, which gives users a full-featured third-party client for accessing social networks such as Twitter and Facebook, previously offered "Lite" and "Full" (a.k.a. paid) versions of its mobile offerings for iPhone and Android.
Those applications are now free, and the coming-soon Hootsuite apps for iPad and BlackBerry will also be free.
So, what happens to users who have already paid for the full app version? According to Hootsuite, "You’ll get to keep what you paid for. You purchased HootSuite for the ability to add unlimited social networks to your phone, to view ow.ly stats, and to have an ad-free mobile interface. You’ll get to keep all of these things... even after we make the app free."
Hootsuite has done some juggling of revenue streams over the past couple months. In August, the company said it would roll out a freemium fee schedule for user accounts. Monthly subscription pricing ranges from $5 per month for your average power-user account to $2,000 per month for heavy-duty enterprise use.
Moreover, anyone who pays for a Hootsuite Pro account will get added goodies with their mobile apps, including advanced metrics data.
Have you tried a Hootsuite mobile app yet? What do you think of its decision to make all apps free?