2011/10/7 Steven Walling steven.walling@gmail.com:
I've not once seen two identical apps by the same company, but one for pay arbitrarily. There are "premium versions" with additional features, but that's not what we're talking about here.
There are some at https://market.android.com/search?q=donate&so=1&c=apps (There are some false-positives too). To pick a random example: https://market.android.com/details?id=com.bipmo.waterworks.app.paid
It's basically for developers who want to make it possible for people to show their appreciation, but who don't want to do the whole premium thing (e.g. additional features, or removal of ads). Admittedly, not many "companies" do that, but I'd think that, in spirit, we're closer to selfless volunteer developers.