Of course, there's nothing stopping the developer from releasing an update that makes the free app less functional/desirable. As far as I know, the only way to

Of course, there's nothing stopping the developer from releasing an update that makes the free app less functional/desirable. As far as I know, the only way to tell what an update will be like without installing it is to look for App Market comments from disgruntled users who have installed the update. And you cannot return to a previous version of the application once an update is installed. Several of the useful free apps that I have installed later became annoying, ad-supported ones.