A native speaking coworker (who is a programmer) says "Yes, that's normal... but only for programmers"
Anonymous
7:21 PM
@jkerian Yep, those are common for sure.
Anonymous
Of course, those aren't the same thing as breaking down an application.
Anonymous
Actually saying an application broke down is understandable with the intended meaning but a little weird, but without down it's perfectly normal. Make it transitive and retain the preposition and it ceases to be understandable for me.
Anonymous
But of course break and broken are perfectly normal and common.
Anonymous
On the other hand, break down does work transitively with a different meaning (break it down into its pieces, for example if you're analyzing how it works or deciding how to structure it).
Anonymous
I think it's the same reason a car can break down, but you can't *break down a car. Or rather, you can, but not with the intended meaning; you can only break it down into pieces.
Also I think アプリ壊したかも is ok even for non-programmers as long as they can understand that it was some input of theirs that broke it. Tech-savvy? Most younger people I would think.