Category: Computer technology

RANT! Apple’s App Store hurts software sales

RANT! Apple’s App Store hurts software sales

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By all accounts, save one, Apple’s iPhone has been an amazing success. When you factor

  • the number of competitors in the marketplace,
  • Apple as a relative newcomer to the cell phone market,
  • the strict relationship with only one carrier

it is amazing that the iPhone has had such a strong impact on the revenue of Apple as well as the sales of other phones.

The one area that Apple really needs to develop is the developer network. While the App Store is the best method yet developed for delivering software to a cell phone, it does not appear that it is a great commercial success for many of its developers.  The vast majority of the apps on the store are priced so cheaply (or free) that it is not likely that they will return a profit to their developers.

While there are more appropriately priced software packages on the store, the comments show that these have a smaller community than many of the free or cheap apps.  Why is this?

My belief is that few people are willing to pay 10 bucks for an app when they don’t know how it will work and screenshots are a poor tradeoff.  Some developers have rigged up “trials” on their website. Solitaire Forever does this quite effectively.  I don’t know what technology the folks at Solitaire Forever used to have the product work in such a multi-platform environment but it is a great model.

Additionally, Apple could help the situation by allowing software to expire after a certain amount of time.  This would allow software developers to time limit the software and adopt the try-before-you-buy (TBYB) model that is so popular in desktop apps.  This is done in a small way by some developers when they offer a less functional “lite” version of their software but that is difficult for the developers to manage and difficult for customers to deal with.

APPLE – PLEASE INCLUDE TIME EXPIRATIONS IN THE IPHONE OS!

I am done with this topic for now but I reserve the right to rant more on it someday.

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iPhone makes easy password typing

iPhone makes easy password typing

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Typing a password on a small keyboard is typically a chore. I have used a variety of mobile devices in my career and have always dreaded typing in passwords.

While the iPhone is not as easy as your full keyboard it is easier than any other mobile device you probably have ever used.

First, the iPhone pops up a large rendition of the key tapped. This makes it easy to change your mind if you have tapped the wrong key. This is easier than a chiclet keyboard like that of a Blackberry which makes you commit to the key that is depressed.

Second, the iPhone displays bullets in the password field like it should. But it displays the actual character of the last key tapped so that the user can hit the backspace key.

Congratulations to the great user interface developers at Apple.

This post was created on an iPhone.

TBYB at the iPhone application store

TBYB at the iPhone application store

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I tend to agree with The Fishbowl that it would be great to have a try-before-you-buy at the Apple iPhone store.  It would help alleviate the fear factor of hitting BUY when looking for an application for the phone.

I think the only saving grace to not having this capability is the very easy comments feature in the store.  A few weeks ago, when the iPhone was first coming out, it was all a crapshoot as to the quality of the software.  Now that every application has a couple dozen comments, the cream easily floats to the top.

I also wish that Apple would require their vendors to have a better website to explain the apps.  In some cases, the sites are incredibly bare and almost non-existent.

I am done with this topic for now but I reserve the right to rant more on it someday.

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iPhone uses motion well

iPhone uses motion well

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I have used other phones with virtual keyboards. Most of these phones have been Windows Mobile based. One of the complaints that I have always had was when I had to press other keys after the phone call. You know what I mean, you need to press 1 or 0 to reach someone else of maybe press pound.

In most virtual keyboards, the screen is dimmed after the phone is connected to save power. This is true of the iPhone as well but since the iPhone senses motion it realizes that you have moved it from your ear, so the display lights up again so you can type.

This is one of the reason that the iPhone is easily the best phone I have ever owned.

This post was written on my iPhone.

RANT! iPhone needs better apps management

RANT! iPhone needs better apps management

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Yes, I know that I just praised the iPhone from Apple as being a great phone.  In fact, it is the best phone that I have ever owned and I have had quite a few.

However, the management of application icons leaves a lot to be desired. 

First of all, it is not possible to name the different screens.  So while it is possible to congregate all of your games onto a particular screen, there is no way to name this screen and jump instantly to it.

Second, whenever you update an application to its next revision (and at this early stage, this happens a lot) the icon will jump back to the earliest possible spot.  This means that when you do an update, the icon forgets where you first put it (as in the games screen described above) and sticks it on the very first screen of the phone.  If there are no more open spots on that first screen, it puts it on the second screen (and so on).  This makes it tedious to reorganize your applications as developers work out bugs in their early versions.

If this was Microsoft, I would expect this bad behavior.  Microsoft regularly rearranges my Start menu when I do a patch to it or upgrade their Office application.  I hate it but I expect the idiots in Redmond to treat me like an imbecile.  Apple though is the king of cool interfaces, but as I have said before, software should not act smarter than me.

I am not the only one that feels this way, I hope that Apple is listening to this complaint.

APPLE – PLEASE GIVE US SOME WAY TO BETTER MANAGE OUR APPLICATION ICONS.  YOU ARE BETTER THAN THIS.

I am done with this topic for now but I reserve the right to rant more on it someday.

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The iPhone is great!

The iPhone is great!

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I own a first generation iPhone. While I have considered buying a new 3G version, I really don’t know why I should spend more money. I am very happy with the speed of my present phone as it does email and newsfeeds plenty fast.

The really great thing about the new operating system of the phone is the cool apps that are starting to come out. For instance, it has a FREE WordPress management tool and I am using it to write this column.

I will write more about my iPhone in the coming days. Subscribe to my feed to follow the discussion.

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