Passive/aggressive iPhone bashing
InfoWorld’s Bill Snyder has it down.
So, let’s see if the Macalope has the story straight. Tremendous douche makes questionable iPhone app, screws up the implementation, spamming his customers, and the conclusion we’re supposed to draw is “Don’t believe the iPhone hype! It’s a bad platform for developers!”
Until you get to the end, of course, when Snyder makes sure to note:
Don’t mistake this post for a knock on Apple or its platform.
Oh, Bill, how could we possibly do that?! What with a title like “iPhone apps: Fool’s gold for developers?”?! And a subheading like “Selling mobile apps on Apple’s iPhone App Store may seem like a surefire recipe for success. It isn’t.”?! And a section heading like “Lots of iPhone users, but no revenues”?! And another one like “Limitations in the iPhone make great apps harder to deliver”?!
Instead, see it as a cautionary tale and adjust your expectations and strategy accordingly.
Uh-huh. Basically, just ignore the title and headings of this story. I don’t even know why they’re there! They were just in the template I use!
Don’t bother emailing Snyder or commenting (or, really, even clicking through) to complain. The Macalope already knows what his response will be: “Sorry if you got offended.”
Perhaps he’s trying to avoid getting blasted by thousands of iPhone users when he makes legitimate points.
For example, supporting yourself via advertising: The application in question, Trapster, has 350,000 users. Advertisers don’t care about a number that small. So, the theory that iPhone developers will get rich selling cheap or free apps which support themselves through advertising is dubious at best.
And I agree wholeheartedly that limitations in the iPhone make great apps hard to deliver. A classic example is navigation apps. I want to enter where I am. I want to enter where I’m going. And I want the phone to tell me how to get there in such a way that I don’t have to take my eyes off the road–such as telling me a mile or so beforehand when a turn is coming up. You can do that with the iPhone right now…
…as long as you don’t get a phone call. If that happens, you’ll get no notification until you hang up, your navigation app restarts, and you’re told you missed your turn twenty minutes ago.
And why is this? Because you can’t even run a small notification app in the background that keeps track of where you are and notifies you of things. Of course, there are good reasons to do this. But in this example, I’m fine with the reduced battery life since I probably have my phone plugged into the cigarette lighter in the car.
Thank you Mr. Lope for reading it so I don’t have to. I read Philip Elmer-DeWitt today. That should be enough for anyone.