iPhone App Store: Eliminating the Competition
07/12/2008, 1 month 2 weeks ago
I think the very first icon I clicked on my iPhone was the one for the App Store. After all the hype for the App Store, I wanted to know exactly what ELSE I could be doing with the phone besides what Apple intended.
Available through both the iPhone as well as the iTunes Store, the apps are sorted into categories for easier browsing, as well as other lists such as most recently added and most downloaded. Prices are clearly marked, and each app is shown with a brief description and screenshot. Unfortunately, there are no video demos, which would be more useful for making a purchase decision. I don't mind making a mistake with a free app, but I find myself unwilling to pay for something without a video demo or trial period (something the App Store might want to think about implementing).
There are some familiar web apps in the App Store, and some of them even got added to my phone. One that I never expected to download was Pandora, but I did so at my husband's suggestion, and find I'm now using it more than last.fm, which has been my all-time favorite for finding music online. However, Pandora has an iPhone app in the store. last.fm does not.
Both apps do something of the same thing, helping me find music based on my interests. Pandora lacks all the social aspects of last.fm that I love, yet it does just as good, if not better, a job of suggesting music that I like. The simple fact that I can run it on my iPhone natively, however, has quickly made it my default suggestion app, even though if I were asked to choose between the two, I'd have chosen last.fm every time. The iPhone version is a very simple app: set up your "stations" by entering artists that you like, and Pandora will select songs it thinks you might like and stream them. Add more than one artist and you can do a "Quick Mix" that varies the genres more. Once you are streaming, the controls are as simple as possible: thumbs up or thumbs down, an arrow to bookmark the song or artist, or purchase the song on iTunes, a pause button, and a fast-forward button. You get a back button to return to you station list and an info button that tells you why the song was selected for you, and a volume control. The rest of the screen is filled with either an album image or a note image if Pandora doesn't have an album image. It doesn't get much more basic than this.
And yet, while I can't speak for the millions of iPhone users, I do have to wonder how much of an impact the App Store is going to have on the many Web 2.0 apps that are out there. People are generally lazy, and will opt for the easiest and most convenient choice, as I did with Pandora. And Twitteriffic for my Twitter client. And Evernote for information storage. Will the App store ultimately help to decide which apps survive?
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iTunes is about the survival of the fittest. I hope we see more quality apps than alot of the current offerings. To be honest I find it hard to believe an apps developer took the time to make some of the crap that is there.
I’m hopeful!. I’ve seen and read of the articles about some truly innovative apps, like Voice activtion for dialing and searches, turn by turn GPS and maybe some neat games too
Keep smiling
actually I was wondering the same myself the other day when I saw Whrrl, loopt and Where were the three apps I got back when I searched for ‘location application’ in the app store and was wondering if the others like Brightkite didn’t get their app out in time or there is something political about who gets to there when millions of new and old (and global) iPhone users are getting to the app store for the first time.
or I wonder if it’s a quality control thing? I believe the ones I currently see on App Store are the ones I have been already using and found it to be the best in respective categories: Evernote (I can’t live without their desktop app and I tried to do a ’show-and-tell’ at work about evernote and my boss thought I was a bit crazy), Pandora (been a user since before they added ads and I love their desktop app too!). I try out any new app that comes out for fun and my quest for finding the best tool never ends! And the selfish part of me is kind of mad at the app store cause these apps are no longer my secret tools and I am losing my chance to impress everyone whenever I introduced them to try some neat tool they haven’t heard of! Now they all have heard of Evernote and recognize that lovable green elephant!
But in all seriousness, I think its a great advantage for an app to be the only choice or one of the very few choices listed on the app store at the time of opening. the interest level is spiking on day one (or week one) and I can see many people not coming back to the app store to add more and more apps once they get used to what’s on their phones and they find what they already have is satisfying their needs.
I will never stop wondering, why people use Apple in the first place.
If political regimes got a hold of Apple’s wizardry (i.e. treat people bad, and still have them running after you in numbers), how happy would they be.
I personally think, Apple offer inferior technology, pretty mediocre durability, sacrificed both at the altar of profit margins. And it apparently happens each and every time.
Poscast
http://snurl.com/afollower
To get applications processsed for the AppStore will take time and I am sure we will hear developers complain for a while until the process is streamlined. Web Apps will have to try to get on the band wagon as more people use the internet on the move… however, it is not impossible to build similar applications for other phones, Apple has no monopoly in the mobile phone market, so if a developer feels Apple is not serving them well enough, there are plenty of opportunities on other mobile platforms.
As for Bloggi/Poscast:
Apple is consistently producing long lasting and value retaining products, has the best results in most customer service surveys, is providing an welcome alternative to the PC for the consumer, is - within the industry and generally - known as an innovator, even better, in a recent ChangeWave survey, 79 percent of iPhone users were happy with their phone, besting Blackberry, the closest competitor by a country mile (http://tinyurl.com/5hyram).
That is not wizardry, that is a lot of hard work, ingenuity and resilience in a very tough and competitive market.