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We're Just Not That Into You, iPhone Apps
maximus1 writes "A new report compiled by iPhone analytics firm Pinch Media finds the majority of people stop using apps the day after they download them, and only 1 percent develop a long-term relationship with any given app. Instead, most tend to lose interest after a few minutes, according to this article. Paid apps fare slightly better. 30% of the people downloading a paid app return the next day compared to 20% who download a free app. No surprises that the survey found that apps that focused on games and entertainment seem to outlast other categories when it comes to long-term love."
So...you're saying we should charge for EVERYTHING to maintain interest?
/me charges girlfriend $20 for sex...
Bored at work? Play Game!
I'm an avid buyer of iPhone apps and games. I get dozens every week. And, yes, just as the article asserts I rarely return to them after a day or two. There are exceptions, such as Tweetie (I'm utterly addicted to Twitter, see sig (and follow me!)), and a few great games (Trism, Enigmo, GeoDefence), but the majority I see as throwaway stuff.
Which is fine.
These apps are priced to be treated like that. It's a return to the PD and shareware library ethos of old (old? I mean late 80s/early 90s). I remember paying a buck or two for a disk with a raft of simple, mostly awful Commadore Amiga games. Fred Fish anyone?
It's pretty much the same thing. There were gems on those disks occasionally. There are gems in the App Library. Long may it continue.
http://twitter.com/onion2k
Alrighty.
I'm stopping myself now because, to be honest, I really, really want to post something that's, well, "Flamebait" or "Troll" to Apple users. It's an issue of mine. I was an abused child.
It might be that I'm jealous of folks with the discretionary income to buy those stylish electronic gizmos that really aren't necessary for everyday life or for life in general. Or for the fact that I have Back Turtle Neck envy. I wish I could look as good as Jobs in one of those.I wish I could look that good balding! unlike Jobs who looks cool balding, I look like a dog with bad mange.
Oh, never mind!
The Apps store has a lot of junk. Quite a few apps are buggy. Some are interesting. The business apps are typically tied to third party services. Some are only interesting for 10 minutes. And some have a great deal of potential that's unrealized.
For instance I'd love a restaurant locator app that works outside of San Francisco, Chicago and New York.
A lot of apps provide the same info you can get from a website or web app. And as long as that site works on Safari on the iPhone, there's not much reason to install an app just for that task.
It's not that the apps aren't useful, but rather after you download the app you find that it's just as easy to accomplish the task like you've always done it before you downloaded the app.
Must ... resist ... snide ... Apple ... userbase ... comment ... argh ... ugh...
Lurking in the desert
Of all the apps they watched how many were mainly a gimmick? A friend of mine downloaded an app that turns the screen into a small keyboard, how useful is that? He has a bunch of other apps he played with once and forgot they are even on his iphone. He mainly uses it for Google maps, the internet browser and a face book app. Other then that they are all mostly useless gimmicks.
There are a couple of extremely useful apps, but think about it. The majority of those free or $1-$2 apps have extremely limited scope and utility, and dare I say purpose as well. Seriously, an app that animates a zippo? Lightsaber sound effects triggered by the motion sensors in the iPhone? Come on, like those are supposed to amuse anybody for longer than 5 or 6 minutes.
between this and any other portable applications like say, games.
My DSlite has been sitting on a pile of PS2 games for the past five months collecting dust along with all the games I bought for it. It's a giant stack of good games I've played/been meaning to play/shoved in my face to play, yet there they are. Not to mention that I had carried my DS for 3 months with me before I realized I wasn't playing it.
Oh, but during the first 4 months of me owning that system you bet I played the crap out of it.
So it means, Apple users have the attention span of a 3 year old?
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
read their report and they seem more than happy to admit their apps phone home with these stats
and as they are a "analytics" company not a software company it makes you wonder wether their apps are really spyware with a game tacked on, unless Apple release their stats publicly the only way they can get numbers is by spying on anyone who downloads their crap
analytics is another name for spyware or stalkerware, the methods may be different to regular spyware but the results are the same.
looks like Windows isnt the only vector for this business
> "It's shareware all over again"
Did you use/sell/buy shareware with embedded ads?
You got your app and the author got paid. What is the problem here again?
Only the State obtains its revenue by coercion. - Murray Rothbard
To a pre-2.0 state.
All the applications developed by the underground iphone community, well 99% of them, were broken and abandoned when 2.0 came out.
Why would I want these older applications when there is now an apple store to provide most of the functionality of these applications? I loved having a chat client that would run in the background. I loved having my iradio, my wedict, my ebook reader (and a ton of ebook sources for easy install on the go.) my video recorder, my ssh client, my voice recorder with easy import, my NES emulator and ROMS (legal... I own each one of those, I swear...) and other games. I miss installing a free ringtone of a song I already own. And I miss said ringtone being full length
When people start porting their apps to 2.0 for installer or cygia, then I will move forward again.
The iphone can be a very open platform, and a good one at that. It just needs people to move from the official SDK and create ones own; to forgo the rules imposed. To make whatever one wants...
3 degrees of separation from Vladimir Putin
Jeez, I am glad i don't have to run fricking outlook, word or excel. I would rather go back to telegrams, tip-ex and a slide rule since these would actually be sufficient to cope with 99.99% of the things that outlook/word/excel are used for in business.
They whose government reduces their essential liberties for temporary security, receive neither liberty nor security.
I'm not sure why this is news to anybody. I've downloaded a lot of apps, and I will often times trash them after the first few uses. They were free, and as an app developer in training (still working on my first app), I was curious to see how they worked. Sure there's a lot of junk on there, but one thing often overlooked is that many people who write apps will be constantly updating the features of their apps. I bought Solebon for $.99 when they advertised a sale on their free version called Sol Free. That has gone through a few updates since then, and there are some really nice features that the app maker has added since then. I've played hundreds of games of Free Cell on it, and it's been a great purchase. Some apps that we've junked have probably gone under similar updates. While the quality might not be there today, it will be for many of these apps in the future.
Taking guns away from the 99% gives the 1% 100% of the power.
Or could it be that people just want a phone and not some kind of do-it-all gadget?
Call me old fashioned, but I've never understood this obsession people have with making their cellphone do tricks and whatnot. It's a phone. Its purpose is to make phone calls. If you want more capability, get a laptop.
Bibo Ergo Sum.
Would all those "Apple user, ha-ha" posters look stupid if we also had the data for other platforms? Because we all know that stuff downloaded from Sourceforge will be used at least a decade, right? Do Jamba (sorry, "Jamster") downloads get a longer usage because they are so expensive?
Lars T.
To the guy who modded me down from perfect to terrible Karma - Apple haters still suck
Did this story hit a nerve or something? Why are you on the defensive?
Copyright infringement is "piracy" in the same way DRM is "consumer rape"
so wait, you're saying netbooks don't have screens large enough to use the net with?
The iPhone can connect to an exchange server, and read excel and word files.
I remember so well the proto-economy that was the PDA application marketplace. Virtually the same were present back then as well, but now it's all news all over again. Now, with a big online app store, it's just a more widespread thing.
Hopefully people won't think the only way to solve that problem will be web based apps (keyword there is "based", not locally hosted web apps masquerading as native apps). They work great on a desktop, but they will always suck on mobile phones. Just how it is with a small form factor.
If you've developed a "long term relationship" with your iFarting app, it probably isn't because you paid for it.
Ya know, a 15 inch screen sure is nice when I've got a place to sit. And yeah, it does provide a nicer browsing experience than my little WinMob phone.
But firing up my notebook is not at all as convenient or quick for doing a quick price check, whipping off a one or two line e-mail, checking a quick headline, checking movie showtimes, or doing a restaurant search. Even given Opera for WinMob's slower render times (to speak nothing of Pocket IE which is slower, or Safari which appears to be significantly faster) I can still get most MOBILE tasks done in less time than it takes your typical notebook PC to finish boot device detection.
Apple users might get there quicker from sleep with a macbook, and I know how much y'all love your macs, but even the staunchest of fanboys isn't gonna lug around a 2lb air where an 8oz iPhone would do the job. More to the point, the macbook isn't a constantly connected device either; it'll need a data card or wifi to get there.
Different needs, different users. iPhone users obviously value portability over browser experience. (Being a longtime WinMob user, I don't necessarily agree with the device choice, but I agree with the sentiment...)
But hey, thanks for assuming that our mobile data needs and wants are nothing more than "ooh shiny thing."
If there's a castle floating upside down in the sky, then there's a castle floating upside down in the sky.
the iphone is a toy, not a business tool.
Toy?!
I suppose you think designer clothes, plucked eyebrows and exposed midriffs aren't business tools, too.
IMO The current crop at 1024x600 is useable, if not ideal. Like the OP implied, if I have to do anything resembling heavy lifting, I'll tether my phone to my Aspire One, and do the job from a "real" machine. Much like how my phone is always at my hip when I leave the house, the A1 is small enough that I usually just grab it on the way out of the house and toss it in the back seat of the car, just-in-case. (And in lieu of my much larger, but much more capable ASUS notebook.)
But 90% of my mobile web use is fine from the phone itself. The A1 still isn't really usable standing upright, or any place where I can't locate a surface on which to place it.
If there's a castle floating upside down in the sky, then there's a castle floating upside down in the sky.
I have a good dozen apps on my Palm that I use on a regular basis. But then I didn't get it until January 2000, so I never had to put up with the sucky apps you hated back in 1999.
I think that the revolutionary change that Apple brings to this situation is the accessibility. For Palm, and WinMob, a PC was usually necessary to install new applications. (Not sure about BlackBerry, Symbian, or the other common Phone OS environments.)
For an iPhone user it's 2 taps and maybe a password, and boom, there's your app. Microsoft has obviously seen what this means for users; they have an app store coming. Google made it a launch feature for Android too, and IIRC even Nokia will be getting into the act for Symbian.
If there's a castle floating upside down in the sky, then there's a castle floating upside down in the sky.
Depends. I've not downloaded a lot of apps, but only a few remain. A lot get deleted because I down load 2 - 3 freebies for a task and then keep the one I like best, usually purchasing the "pro" version if available. That's what I did for an RPN calculator. (I really wish someone would develop an HP48 emulator) .
But I have a whole screen of apps that I bought that I don't use on a daily basis. They are an SSH terminal, RDP, and VNC client. I don't use them "everyday", but in a pinch they come in handy. Same with some PostgreSQL utilities. Basically, I can log into our servers and fix whatever I need to from anywhere I have an Edge or 3G connection. And I've used them to fix problems remotely. Then I have a few more apps that get used about once a week, like Paypal, Flixter, Wikitap. Same with Google's apps. We share business docs via google docs and it's handy to be able to read, just wish I could edit.
I have a few apps that I use everyday (The Weather Channel, AOL radio, Pandora, Sourceforge).
I wonder how many people have apps they use, just not "everyday".
"The problem with socialism is eventually you run out of other people's money" - Thatcher.
Rubbish. I use my iPhone for business, where before I used to have a WM device (besides an old iPod, the iPhone is my first Apple device). When I first got the iPhone I hated the little incompatibilities with Outlook and the reliance on iTunes for synching. Actually, I still hate that... but for the rest, I found the iPhone to be vastly superior to WM phones when it comes ease of use. The GUI is fast and responsive, the on-screen keyboard is very usable even with fat fingers (and I hate the tiny physical keyboards that many phones have), and I can hold the phone in a sinlge hand and operate it with the thumb, something I somewhat surprisingly find very convenient.
It's a matter of preference, I suppose. The iPhone falls well short of full compatibility with Outlook, which is the de facto industry standard in business whether we like it or not. A big mistake on Apple's part if they are truly after the business market (as they claim to be). There's a reliance on iTunes and it only accepts Apple-approved apps, which some may object to. But the ease of use of the phone more than makes up for all that. I'll not switch back anytime soon to a WM phone.
If construction was anything like programming, an incorrectly fitted lock would bring down the entire building...
The browser on the iPhone is a revelation. It's the first small-format browser that has generated the same sense of "flow" that I get from a full-size browser. I sit down to use it after lunch then look up surprised when 40 minutes have gone by and I'm late for my next meeting.
The only applications on my desktop/laptop that I use on a daily basis are Apple Mail, Firefox, iTunes, and Adium. I'm not a major hunter for new cool utilities or applications (partly as a holdover from using Windows, unless I REALLY need what an application does, I don't bother with it) but even then that's 60 other things in my Applications directory that see little if any use (though a fair few of them are pre-installed iApps I never would bothered to have installed in the first place, and other 'built in' stuff). There are some of those that I paid money for (though they're all games).
The majority of iPhone users I know goes into the App Store / Cydia / Installer, sees something interesting, looks whether or not it is free, and if free checks if the phone has enough space, and if so download said app, rinse and repeat. The same pattern goes for apps that are not free, with the exception that the process becomes more conservative and stingy. It is actually by seeing this trend that I know that iPhone 2.0 only supports 9 pages of apps!
In response to the article about apps being used only 1% after it has been installed, doesn't that work the same way in Windows as well? Notable examples off the top of my head is Photoshop, which I can see most people actually have a copy installed on their machine, yet the same user probably really only uses Paint.
Pandora Rocks, rolls, jazzes and classics it up... even if 99% of what comes out is meaningless fluff for 99% of people, there will be killers like Pandora that most everyone can use, and super super niche stuff that's awesome for 1/10,000 iPhone owners and useless to the rest. That's the beauty of a "programmable" device, unlike the Moto815eVerizonLockedPieceOfStuff that I carry - it has some decent basic software, but could be sooooooo much more if it were open for people to get the most out of the platform (such as, the crappy GPS software that Verizon wants to rent to their subscribers...)
The Palm software marketplace was almost identical the the iPhone store - cool shiny new programmable gadget appeals to semi-geek crowd with lots of disposable income. HandFart would have sold very well if the PalmPilot had a decent speaker.
Of course. I'm posting this on my fold-out 27"-screen super-laptop with a holographic keyboard and laser-guided missile defense system.
You and your weenie netbooks. Pfaw.
"You can either have software quality or you can have pointer arithmetic, but you cannot have both at the same time."
If that's what the typical iphone owner does, then no, they really don't use the device. Then again, who am I to tell a person how to spend their money?
I listen to podcasts on my way to and from work. I use twitter, facebook, email and locly every day. Mobileterminal and palringo at least once a week. And yes, I do actually have earbuds in my coat pocket. I don't use them unless I'm going to the library or somewhere were I'd rather listen to music than the ambient sound.
I do have a bunch of other apps installed that get used much less frequently, but hey, it's a smartphone. I have a bunch of apps on my PC that I use the hell out of, and a ton more that I use infrequently... sounds like proper usage to me.
I get a lot of apps to use as blades in a Swiss Army knife -- you know, you have blades you hardly ever use on your knife, but when you need them you're glad they're there. I don't need a flashlight every day, but I have a flashlight app on my iPhone "just in case." Same for a unit converter app. Many of the travel apps will not get used every day, but will likely see use for the few times a year I travel.
Outlook = E-mail and calendar, something iPhone does just fine.
Word = What are you doing editing documents on a phone? If you just need to read them, who cares?
Excel = Maybe the only thing you might complain about on an iPhone, but who the hell does real business spreadsheets on a phone...?
Reality is... you're just as bought into the Windows mobile hype as some people are bought into the iPhone hype. No one uses a phone to do real work on things... it's just a viewport into existing documents and a way to keep in touch with e-mail.
+++OK ATH
This guy doesn't look like he quit "playing" after he bought an iPhone app: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t6qy4bi3SPI There's some seriously cool stuff out there, but most of it costs more than free or a buck.
TBH alot of you people are simply being asshats - there's nothing surprising or special about this situation. Most of the apps in the store are free and are simply downloaded to see if they fulfill a specific purpose (perhaps even a momentary purpose). Why *shouldn't* I download the (free) flashlight app? Why shouldn't I download the Twitter/Facebook/Myspace app? Why shouldn't I download another calendar to keep track of my wife's monthly cycle and ovulation/pregnancy tests?
Now, most people I know with an iphone use the Pandora app over their regular itunes collection - but virtually all of them carry headphones and use either the ipod or pandora app for music regularly. And in reality, I've known a fair number of people (just like you, apparently) that were all "Psch, iphone, I'll buy Smartphone-X it's just the same". Yeah, except when you use it you're like... DUDE W T F IS UP WITH THIS STUPID GUI!?!?!?!
You don't see iphone users saying that. You see most of us pitying the poor saps that bought inferior phones that implement a substandard GUI. Hell, even the people I know that *HAVE* decent GUIs on their smartphone would really prefer the iphone. And yes, we all use them for business purposes.
BTW, iphone killer apps that I'm aware of:
Perhaps this survey only concentrated on iPhone users and not iPod Touch users. Perhaps those who have iPhones are not as interested in apps as they are in communication. I've found that most iPod Touch users (of which I and my 12-year-old son are) usually fill up there iPods with multiple pages of apps. Though I have bought apps, I would say that most of the apps I have are free. I had jailbroken my iPod Touch previous to the creation of the app store. If the app store didn't offer free apps along with the paid ones, it's possible I would have kept my iPod jailbroken. I haven't tired of many apps, and I use some apps everyday (like Chess Genius, iSports, iReversi, Sudoku, Facebook, WorldWiki, Maps, Stocks, etc...). Other apps like Guitar Chords aren't really the kind of app you use everyday, but are nice to have when you need them. So I dispute the claims of this survey. I think "we" are very much into appstore apps. I wonder if these are the findings of a envious HP iPaq owner or a "Zune Person"...
"A lot of apps provide the same info you can get from a website or web app. And as long as that site works on Safari on the iPhone, there's not much reason to install an app just for that task."
Sounds like what XUL was made for.
Shai Schticks:"You don't make peace with friends, you make peace with enemies"
It might be that I'm jealous of folks with the discretionary income to buy those stylish electronic gizmos that really aren't necessary for everyday life or for life in general.
Do you drink? Go out to movies? What about restaurants? Do you own a car? Do you ever travel? Do you subscribe to cable?
I'd say there's a 99% chance that you do plenty of things that other people would consider "unnecessary" for everyday life. So why attack people who choose a different use for the money they work for than you do?
Unless you are posting from a monastery, I think I smell the tangy essence of hypocrisy here.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
I've already posted or I'd mod you up.
Think about what kinds of apps actually install these analytics packages. Few serious apps would do so, not wanting analytics overhead to tinker with the app performance (or at least that is why I've not been interested in integrating third party analytics into my application).
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
For Palm, and WinMob, a PC was usually necessary to install new applications. (Not sure about BlackBerry, Symbian, or the other common Phone OS environments.)
Now I'm all for bashing Windows Mobile, but let's not get too hasty. I'm on my second WinMob phone and I did all my application installs on both either over the air (download the .cab file with the browser) or from a memory card (.cab copied from PC or different phone). A PC isn't even remotely necessary to install applications.
While I wouldn't deride anyone over how they use the technology they paid for, I really have to wonder why use a phone for doing word processing and spreadsheets?
Unless I'm in a car, at a restaurant or in a theater I'm probably not too far from a computer or a laptop. I personally can't imagine needing to do either of those activities in a setting other than home or work. And if you commute to work via mass transit, do yourself a favor and buy a cheap laptop. If you drive to work then do me a favor and keep your eyes on the road.
Stupider like a fox! - H.S.
I am going to pay for some app and not use it? Well if its worth anything i am going to use it till my iPhone dies,dont let any penny be thrown away.
First, the case that you make about iPhone users using less and less functionality as time goes on is probably accurate. My question is whether you believe that this is unique to the iPhone, because I don't think that it is. I'm sure that the WinMo, Symbian, Blackberry, and Android users would have this trait to some extent as well.
Second, it's not *just* about whether they've got headphones handy. What about people like myself who plug their phone into the car radio? Some people have an iPod dock on their desk at work. One of my friends' mom has an iPod dock in the kitchen. just because I don't carry headphones everywhere doesn't mean that the music functionality goes to waste. It is simply used in a different context.
Third, let's take this to the desktop. I've got my freeware that I use all the time (Firefox, icechat, digsby, filezilla, ultravnc), my paid apps that I use occasionally, (ACID, Street Atlas, Office 2007), and the apps that I paid through the nose for (Adobe Suite, Mixmeister). Go to Download.com/Tucows/Softpedia and you'll find the same needle-in-haystack story. Apps I pay more for I use more, but I paid alot of money for them because I knew that they would prove extremely useful to me. While it's partially a self-fulfilling prophecy, it's partially just knowing that I need something before I buy it. this is true anywhere and on any platform. As long as there are developers, there are good developers and there are bad developers. It's up to the end user to sift between them.
sit down to use it after lunch then look up surprised when 40 minutes have gone by and I'm late for my next meeting.
That's because the browser and network are quite slow.
It sure is a toy if you treat it like one by downloading novelty apps and games. But to some of us, the iPhone makes all the other phones look like toys. My last Windows Mobile device was a joke. Yeah, it could read Word and Excel, but I never used them. Is that you're only reason why?
Here are iPhone apps I use almost every day:
1) Light. Yes, I use my iPhone as a flashlight more than I like to admit
2) i41CX+ RPN calculator
3) Files, which I often use to store reference PDFs for work, and I always keep an NYC subway map on it.
4) Shazam, which I've used to figure out what a huge number of songs on the radio were
5) The Weather Channel, when the Appleweather isn't enough (radar + NWS warnings)
Things I've used once or twice:
Panolab - sure, its fun, three times maybe
TouchTerm - interesting to try, painful to use
Night Camera - not sure this does anything
Ruler Phone - not much of a ruler
AIM - more of a problem of me not liking IM
Agreed, most of the apps are just crap. Twitter/hyves/facebook apps are decent and i use the teletext app daily but thats about it. When do we get the good stuff?
TomTom or route66 with locally stored maps and turn by turn navigation?
Skype without any wifi restrictions?
A tethering app
You know, apps that one actually has a need for and uses. Also i'm sad to say these apps are available on competing platforms. The iphone hardware is nice but the software is crippled.
It is a weird concept, since I own an iPhone, but there are just some things that a laptop does better than a phone or mobile device. I got an FTP app and the iconic notes app and the social networking apps, I thinking communication apps will be dominate since the phone is a communications device.
To see a few of my Android apps goto: www.hartwired.com
Holy crap! Find me a bunch of free applications where this ISN'T true.
Goddamn, 90% of the stuff I try for the first time via apt gets shitcanned five minutes later.
This sig is part of your complete breakfast.
I remember the old Amiga days that ran on shareware and freeware software. It was cheap, cheaper than windows stuff, and ran with less bug. And if there were bug the author was easy to contact a fix thew problem. I have one app with my Ipod touch called Recipes that there was a problem with the sending the recipe by email and I contacted the author and actually responded to the problem, found it, and said he would fix it. That's like the old days.. And true I usually stop playing with some 20 percent of the apps but most were free anyway. Those I use I use alot.
I remember using 'Act Names' on my Palm Vx...
I want a decent CRM on my iPod touch, but I can't, it's not possible. iCal (on the touch/iPhone) simply does not cut it, which practically writes off the device for me.
The app store's offerings are mostly trinkets, and browsing for apps from the device is awkward at best.
Now I just use it for music and mail.
But it was just an example.
join my family, 195 064 788
it's pretty cool attacking someone who has 70+ hotdog stands, if they lose the fight and I get 500k+. It reminds my of what it was like to play Legend of The Red Dragon back in the day.
Other than that, I'd say the article is spot on. Downloaded a ton of stuff only to never be used again. Thank goodness for the free stuff.
Sure, NOBODY wants iPhone apps afterall. Sure.
I guess that's why Ballmer is wailing and moaning for Apple to 'open' the iPhone platform?
Smells like a troll is awake at a certain "iPhone analytics firm" ...
What is an "iPhone analytics firm" ? Do they make something other than scary "boogity boogity" sounds?
So what. This is a non-announcement.
We install MS Office on everyone's computer and folks guess what? Yep, people only use about 5% of the whole suite.
As an iPhone owner myself, I know the apps I keep coming back to very regularly (and have been using for almost a year now, non-stop) are NOT the games, but rather, the information-related apps.
For example, the AP Wire News program, is great. I read the daily news with it all the time when I'm waiting someplace in line or what-not.
Many of the other apps I keep on my iPhone and like a lot are simply "special purpose" programs I wouldn't have a use for very often, but they're really nice to have when the need arises. (EG. I recently got one that gives you average price estimates for various automotive repairs, and lets you find shops in your area along with recommendations/reviews from other users of the app.)
I do know a few people who tend to do a lot of program purchasing/downloading and rapid deletion afterwards -- but they tend to be parents who share their iPhone with their younger kids. Half the time, it boils down to the kid not using really good judgment about what's worth installing, so the parent has to go back through and do some "clean up" of all the unused stuff.
The Iphone is the first Apple product I have ever owned or used. It is also the best device I have ever owned. I use it all day everyday. I use two radio apps everyday to listen to stations all over the world. If the performance and ease of use of the Iphone is any indication of how good their computers are then I will be buying nothing but Apple from now on.
Telecommuting! What about socialization?
After talking to both Verizon and Apple, I am reaching out to the tech sauvé community to see if anyone knows how to make an IPOD Touch compatible with my Verizion wireless external card that I use on both my MAC and PC. My direct email is: jshapan@shapan.com if anyone has a solution, or knows of an adapter that would make this work. Before I spend the money for the Touch, I need a solution. Thanks so much, Jan
I have a different take on this article. 99% of apps are absolute shit and it takes people less than 1 day to realize this.
I think that some of the apps for sale tend to be a bit better since the authors want to make money, but there is still a lot of crap out there. I rarely buy any apps for this reason. Sure, I know it is usually only a dollar or two... but I hate wasting ANY of my money on crap.
I would probably buy more apps if I had the option to return them or demo the full version for a day or two.
I bought Galcon after it went down to $4.99 and haven't looked back since. I play it daily online. I didn't even realize online gaming was possible with the iPhone but they nailed it. It's the one game I've played on the iPhone that I really feel just can not be duplicated on a normal PC. Playing it with a keyboard and mouse would feel awkward, in my opinion.
Name...That...Autocomplete!
100% Agreed. I've had a BlackBerry, I have an iPod Touch, and In Dec. '08 I purchased the Samsung Omnia i910. This was supposed to be Verizon's iPhone killer. I disliked it and Windows Mobile so much that I paid an early termination fee to rid myself of the phone and Verizon. I had never used an iPhone before, but when I left BestBuy and received my first call I was amazed at the simplicity of the device and how well the UI worked. I NEVER used my Omnia to browse the Web, it was just that bad. I didn't even like placing and receiving calls on it. Conversely I use my iPhone non-stop, because it does what I want, when I want, and without effort. It's like the perfect woman. This phone is the one thing for which I pay a monthly premium and actually feel that I get my money's worth.
I agree! Safari on my IPT2G is so much better than PIE on my tilt. I find myself bringing up internet sharing on my phone and looking stuff up on my ipod instead.
i am so very tired....
Why not just get a used i730 off of ebay and get the unlimited internet. there should be wmwifirouter app available that will turn the i730 into a wireless router and allow you to use your IPT2G with it like a phone using skype or one of the other voip apps on the app store. I just hide my smartphone in another pocket and pretend like my touch is an iphone.
i am so very tired....
I think this sums up not just what's successful from the iPhone App Store, but the general usage pattern of a mobile device. A phone is a communications device, so it's no surprise that Facebook and Twitter apps are more commonly used than any others.
A phone is also an instant notification device. Phones have had ringers for a long time, telling the recipient of a call that someone would like to speak to them now. It's also true that many iPhone apps are crippled, and many potential iPhone apps unworkable, because of the lack of a push notification system so far. IM apps are almost useless, for example. If the five-months-late push notification system every makes an appearance, I think we'll see a significant rise in the diversity and quality of App Store offerings, because the applications will become that much more useful.
===== Murphy's Law is recursive. =====
Based on the popularity of the device, I'd never have known there were so many fanboys. Or maybe you are just an uninformed, biased douche. I'll take a fanboy over negative-nancy any day of the week, btw.