Comments on: Too many iPhone apps? http://blog.orenblog.org/2009/08/12/too-many-iphone-apps/ This is where you say something clever Wed, 15 Feb 2012 06:16:50 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ By: ycl http://blog.orenblog.org/2009/08/12/too-many-iphone-apps/#comment-878 Tue, 27 Oct 2009 17:02:45 +0000 http://blog.orenblog.org/?p=2440#comment-878 Apple is controlling the webapps, as such many are unknown and many developers could not have any hope for their work. As for itune app, Apple does make a percentage of the profit. If you are looking for all the webapps (approved or rejected) or you want to showcase your work, you can use free webapps listing and search site at

http://ipoh.blogdns.com

It is free and best of all, it will not reject any apps. It will need the support of all developers before it can provide any hope to other developers.

]]> By: Mark Crispin http://blog.orenblog.org/2009/08/12/too-many-iphone-apps/#comment-813 Wed, 12 Aug 2009 22:17:06 +0000 http://blog.orenblog.org/?p=2440#comment-813 iToy consumers overwhelmingly rejected web apps in favor of native apps, for much the same reasons that they rejected diskless workstations ~20 years ago.

Web apps, by their nature, require access to the network and the mobile device’s radio to operate. True, there’s no reason why YouTube, Stocks, Maps, and Weather couldn’t be web apps; they’re all useless without Internet access anyway. But let’s consider the other built-in apps, and see where this goes…

Why not make Calendar, Contacts, Notes, and Voice Memos be web apps, and force all iToy owners to subscribe to MobileMe?

Why not make Mail be a web app, or at least a true IMAP client? After all, lots of people use webmail and don’t complain.

And why does the media library have to be stored on the iToy? It could be held on the server and streamed when the user decides to play it. No need to apply DRM since it never leaves the security of the server.

And if we’re doing all of that, might as well make Clock and Calculator be a web app too.

OK, I think that I’ve made my point. There are issues of access, control, and appropriateness in which web apps are not the One True Solution.

It’s absurd to go out on the Internet to get the time, or to do a quick calculation. People actually want to be able to access their calendar/contacts/notes/mail, and play their media, even when they don’t have Internet connectivity. And this is just the basic suite that are on all iToys.

There are many other apps that have similar issues of access, control, and appropriateness.

A 500 pound gorilla is that of games. Surprisingly, Apple has no bundled games on the iToy (although one can argue that the entire iToy is a game). Third parties have filled in the gap. Mobile device games typically are not played in the home; that’s the domain of video game consoles. Instead, mobile device games are diversions when having to wait in public, often in places where the Internet is unavailable and/or it is necessary to turn off the radio (as on aircraft). A web app is a complete flop here. Most games do not, and should not, need Internet access.

The jailbreak community recognized all this early on, and that Apple’s insistence upon web apps was simply a way for Apple to put non-Apple developers in a second-class position. Apple had to backtrack with its hastily constructed App Store.

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