- Posts tagged App Store
- Explore App Store on posterous
Then why does the rest of the article even matter?
Apple’s superior monetization policies attracted good developers within its ranks, thus creating a better catalog of apps and customer experience.
Good developers? Check
Better catalog? Check
Better customer experience? Check.
Um, what is Android happy about again?
HP's TouchPad media player, HP Play, is in beta
Based on the open source Songbird software, it has more than a passing resemblance to iTunes. Still, why not use a successful layout, and I like the look.
The article's headline is way too ambitious, though. "Who Needs iTunes?" Well, anyone who wants a store, or movies, or TV shows, or AirPlay, or books, or apps, or Genius…
The "App Store" Debate
With Apple trademarking the term "App Store," and Microsoft fighting that trademark, and Apple now suing Amazon over use of the term, I'd like to weigh in with a few thoughts on it.
First and foremost, to think the term is too generic and obvious is to ignore that the term was not in use until Apple came up with it. People who believe all such sites should "obviously" be called app stores have bad memories. No one ever did until Apple's became, by far, the most successful.
Second, there have been a number of places where people could purchase mobile software. RIM, Verizon, Microsoft and many others have had this capability for years. Yet not one of them called it the App Store, so clearly the name isn't as obvious as everyone seems to think in hindsight.
Finally, even the term "app" was not in widespread use until the App Store. People thinking otherwise again have bad memories. Steve Jobs has used the term for over 20 years, but there were few others. Most everyone else used "application."
In short, other companies attempting to use the term are simply trying to horn in on Apple's success. This is so obvious I'm surprised it generates any debate. A term no one had heard of until a few years ago is suddenly the one all Apple competitors swear they were going to use, even though none of them ever had? People are buying this? Please.
Apple's 30% cut is outrageous, yet when Amazon took twice that no one cared
The new 70% royalty more than doubles what Amazon currently pays in royalties. The increase was widely seen as Amazon.com's attempt to pre-empt the impact of Apple's entry into the e-book market
When rumors of Apple's typical 30/70 split (Apple/publisher) for an eBook store became too realistic to ignore, Amazon moved quickly to match the terms (though they didn't quite do so, putting a few conditions in place).
Until then Amazon had been taking up to 70% and no one questioned it or cared. Yet when Apple announced they'd soon begin taking 30%—their standard cut—of another category of item sold in the App Store everyone flipped out.
On the face of it, it's hard to believe those claiming outrage aren't primarily motivated by the fact that this is Apple, and any Apple headline is "news." Let's face it, "Amazon's 70% Cut is Evil and Publishers Will Perish" is an article few would have read.
Back to the Mac: Thoughts, Observations and Questions
My comments on the various announcements at Apple's recent Special Event.
iPhoto 11
Apple continued their efforts to make iLife powerful while still being easy to use. iPhoto is my most-used iLife app, and the new full screen mode looks sweet. Now that I can live in full screen mode, I will.
I didn't like that Facebook and Flickr sharing seemed one-way streets, so the ability to grab and display all your albums even if you didn't use iPhoto to put them there is huge for me. I will use iPhoto much more with Flickr as a result.
I've put together books with iPhoto and enjoyed the process, but today's demo makes it look so much easier than before (and it was already easy). It looks very well done.
My only disappointment is that no editing tools were discussed, and I didn't get a good shot of the editor. The last couple of releases of iPhoto have borrowed tools from Aperture—such as the gamma level control and not saturating skin tones—and I hope this new one does as well. I realize I don't need Aperture power (I stopped at Aperture 2), but that doesn't mean I should only have basics.
iMovie 11
The additions of face recognition and enhanced audio editing to iMovie are big.
Meanwhile, I'm sure many will deride the trailers feature but I think it's beautiful. No, it isn't about creating a 30-second trailer for your 5-minute movie. What the detractors don't seem to get is that for many people the trailer will be the movie. Outside of the geek community most people's jaws will drop when you show them a trailer of the ball game or vacation trip or outing you all had last month.
Garageband 11
I'm all thumbs when it comes to music so I don't use Garageband much, but even I know how cool groove track can be. A great idea, and typical of Apple. I also think the visual feedback when playing was an interesting addition. I wonder how much improvement it could make to plying in the real world.
iWeb and iDVD
It's safe to say these weren't updated at all since they don't even have a spot on the iLife section of the web site. The good news is that for those still creating DVDs they get at least one more iLife cycle (18 months or more) of iDVD support.
iWork 11
Psyche! There was no iWork 11 announcement today. I'm disappointed by this, and anxious for when we'll see the latest version of the suite. Maybe when the App Store opens?
Mac App Store
I love this, and don't get all the paranoia and complaining I've seen.
This is not the only way to get apps on the Mac. It's silly to think Apple's out to kill the 25-year old methodology for getting apps on a Mac. But they are out to come up with something better. I believe the App Store will be it. I love the easy way to find and purchase apps, and to update them afterwards. Further, I don't think of the App Store as installing apps for me, I think of it more as apps that don't need installing. That's what the vast majority of users will think, too.
Mac OS X Lion
Too early to comment much. I mean, we got a really, really small sneak peak. I think it's the smallest sneak peak of a new OS X release we've ever seen. I tend to think this had less to do with what's available, and more to do with this not being a developer event and Apple wanting to focus on what could be bought now.
Still, I already love Launchpad (I really like the iOS paradigm of launching apps) and also Mission Control since I use both Exposé and Spaces heavily.
MacBook Air
I love these, and it's nice to see them transition to full unibody models.
The 11" model is tempting. I'm sure some will claim Apple has finally built a netbook, but that's nonsense. This isn't some Atom-powered cheap plastic piece of crap. Even at the minimum 1.4GHz it's an Intel Core 2 Duo w/ 800MHz bus and 3MB shared cache. It has a full size keyboard. The Nvidia 320M graphics with 1366 x 768 resolution will be gorgeous and fast. On top of this add flash storage (2x faster than a HDD) and there's no netbook that can touch it. This is a laptop, people, albeit a small and beautiful one.
The 13" model offers great improvements over the 11" besides the physically larger screen. The resolution is 1440 x 900, the largest for a 13" MacBook ever. Higher CPU speeds, front-side bus is 1066MHz and the shared cache is 6MB. And there's an SD card slot and 2 more hours of battery life as well.
Regarding battery life, I'm anxious for more to come out on Apple's new battery tests. Interesting to see if they really do show "real world" performance. I'll keep an eye out for battery comments when the reviews hit the usual sites.
Android or iPhone: Where is the Mobile Developer Money?
Android has more developers, yet its percentage of paid apps is much smaller than the iPhone platform. Why is that?
One might think the "open" nature of Android attracts a larger base of developers willing to contribute for nothing, but the fact is it's hard to sell apps on Android. You can only pay for apps in 13 countries, and you can only sell priced apps from nine countries. This is nuts compared to the iPhone's 90 countries, and just another Android "dirty little secret." Take heart, though, you can always sign a petition to make it better.
I know it doesn't have to be about money. Many people do labors of love for "free." Maybe it's a learning experience, a way to unwind, or a sense of community or connecting with people. These could all be valid payments for your work. Not wanting monetary compensation is a personal choice that can't be judged. Indeed, though I buy a lot of apps I appreciate "free" software as much as anybody.
Having said that, if money's what you're looking for the iPhone platform is clearly where you want to be in mobile development.
iPad Rollout In Education Encounters DRM Hell
This is a hole in Apple's App Store infrastructure that the massive interest in iPads for education is exposing, in a way that the iPhone and iPod touch never did.
Good article on a major obstacle for rolling out iPads in the education market.
Thoughts On Today's Ruling About "Legal" iPhone Jailbreaking [u]
First, Jailbreaking was never really illegal. If legality is what kept anyone from doing it I think they were misinformed. It was a gray area awaiting a ruling either way; Apple wanted the court to settle the question as to whether jailbreaking violated copyright, and they did, though not in Apple's way.
There is zero evidence to support Apple would have gone after individual jailbreakers (had the ruling gone the other way), any more than they go after one-off Hackintoshers.
I believe Apple wanted the shield of illegality not to go after geeks, hobbyists, etc., but rather to stop the unscrupulous who may now crawl out of the woodwork to make a quick buck on this.
I can practically see "Jailbreak Kits" for sale already. Their marketing copy gushing about how this once forbidden activity is now available to the general public. They'll publish a link to the Library of Congress statement that few will read and fewer will understand. They sure as heck won't dwell on the practice being unsupported, or that the next iOS release will likely kill it. Money in hand, they're off to the next sucker leaving their current "customers" yelling at Apple as if it's Apple's fault.
Finally, Apple will continue to "break" jailbreaks. Not only does the statement not mean Apple must allow the activity, but I believe every jailbreak so far relies on a security exploit. Of course Apple's going to plug that hole. They better.
[UPDATE:] See this excellent post for more information what today's copyright ruling really says.
