Most people don't actually know what they want - What makes Apple stuff great is that it works how you want without you even knowing it. A recent article mentioned that Jobs' mantra is a famous quote from Henry Ford: "If I'd asked my customers what they wanted, they'd have said a faster horse." I don't necessarily agree with Apple's stance on Google Voice and some other app rejections but they usually do the right thing for their customers, even if they loose a few in the process. Now if they'd just do something about all these app-spammers I'd be happy...
That isn't the point though. Those who don't know what they want would be perfectly happy sticking with what they get. The point is to allow those customers who do know what they want the option of having it. It's great to have a solid foundation that most people are satisfied with and works the way they want it to; I too think that one of Apple's strengths is their ability to build a user experience that does things intuitively and in a way the user is comfortable with from the start -- for the most part anyway; for people like me who is used to the Windows experience, some of it can be pretty unintuitive and inscrutable. However, such an experience should be extensible and malleable at the hands of user who want more than what the stock experience offers. There may be fewer of us "power users" than average users who are fine with what's already there, but that doesn't mean we don't represent a statistically significant portion of the market. Besides, most people may not know what they want -- but if you show them some possibilities and let them decide, they're much more likely to make their own experience than if you just don't offer the possibilities and tell people there are no other options.
Every single person that has jailbroke their device to run background processes. They certainly know what they want, but they're just asking for pain... I'm not trying to be a dick here, but the fact is people in general (myself included) rely on smarter people to come up with the stuff we want. A little over 2 years ago no one had or cared about iPhones, and now people bitch when they discover they can't change the unlock sound? It's frivolous stupidity. Apple is really protective of "user experience" - it defines their products - and they want to have one unlock sound and one way to make a phone call - that's consistent, good user experience. This doesn't mean they don't see the value in Google Voice or Skype or any other VOIP service. If you read between the lines it seems that they might want to integrate VOIP services into their phone app, rather than end up with ten ways to make a phone call and provide a poor user experience.
Wow....excellent debate mindfield and frank. The eloquence of said responses is refreshing to say the least. Thanks for the read guys
To a degree, yes, but this is largely because Cydia jacks some core files and replaces them with some of its own for an ostensibly more stable experience -- though my experience has been a little different. Moreover those with iPod Touches or first/second-gen iPhones have limited RAM, and jailbreaking just leaves them with even less, thus a degraded experience. 3GS users on the other hand have twice the RAM, a slightly faster clock speed and a much beefier video chipset, and so there's more room to dick around with the UI without effecting performance significantly. I'll be the first to admit that when I ran jailbroken I eschewed the special features of Winterboard and and other background apps because I didn't want to kill my performance. I haven't jailbroken my 3GS yet (and may not ever) but if I did I'd feel a lot more comfortable messing around with it a bit. The iPhone is made almost entirely out of frivolous stupidity. If nobody wanted it we'd all still be using old Nokia 3310s and we'd like it, dammit -- and get that damned snake thing off it! Useless nonsense! But we're not happy with that. We want frivolous stupidity. The more frivolous and shiny and ooh-inducing, the better. That is almost entirely why the iPhone even exists and why every other OEM is scrambling to trick the hell out of their own UIs. We want bling. We want to show off. We want to stuff our iPhones in people's faces and say, "Look at that, isn't that the coolest thing ever?" Phones have long moved past being utilitarian devices for making and receiving phone calls. They have become ubiquitous fashion statements and the objects of loyalists defending a chosen platform not unlike computers and game consoles. Choice is bragging rights. Choice is "My [thing] can do this, can yours? No? Well you suck." Tricking out your phone's UI is no different than putting on fashionable clothes or driving a nice car these days, and at some point the iPhone is going to fall behind the fashion curve with its staid UI and inability to let people change it. Who's to say it's a poor user experience? Apple is not the user. The user is the user, and only the user can decide what a good experience is to them because it is a completely subjective concept. My point, again, is not to replace the UI. My point is that those who are happy with it the way it is are more than welcome to keep it the way it is -- but those who want something more, or even just different, should be able to make their own user experience. What people want, or even whether they know what they want or not, is irrelevant. It's about options, and if you start with a core experience that is already very good, like the iPhone, then offering choice can only make it better for those who want to do so.
Welcome. I like debating. Largely because I'm an opinionated prick. Did I miss something unintentionally funny?
Buy my apps (no seriously, buy them - my trend reports are depressing ). Keep in mind I'm the kind of person that sighs and shakes his head every time I see a nice car with a huge-assed aftermarket wing hanging off the back or rims so big yer left with a half inch of rubber. I have the same reaction when looking at Jailbroken UI mods - for the most part, their frigg'n horrid. But, if you want to hot-glue rhinestones to your iPhone please be my guest Ahhh - the sticky bit. This is where you have to trust that someone (or a whole company of someones) is actually smarter than you are. I know Apple isn't infallible, but I've been using their stuff since the 80's and I trust that they know what they're doing. And until someone smarter tells me what I like better I'll keep using their stuff! Alright, I think we're just rehashing at this point and we've gone way off the thread's topic. It's obvious we don't agree on certain things and that's fine. I'm glad some folks enjoyed the show Cheers. (P.S. Buy my apps!)
Really? I thought Pinch 'n Pop was kind of clever and nicely presented -- and physics is never unwelcome. Flux is cool and well done but it needs more "stuff." You can never have enough stuff. Oh, don't get me wrong. Most of the kids today can get right the hell off my damn lawn, and most of the jailbroken mods are kind of cool but pointless wastes of resources, so we both are trodding the same path to curmudgeon city. Still, that doesn't mean I wouldn't mind changing the UI up to some slick looking theme once in a while; the standard iPhone UI gets dull after a while, so a little spice can liven things up a little. Not overly blingy mind you, just something smart and stylish and tastefully understated. If I see anyone with rhinestones on their phone I'll have to suppress a powerful urge to toss in the nearest river and put it out of its misery. Point being though that the option to do that doesn't exist through legitimate channels and is part of the reason jailbreaking still exists. (The other, much more significant part is unfortunately piracy, but that's a whole other topic.) That's what sticks in my craw though. I don't want a company telling me they know what's best for me. That's condescending in the most charitable light. I'm a big boy now (though my wife may beg to differ on occasion) so I'd kind of like to be able to decide what to do with my phone. The iPhone is one of only two smartphones on the market you can't customize to a significant degree. The other being the crackberry, whch I can understand given its once exclusively business demographic, but since I'm seeing lots more teenaged trendwhores jumping on that bandwagon to keep up with E-Mails from their BFFs it's probably only a matter of time before you can bling those out, too. WinMo, Palm (pre-Pre ... pre... uh...) and Symbian can all be kitted out with alternate UIs and skins, and many have been by default. Never hurt them any -- though granted they're pretty long in the tooth now anyway. So we can agree to disagree. But we'll still be firing muzzle-loaded shotguns filled with rock salt at brassy teens who have the gall to trod on our property before long.
It did well for the first few months but lately it's been averaging downloads per day in the high 4's worldwide. Then yesterday, inexplicably, it was shoved onto the "what's hot" list in a few countries in the "Rest of World" region and managed a little over 30 downloads. Just when I thought I had no clue how the appstore works, I discover that I have less than no clue - it certainly wasn't "hot" in any of those countries two days ago! But I can't complain, maybe someone at Apple heard me whining and took pity If you read my blog you'll find Flux was basically a marketing experiment and an attempt to make use of some otherwise wasted R&D. It was free for a month, but wasn't getting much attention so I put it at 99 cents for a while (again, experimenting). It'll likely be free again once my next game is released. If anyone wants a promo code in the meantime just send me a PM.
Heh -- it's impossible to suss what's going on in the minds of Apple, just as it is to nail down the market to any significant degree. Or any degree at all. The worst part is that a game that doesn't do well when released at one time might suddenly take off when released at another; it's all about how fickle or starved the market is for a particular type of game, and there's just no way to gauge what's going to get the word of mouth going. As I prepare to enter the market, I'm trying to keep one thing firmly in mind: Expect that the market will, quite deliberately, do nothing you've prepared for. I prefer to think of the market as a sentient gestalt. It makes me feel better when I cuss it out and tell it what little taste it has. That would make sense. No use letting idle assets loaf about if they could be at all interesting or useful in an experiment. Toys are never unwelcome either; back to that bling thing again, people love playing with stuff. I still enjoy Spawn.
