07 Mar 08

Thoughts on the iPhone 'App Store'

My co-worker Laura thinks that Apple’s insistence on approving all iPhone apps prior to distribution is a bad idea.

On reflection, I disagree; look at the benefits for Apple, for iPhone developers, and for iPhone users:

  • iPhone owners get a more stable platform.
  • Developers get a low-cost QA pass to weed out any high-priority bugs they’ve missed, before distribution.
  • Apple gets to weed out any poorly or maliciously designed iPhone apps that could break the platform.

  • iPhone owners get always-on access to the iPhone ‘App Store’, a centralized repository for iPhone apps (undoubtedly featuring Apple’s customary ease-use) literally in the palm of their hands.
  • iPhone devs get reliable 24/7 access to a huge and growing audience, only a twitchy little impulse away from purchase. That’s a positioning coup that any marketing person would kill for.
  • Apple gets a permanent revenue stream to pay for distribution costs plus profits.

The iPhone App Store is the Apple Store in the palm of your hand.

That’s the elevator pitch. Wanna bet the App Store concept shows up on the desktop next?

07 Mar 08

Blogospheronomics: Win Mobile, Blackberry, & iPhone

Note that each chart has its own vertical scale. I haven’t sorted out how to fully control Technorati charting. Click on any of the charts to see Technorati’s collection of relevant posts.

These three charts will display the past 30 days from the day you view this post, so bookmark it for future reference.

Technorati Chart

Technorati Chart

Technorati Chart

Get your own chart!

07 Mar 08

Initial Notes on the iPhone SDK

For calender Q4 ‘07, the iPhone (28%) was second only to the RIM Blackberry (41%). Palm and all the rest are in the weeds.

[Translation: Buy AAPL while it’s still cheap.] 

Full enterprise messaging and security features coming in the next update for all iPhones. 

[Translation: Go short on RIM.]

It’s unclear whether the same is true for iPod Touch, but the SDK covers the Touch as well.

[Translation: Go really short on RIM.] 

Apple has licensed use of the full MS Exchange API, and has built Exchange support into iPhone Mail, Calendar, and Address Book.

[Translation: We hate the Exchange client as much as you do.]

Your IT department can remotely wipe a lost iPhone to protect corporate secrets.

[Translation: You can get your boss to buy an iPhone for you, but you might want to buy another for personal use.]

The iPhone SDK is free to all Apple Developers after an additional registration step to become an iPhone dev. 

There are additional costs to distribute apps: $99 annual developer fee for access to the iPhone “App Store”.

[Translation: OK, OK, OKAY! We get it! Apps aren’t music and don’t belong in iTunes.]

Free apps are distributed for free. Apple takes a 30% cut on commercial apps. You pick the price and you get a monthly revenue check.

[Translation: Free is great, but somebody has to pay the bills.]

There’s a $299 annual developer fee for the ability to distribute proprietary apps for corporate in-house use. This buys a private download page on the App Store for enterprise employees.

[Translation: We plan to make at least $299 per year from our cut of the sales of each new iPhone app.]

The iPhone SDK includes an iPhone emulator.

[Translation: Want an iPhone? Sell some apps!]

iPhone Developer Program Details

Check out the details and see the keynote.

Tip: In the keynote video, jump ahead to 41 minutes in to see a truly great game.
06 Mar 08
Notional Slurry »There are exactly two ways: one, and many →

William Tozier has written a great little essay regarding the nature and implications of the term “delay”. Here’s a taste…

… One cannot see one pattern everywhere. You are not a generalist but a crackpot if you see everything as connected to your personal model of the world. When you cast everything as a nail to be struck by your One Important Hammer, you’re just falling back on another flavor of specialization. The world is diverse—more diverse than any single description or model—and the proper generalist cannot be parsimonious, cannot be efficient in trying to force the world to fit.

She can’t afford to. A generalist has no more time or attention than any other person. She doesn’t see the whole of the world all as being the same, as being proof of something.

She slices the world in a different direction. Along a different axis, a personal axis. …

Go read it. Then start rethinking your attention queue. 
05 Mar 08
Yahoo tries to buy time before proxy contest
03 Mar 08
America's Most Admired Companies 2008 → I’ve never much cared about popularity contests, but as I’m now in the ad biz, huzzah for the winners, for they shall receive market share.
03 Mar 08
Design Redux / Andy Rutledge → My buddy Josh made my lunch break happier by pointing me at Andy Rutledge’s Design Redux, wherein Andy analyzes and redesigns popular and/or notorious web sites. Excellent work!
03 Mar 08
Word of the Day: Earcon →

Continuing the strip-mining exploration of the Tactons Project haptics research website, I came across this wonderful word: EARCON:

[Wikipedia] An earcon is a brief, structured sound pattern used to represent a specific item or event but is not to be confused with an Auditory Icon. The term was coined in 1989. The earcon can be parameterized by specific attributes of the item or event. Although likely to be used in a computer/user interface, an example could also be a five-day weather forecast on a local news program where each day’s temperatures set the pitches in a five tone sequence. Earcons are generally not auditory caricatures of the signified, that is, they are abstract rhythmic / melodic patterns rather than everyday sounds.

See the Glasgow Interactive Systems Group’s Guidelines of the Creation of Earcons for background and implementation details.
29 Feb 08
Google’s logo for Leap Day ‘08. Google’s logo for Leap Day ‘08.

28 Feb 08
The best kind of hands-on, real-world user experience research.