iPhone and iPad

Windows vs iPhone vs BlackBerry vs Palm vs ...

December 1, 2008 by Marc

Which mobile platform is the best? It’s a war that rages on and on. Vocal supporters of every desktop and mobile platform mount vigorous assaults in defense of their favored system. And yet, I think that’s not the right approach.

Read on after the jump for my take on the debate about “Which Device is the Best?”

This is the first of a series of posts designed to answer a long list of questions folks asked in my last blog post. I started to write it as one post but the thing got so dang long it was getting silly. If I don’t answer your question or address your favored topic today, don’t worry…I’ll get to it over the next couple of days!

Windows VS iPhone VS BlackBerry VS Palm

There is a reason we support a lot of platforms - they all have their advantages. Sure, from the manufacturer’s points of view the platforms are going head to head, but for the consumer we should be asking a different question altogether. I want to start by making a few comments on the big platforms we support.

Windows Mobile: I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the power of Windows Mobile. It gives me so much freedom that other platforms don’t. Every time I go to a Microsoft event I literally beg them to market the platform better. It is such an excellent solution for so many people, and most of them don’t even know about it!

iPhone: I LOVE my iPhone. I’ve never found a device that was so simple to use. It is limiting in many ways, but it does what it does simply, elegantly, and in a way that is entirely intuitive. Plus, what iPhone has done for mobile software is beyond anything any other platform has done. Look at the latest ad copy for the iPhone - it is ALL about 3rd party software. Bravo!

BlackBerry: I don’t use BlackBerry regularly but the clear focus of this device is beautiful. My friends who use these devices love the hard and fast stability of this platform. And like the iPhone, it knows what it is supposed to do and does it well.

Palm: And Palm? Look, Palm isn’t my favorite platform - I’ll admit - but the bloody OS is still around with no upgrades for YEARS. You can’t argue with that sort of success. It’s a platform that is everything a lot of folks could possibly want. Smooth. Simple. Stable. Straightforward. This is a design that has stood the test of time. I really do hope Palm pulls it out of the fire over the next couple of years because they’ve got a good thing that deserves saving.

It’s the same with desktop platforms. Each has its advantages.

In the end, I don’t think it makes any sense to argue over “the best” operating system. The real question is what is “the best operating system FOR YOU.” We each have our needs and the beauty of the current mobile market is that there is something out there for everyone.

The Software Developer Point of View

As a product manager, it isn’t important to me which platform is “the best”. Each has a role to play in the market and people for whom it is the best option. What really matters to me as Product Manager, is whether or not the platform will sell enough software to provide us with a strong, steady profit over the long term without eating development time we need for a more profitable platform.

Yep, it’s an ugly way of looking at things but if we’re going to support ANY platforms we have to make choices that keep us in business. It doesn’t matter how much we love a particular platform or how passionate a group of people are about their platform. It isn’t a judgement about the quality of the platform - it’s simply a question of making good business decisions so that ten years from now we’re still out there keeping your important information secure.

Coming Tomorrow…

• eWallet for Mac Update (YES! We ARE making it.)
• Release Dates

Does iPhone User = Mac User?

November 25, 2008 by Marc

There is a perception out there that iPhone users are Mac users. Now before I say more, let me make it clear right now that this is NOT a “Which OS is best?” article. From a business perspective, the quality of the OS doesn’t matter to me as much as how many users of a particular OS are out there, and whether they will buy our software. I PREFER a high-quality OS because of the cool stuff we can do with it, but in the end its about which OS will pay the bills.

O.K., Disclaimer complete!

I’m still looking for a solid study on this, but from everything I’ve seen so far (based largely on our own sales information) it just isn’t true that iPhone User = Mac User. I think part of the reason for this is that according to one estimate, the total number of Mac users in the world (adjusting for recent increases in market share) is around 22,750,000. This doesn’t adjust down for the number of these Macs that are sitting on desks in computer labs of schools. So the number is probably lower. We’ll go with it though.

The total number of iPhones expected to be sold by end of this year is at least 14,000,000. This doesn’t account for the fact that a lot of the 3G sales were 1st gen users replacing their old phones. Still, like the 22m number, we’ll go with it.

So, what is a reasonable estimate for the number of Mac users who are buying iPhones? 20%? I’m betting this is high, based on what I know about smartphone ownership in general, but let’s go with this as a conservative number. I say conservative because 20% is 2 to 3 times the marketshare (depending on the estimate you use) of Mac in the computing market. So with 20% adoption rate I’m suggesting that Mac users are 3X more likely to buy an iPhone than a Windows user.

So, even at 20% adoption rate among Mac owners, this means that only 4.5 million of the 14 million iPhone users have Macs. That means that twice as many iPhone users have PCs. Throw in the fact that we also have a VERY big Windows Mobile market, and you can see why Windows has to be our first priority. To put it simply, Windows iPhone users are (at the moment) still where the money is.

At the same time, we absolutely see the value of Mac as a platform for our products. (I just saw a new build of eWallet for Mac the other day and it’s really coming along.) The reality though is that Mac isn’t a “core” platform yet. It falls into the “emerging” category. Of course as you all know, we don’t ignore emerging markets. Where you go, we go. It’s just that most folks aren’t there yet.

I hope that this article will help folks who say “Seriously, dude. Why on Earth do you have an iPhone version but no Mac version?” to better understand the numbers behind our decision making process.

Nice Kings Corners review

November 20, 2008 by Marc

I just wanted to share a great Kings Corners review from Doug over at JAMM. He really captures what is fun about the game and as always, does a very thorough review of the app. I especially like his “just one more try” comment, since I can’t even tell you how many times I’ve said that! I also really like his timer idea. Playing in a speed mode would be very fun. After playing hundreds of games, I put a lot of thought into my moves now and a timer would add a cool element of excitement. (Puttin’ that one on my list. :) )

You can check out the entire review here.

Hey, Apple. Where's the "Gift This App" button?

November 13, 2008 by Marc

If there is one thing that is missing from the AppStore, it’s a “Gift This App” button. Don’t get me wrong. Depsite a few hiccups early on, overall we’re quite happy with the whole AppStore experience. It’s just that we’d love a way to buy promo copies of our software for people. And then there are reviewers. We know about Ad Hoc, but splitting 100 Ad Hoc licenses between in-house devices, beta testers, and reviewers just isn’t enough. We’ll pay full price for our software - we just want it to be free for the other person.

As I mentioned, this is a problem for promotions. It’s an even bigger problem for reviewers, though. Read on after the jump to see why…

Review Copies vs Bribes

There has always been this fine line a company has to walk when providing promotional copies of a product for review purposes. You don’t want the public to feel like you’re paying off a reviewer for checking out your product. The problem is that asking a reviewer (most of whom are hobbyists these days) to cough up the dough to buy every app they review isn’t realistic. Even $.99 apps get expensive when you buy enough of them. They can’t do it, and reviews are an important part of how customers choose products.

Although people have always been slightly uncomfortable with this system, in the end the public appreciates the reviews so they accept the system we’ve come up with. A reviewer contacts us with a request to review the application, and we provide them with a copy.

The Broken System

Unfortunately, Apple’s AppStore broke this review system. There really isn’t a way to easily get iPhone products out to a reviewer. Ad Hoc is an option, but as I mentioned above, you are limited in the number of licenses you can distribute (and it’s pretty clunky). The licenses you do get have to cover all your in-house devices (including QA devices), all your beta testers, and every reviewer we want to look at the application (plus my Mom ;) ).

The only solution we’ve come up with so far is to reimburse reviewers with iTunes credit. We really don’t like this. Giving someone a copy of your product is one thing, but handing a reviewer money just makes us uncomfortable. What is more, you can’t give less than $9.99. So, what happens when we want to give someone a $4.99 app, or a $.99 app? Do we give them $9.99? Do we paypal them the money? We haven’t had to deal with this yet, but we will in the future.

The Simple Solution: Gift This App

The good news is that a solution already exists! In the other iTunes stores you can select “Gift This Music” or “Gift This TV Show”. The bad news is that it isn’t turned on for Applications!

So, Apple! If you’re listening, please turn on Gift This App! We want to buy even more software and give you even more money! At the same time, you’ll be helping us solve one of the few problems we have with the AppStore.

eWallet at the Apple Stores

October 1, 2008 by Marc

Although you still have to buy eWallet for iPhone through the iTunes AppStore, if you visit your favorite brick and mortar Apple Store you just might spot eWallet there! The Apple Stores revealed a new window display this month that includes a display of 54 application icons. For your viewing pleasure I’ve included a picture of one of these displays below*. Sure enough, if you check out the right hand column, there’s the eWallet icon! With thousands of applications to choose from, it’s a real honor that they chose to include us in the display!

And credit where credit is due - I discovered this while checking out a cool site called The iPhone Savior. Definitely worth checking out!

*Picture credit: Kitetoa via FLICKR - Thanks Kitetoa!

eWallet 6.1.3

September 24, 2008 by Marc

Hey, everyone! We just released a new version of eWallet for Windows PC. Based on some of the great feedback we got from iPhone customers, we were able to make a couple of tweaks that should help to avoid some of the iPhone sync problems some people have seen.

We’ve sent this version to many users now and it does seem to help with the following issues:

• Some cases where it can’t find the iPhone.
• The problem where it can’t find the wallet on the phone and tries to create a new one there very time.

So, if you’re running into either of these issues, give this new version a try. Just install it over the old desktop version and it will auto-register. You can download it here. And this way, if you’re still having trouble, it will let us eliminate a variety of problems.

We don’t plan a mass email about this. The reason is that while the problems are insanely annoying to the folks that see them, the iPhone sync issues are really quite rare. We hate to have people go through an update process when there is really no advantage for them in doing so. Not only that, but even “there is a new version” emails feel like SPAM to many folks. Despite the fact that lots of people like to get these, even more don’t like to get them. Even opting-in to get the notifications, people still view corporate email negatively.

So there you go - your ‘insight into the mind of an Ilium Software product manager’ for the day! And for those of you with sync issues, hopefully this will solve some problems!

UPDATE: I forgot to mention that we’re also working on a minor iPhone side update that resolves the ‘invisible keyboard’ issue some people have run into with the 2.1 iPhone update. While we aren’t entirely sure what Apple changed that resulted in this problem, we did manage to fix it! Probably a week or two and it will be out.