So you all do a lot more reading than I’d have thought. I really thought people skimmed descriptions, looked at screenshots, and pretty much ignored reviews.
I was wrong.
For the question about what you look at when evaluating apps, screenshots and descriptions got the highest score, but reviews were very close behind, and even other apps scored between “sometimes” and “usually”.
But in answer to how carefully you read the descriptions, almost 70% said you read them completely, with only about 27% choosing “just skim”. I’ll admit it - I’m a skimmer.
And most people read reviews. Over half read enough to get a good consensus, another quarter read or skim a few. Only 11% just glance at the average (read later this week for info on why the averages don’t seem to be accurate), though only about 6% read a lot of reviews.
Again, more results, plus the prizes, soon! And the survey’s still open so jump in if you’re interested.
The Advisory Board is back! For those of you new to the blog, the “Advisory Board” is you! Here at Ilium Software we’re extremely interested in what folks have to say about our products. We take the advice we receive to heart and it plays a major role in deciding what to do in new versions of our applications.
So, let’s get to the assignment! Read on after the jump!
Advisory Board Assignment #2
As most people know, Windows Mobile is a big deal for us. We love the platform and love writing software for it. Even with the excitement that the iPhone has whipped up, we still love Windows Mobile. And with WM 6.5 just around the corner we are really geeked about the future of the platform.
What I’d like to hear from you is what YOU want to see us do for Windows Mobile in the coming year. Examples of the sort of ideas we are looking for include:
Ideas for improving eWallet and ListPro.
Old products that you’d like to see us spruce up or bring back.
New products you’d like to see .
Stuff you want us to avoid!
Don’t hold back on this. No idea is too big or too small. We want to hear them all. And let us know what is the most important to you. New features? New products? Updated appearance? And what is the one thing you can’t live without?
Considering how fantastic the replies were in the first advisory board assignment, I’m extremely excited to see the results here. Thanks everyone!
Although iPhone, Windows Mobile, and BlackBerry get the most attention around here lately, we keep a close watch on the other mobile platforms. Personally, I think this is an exceptionally exciting time for our industry. The smartphone (which frankly is just an old school PDA with a phone built in) has really come into its own. People really care about these devices, and more and more people feel like they have to have one!
As an example of how much a part of the public conciousness these devices have become, I offer up the latest “cardboard drink cozies” from Starbucks - you know, those little cardboard sleeves that keep you from burning the skin off your hand when you get your drink. Their most recent sleeve has the following statement on it:
The only handheld device you’ll ever need.
This might not seem like a big deal to most folks, but to me it’s huge. Three, even two years ago, when people asked me what I did I’d say “We write software for handheld devices.” The answer was invariably “For handheld what?” Most people didn’t know what the heck a “handheld device” was. But just a few years later, the term is so common place that Starbucks can use it without explanation.
With my long winded intro complete, I’m going to take a few minutes today to talk about these other platforms and share my opinions of them. If you’re interested, read on after the jump!
Palm Is Dead, Long Live Palm!
I’ll start with Palm since they’re getting a lot of press lately. Obviously Palm OS has struggled for the past couple of years. As someone so aptly pointed out on another blog, when Palm announced that they were discounting the OS, they didn’t kill Palm OS - they unplugged the life support. What does that mean for Ilium Software? Well, it probably means you aren’t going to see new versions of our software for Palm OS. Most Palm OS folks have either jumped to the iPhone or are planning to jump to the Pre. As a result, it’ll be a tough case to sell to my bosses that investing in Palm OS makes sense. Whatever we decide, we’ll still sell our Palm OS titles. The Centro is doing pretty well and we don’t want to leave folks hanging.
As for the Pre, I have high hopes for it. Assuming it does well and turns out to be a strong platform for software, there is a good chance we’ll support it. The biggest challenge right now is that there is SO little solid information about it. That might change with the webcast we’re attending this afternoon, but if it doesn’t we’ll be about where we were - a “wait and see and hope for a winner!” stance. Go Palm! In the meantime, when the eWallet Web Companion goes live it may prove a good solution for the Pre.
Android
I love the idea of the Android. Unfortunately, the reality has been a much smaller splash in the market than I would have hoped for. I also have concerns about some of the decisions Google has made on this one. My first concern is their store - I’m all for developer freedom, but apparently I’m the ONLY person in the world who remembers PalmGear. At one point PalmGear had tens of thousands of applications. It was an ocean of apps. You’d do a search and come up with a couple hundred results. Trying to find an app among the clutter of “basement workshop freebies” was nearly impossible. PalmGear fixed this eventually, but if the iTunes AppStore is already looking a little like this with all their restrictions, imagine a store where you remove the floodgates.
My second concern is the openness of the OS. First, OEMs can tweak the OS. That’s pretty cool for the OEM but nightmarish for developers. At Palm’s height they offered similar customization options to OEMs. We had around a dozen Palm devices and had to test every app fully on every device. We also had to buy new devices all the time. And no, emulators don’t help - they never behave exactly like the device. We were constantly fixing “device specific” bugs.
Third, as I understand it, it is relatively easy for an application to muck about with various aspects of the OS and other apps. At one point, on Pocket PC, there were some exceptionally useful applications that I call “interface altering apps”. A popular one was WisBar. Although useful, these apps fundamentally changed the way the controls on the device worked. If they didn’t make the changes properly, software written to work on the OS would run into problems when these apps altered the standard OS behavior. We were constantly explaining “No, our app is working - but your other software changed the device - our software is written for Windows Mobile, not for Windows Mobile Customized by WisBar.” I’m very concerned that Android is a breeding ground for this sort of thing and there is some evidence that this is already happening.
So like the Pre, we’re still in a wait and see mode. Also like the Pre, there is a strong chance that the eWallet Web Companion will serve as a good solution for the Android.
Symbian
I figured I would mention Symbian since we still get asked about it sometimes. The problem with Symbian is that historically, Symbian users don’t actually buy software. That’s kind of a huge show stopper for us. Again, the Web Companion does work on Symbian so for those folks who HAVE to switch over to this platform, hopefully we can give them a viable solution.
So there you have it!
More of my opinions on mobile devices than you probably wanted! Hopefully it will help folks to better understand where we stand on the different platforms, and what to expect in the future!
First, a few disclaimers. I doubt this is really a representative group. Or a big enough group to make the responses statistically believeable. My questions weren’t written or organized in such a way that we probably got the best information. You’re welcome to use the information, but it’s at your own risk.
So, with that out of the way, here are some results. I’m going to split these up over a few days, so any given post isn’t too long.
Starting with what was most interesting - and surprising - to me: how you find apps. From the 200+ people who responded:
85% said yes, you do l ook outside iTunes to find, or find out about, available apps. Only about 12% said no to that one. (Click on the graphs to see the bigger versions.)
On the question of how you find new apps, the response was very spread out (and yes, people were allowed to pick more than one option). But the most popular answer - from websites outside iTunes - got under 20%. Ads got least votes: just about 1%. Don’t tell Apple; I love seeing the App Store ads on TV, even though they don’t feature our stuff (I’d go through the ceiling if they did). Power Search, the second lowest response, got just over 3%. Here are the details:
The “other” responses included magazines, RSS feeds, specific site names, and “It’s so un-organized you cant find apps!”. It’s true. I’m hoping to write more about finding apps in the store soon.
And finally (in the Find apps questions), when asked whether you ever go to an app developer’s site, over 87% of you said yes! Only 10% said no. OK, time to work on our site.
I’ll write about what the rest of the answers were later in the week, as well as some commentary and of course the prize giveaways. Meanwhile, the survey is still open, so if you haven’t taken it yet, please do! This is really an eye-opener for me. And I’m happy to keep posting results, and giving away prizes, as long as more people respond.
And, before I forget, many thanks to everyone who participated, and who posted about the survey.
Of course my news wouldn’t be complete without some updates on Windows Mobile! Due to some top secret stuff that’s underway I’m afraid that in this area I’m going to be a bit cagier than on other topics. In a nutshell, however, we do have some very cool plans for both Windows desktop and Windows Mobile.
I will say that I’m SUPER excited about Windows Mobile 6.5. Not only are the UI updates very cool, but for the past decade we’ve been begging Microsoft to take applications more seriously. With this new version of the OS they really are. I think the changes are going to be an enormous benefit to users and an equally big benefit to developers.
In fact, that’s one thing the folks at Microsoft have always been quite good about - communicating with us. Sure, every company has their moments, but overall Microsoft does a really good job of providing a good back and forth when we have questions. To see them putting such an emphasis on their Windows Mobile stuff again is really wonderful.
COMING MONDAY:
Advisory Board Assignment #2: Windows Mobile Ideas
Update from the Front Lines: Palm, Andriod, and Other Platforms
Next up on the news extravaganza is ListPro for iPhone. I know a lot of people are eagerly awaiting this one so I want to make sure to fill you all in as to what is happening, especially since we got so much incredible advice from the advisory board.
So if you’re one of those people who can’t wait to use ListPro on their iPhone, this post is for you. Read on after the jump!
ListPro for iPhone
This is another product that I’m very excited about. I just got a pre-alpha build and I can read (in a rough way) all my favorite lists on the iPhone now! Woo hoo! Originally, we had hired a contractor so that we could release ListPro for iPhone in August of last year. That didn’t work out. After some delays we ended up moving the project back in-house and had to completely reassess how to handle it (remember my blog posts about this?)
Based in large part on the response from you guys in the Advisory Board discussion, we’ve got a NEW, new plan for ListPro and I am very excited about it. I really think you guys are going to like it when it is finally complete. I really can’t say too much about it - when we do that people tend to make notes and run out and copy it - but I WILL say that it won’t be a reader-only app. Now exactly what it WILL do will have to remain a secret for now, but all your existing ListPro lists will work on it.
Timetable for this? Again, I’m thinking Q2-Q3 of this year. It could be soone,r but the desktop side needs some attention as well so I don’t want to underestimate that task. As a result I’m afraid I can’t get much more accurate than this yet.
Today I’m writing about the questions that asked how you evaluate apps. And yes, I’m still surprised.
The Advisory Board is back! For those of you new to the blog, the “Advisory Board” is you! Here at Ilium Software we’re extremely interested in what folks have to say about our products. We take the advice we receive to heart and it plays a major role in deciding what to do in new versions of our applications.
Although iPhone, Windows Mobile, and BlackBerry get the most attention around here lately, we keep a close watch on the other mobile platforms. Personally, I think this is an exceptionally exciting time for our industry. The smartphone (which frankly is just an old school PDA with a phone built in) has really come into its own. People really care about these devices, and more and more people feel like they have to have one!
Next up on the news extravaganza is ListPro for iPhone. I know a lot of people are eagerly awaiting this one so I want to make sure to fill you all in as to what is happening, especially since we got so much incredible advice from the advisory board.