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Are Apps Gimmicks?

H

H. Flower

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Do you guys find great use out of most of your apps?

I understand the potential is there in the future, but honestly, I utilize maybe 5 percent of all apps I've ever downloaded, and I could probably live without those.
 
Some of them are gimmicks, and some of them are useful. You just have to be wise and figure out which ones are worth your money.

To say that all apps are gimmicks is pretty silly of course.
 
H. Flower said:
Do you guys find great use out of most of your apps?

I understand the potential is there in the future, but honestly, I utilize maybe 5 percent of all apps I've ever downloaded, and I could probably live without those.
Click to expand...

I have some that I can't live without - Shazam, guitar apps, spanish tutorial apps, iGo to name a few 🙂
 
No. Depends on what you buy I guess.

In addition to games, news and other general apps, we also have purchased apps that are absolutely crucial for us; apps that manage our 3 year olds type 1 diabetes (from food carb counting to insulin dosing calculations to blood sugar data graphing). Those apps are life changing as they provide information at our finger tips at all times in all places.
 
Not all apps are gimmicks. Some are really useful. I find that reference apps (like a dictionary or factbook app) and education apps (language learning apps) are very useful.
 
H. Flower said:
I utilize maybe 5 percent of all apps I've ever downloaded, and I could probably live without those.
Click to expand...

This is probably true for me. But I look at this the opposite way. I spend a significant percentage of my time on my iPhone in apps -- probably half the time I am actively using my iPhone.
 
There are some I use all the time- productivity, navigation, weather, traffic, photo related to name a few. There are some that are great to have when I need/want to use them, for example, Astronomy, news/sports, reference. And there are some which are just plain fun to have even though I may not use them all that often- places to eat, radio, recipes, etc...
It just depends upon how you use your phone and what you like to do. But for the most part, I don't think of them as gimmicks. Instead, to me they are useful tools. I may not need an elaborate tool all of the time, but it's great to have it available when i want to use it!😉
 
If you are buying apps like the fart machine, and the dog whistle then yes they are gimmicks. Do your research. There are some great apps out there and some I use every single day!
 
Certain ones, yes, but there are quite a few that are really useful. I mainly use my phone for games and tweetdeck but then there are ones that give me' news and other important info. The only app I've paid for that I don't use anymore is a recording app which I don't necessarily need with the official iPhone voice recording app.
 
Mostly I find applications are good to have, but I don't use them all on a daily basis.

I love my Verizon DVR App, Netflix App, NY Times, IStockmanager, twitter, etc.....If you use your phone just for email, phone calls, PIM, and checking web sometimes than most apps are probably worthless. It just depends on what you use your phone for.
 
no way dude my iphone 4 mirror app becomes so useful in crucial situation it transforms my iphone screen into a reflective mirror
 
I have downloaded a LOT of apps, and most of them I delete within minutes. The others, I barely use. The iPhone comes pretty well equipped out of the box (unlike 1.0).

I use FaceBook and Twitter the most. I have some other apps on there but, I'm still waiting for a day that I need them.

Movies: Haven't need it *yet*
Brushes: It's neat, but I don't really have time to use it
Things: I usually just use notes to jot down things to do
Reader: I use it maybe once a day. I like reading Apple news.
Pandora: I used it once in my car when I was bored with my music
Where to: It looks cool, but I haven't used it for real yet.
Wikipanion: It might come in handy if I forget that I have Safari.

Apps are pretty gimmicky on the iPhone I think. The OP is right. Most of the apps I download are like "Meh, NEXT!". Then I delete them.
 
It really depends. Most apps get occasional use. Some however, are extremely useful.

Twitter: I use this a bunch.
Facebook: See above.
Chase Mobile Banking: Keep track of my personal finances.
Bank of America: Keep track of my business finances.
Flixster: I use this a ton for movie times or to find release dates.
iFitness: Plan all of my workouts and keep records.
AAA Roadside: I haven't had to use this yet (knock on wood), but I'm sure it will come in very good use.
Tipulator: Use it everytime I eat out at a restaurant.
Pulse: Everyday
Engadget: Everyday
ESPN Scorecenter: Go Chargers and Padres!
Joystiq/G4/Gamespot: Can't get enough gaming news.
Battle.net Authenticator and WoW Armory: World of Warcraft and Starcraft 2 addict. Nuff said.
Amazon.com: I buy more stuff from this app than sitting down at my computer.
Sparkrecipes/Epicurious: Use them multiple times a week and find some fantastic recipes.
Flickr: Upload all of my cool pics from my iPhone.
IMDb: I'm a filmgeek.
Yelp: Always looking for new places to eat.
Wordpress: Update my company site/blog.
Genius Scan: Scan all of my receipts. They're all saved in a gmail account. Take that IRS!

In the end. Yes there are gimmicks (gun apps, fart apps, iBeer, Lightsabers), but there is also some extremely useful stuff like I've listed above.awesome apps.
 
Amino Man said:
I use FaceBook and Twitter the most.
Click to expand...

I keep waiting for those two to merge. The new company will be called TwitFace.

I'm proud to say I've never tweeted (except after eating chili with lots of beans in it), and don't intend to start now 🙂

B
 
ButchVA said:
I keep waiting for those two to merge. The new company will be called TwitFace.

I'm proud to say I've never tweeted (except after eating chili with lots of beans in it), and don't intend to start now 🙂

B
Click to expand...
LOL same. There are some apps that will do simultaneous updates though. Tweetdeck and theres a new one called sobees i think.
 
ButchVA said:
I keep waiting for those two to merge. The new company will be called TwitFace.

I'm proud to say I've never tweeted (except after eating chili with lots of beans in it), and don't intend to start now 🙂

B
Click to expand...

Haha thats not really possible. Twitter is literally the status updates section of Facebook just taken out with a word limit put on it. If you put twitter into facebook...it would just be the same old facebook ha.
 
About 99% or more of the apps are either gimmicky, poor, or games.

I use the apple built in apps the most, followed by less than 10 third party apps that are actually good. Those apps are made by big companies like facebook or aol, and are cross platform on android or palm web os. So there's nothing really special about iphone apps tbh.
 
TomTom and Navigon GPS apps definitely are NOT gimmicks. I just came back from a 5 day vacation to Seattle/Vancouver using just the TomTom GPS app on my iPhone 4. Stuff like fart apps and other entertainment apps are gimmicks. Fun once, but not twice.
 
Everyone is going to find some apps that they find incredibly useful. For me it's things like ReittiGPS that can show me bus/train/subway/tram routes and times in Helsinki from my current location to home for example. Sure, I could just go to the website where the app gets it's info from but then I'd first have to figure out what street I'm on. The app makes it all easy and fast.

I'm sure there are many apps that would be useful for me, but finding them in the App Store is often difficult. They really need to add a 1-2 day try-it-before-you-buy-it mode to apps.
 
I'm a travel nurse and use a few of my iPhone apps daily, or multiple times a day...medical references like Epocrates, etc when I work...and when I'm off, Around Me is essential.
 
For the most part, I only purchase/download apps that are not gimmicks. Sure some of those apps may be cutesy, but generally what I have on my phone is apps that I use on a daily basis. Given that's the case, the volume of apps installed is probably a lot lower then many other users.
 
no proper apps are not gimmicks at all.

BUT most of them are, like a news app they should have do it as a web app there is no need for a dedicated install app when all could be done in the browser, this is the same for all the fassion apps, catalogue apps, weather apps, any type of rss/blog app, everyone of them should be web apps built on HTML5 and be able to be used cross platform.

It boggles my mind when companies spend money to make a useless app when they could have made an awesome web app and have it available to a far wider market than just one OS
 
no. I use RingItUp PRO everyday, being able to check daily,monthly,yearly or custom dates profit margins whenever, wherever is great 🙂
 
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