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iPhone 6 makes it obvious why there is little investment in Android apps

oplix

oplix

Suspended
Original poster
Jun 29, 2008
1,460
487
New York, NY
Just take a look at the amount of bugs that Apple's new scaler software is causing for existing apps. Almost every single app in the store needs to be updated in some way or another to be fully compatible with iPhone 6. Some of these bugs are not even apparent until some critical functionality of an app is affected. This can be weeks, even months before the developers realize there are critical issues. By then, the damage has already been done.

That's just 1 new model of iPhone since the original that needs to use a scaler.

Now imagine the 1000 different android phones with different screen sizes, resolutions, and software versions. Imagine how enthusiastic app developers must be to constantly fix their Android apps to actually work on all the phones.

That's exactly how iOS developers feel right now. Developers invest their time and money into the iOS platform and they do so much more than on Android. That's likely because the "it just works" moniker also applies to the way apps are supposed to "just work" regardless of the changes Apple makes to their phones.

That's a big part of why Apple has been so successful. If it wasn't for the apps and their developers, there would be no iPhone right now. Apple owes most of it's success to the community of developers and users who buy their product.

The point here is - Apps are a for profit business. The developer calculates the time/money needed to invest into a platform vs the potential return. Just like any other business.

However, now the developers have no choice but to invest more time in fixing the apps. Sure, the big corporations and businesses probably have no issue paying an app developer to come up with timely fixes. What about the smaller guys that didn't see these issues coming?

Imagine the stress that some of these companies face now with this alpha stage scaler software. They might be losing thousands of dollars each day because "it just works" doesn't work anymore. Maybe they don't have the resources to fix everything right away. How does the public perception of these companies change because of Apple's failure to deliver a working solution?
 
I think I follow what you are saying. But developers have had access to iOS 8 development builds for months. If they are not ready to be fully compatible when iOS 8 is made public then who's fault is that?
 
Steve121178 said:
I think I follow what you are saying. But developers have had access to iOS 8 development builds for months. If they are not ready to delivery when iOS 8 is made public then who's fault is that?
Click to expand...

Incorrect. App developers had access to iOS 8, not iPhone 6. These are two separate issues. The fact this scaler software even exists proves this point without a shadow of doubt.
 
oplix said:
Incorrect. App developers had access to iOS 8, not iPhone 6. These are two separate issues.
Click to expand...

Developers knew that apps had to scale to different screen sizes, especially with iOS 8. Do developers still develop apps for a specific screen size? I thought most stopped this practice years ago.
 
Steve121178 said:
Developers knew that apps had to scale to different screen sizes, especially with iOS 8. Do developers still develop apps for a specific screen size? I thought most stopped this practice years ago.
Click to expand...

App developers had access to beta versions of iOS 8 which has nothing to do with iphone 6 hardware. I'm really failing to see any point here.
 
I understand in Xcode 6 Beta, there was no mention of the 3x resolution that Apple uses for their iPhone 6 and 6+. Therefore, developers can develop apps that is comparable using iOS8 API but not able to account for their display size.

That's why there's 2 different issues here.
 
Why do developers need access to the hardware specifically? Granted, it makes things easier, but it's a not a massive deal breaker when you can just use the previous model as a benchmark.
 
oplix said:
That's just 1 new model of iPhone since the original that needs to use a scaler.
Click to expand...
Why would the scaler be the issue? Its job is precisely to present a virtual display with the old resolution to older apps to prevent such problems, and it seems to be working fine. There are some other issues in iOS 8 that break compatibility, but I"m not aware of a case where the scaler is causing compatibility issues.

I think Apple has handled changing resolutions (first when the iPhone 5 was introduced, now with the 6 and 6+) rather well.
 
Exactly how is Apple supposed to progress in its hardware if they have to adhere to your line of thinking? The scaler does an adequate job. It cannot completely make up for the fact that the assets are not at the proper resolution for the device. Things advance and with that advancement compromises must be made. Apple is well balanced here. The Android world is the wild west and a completely different scale of problems.

The developers will adapt and survive. Many developers should first worry about the functionality and quality of their apps. Most apps on the app store are junk. The ones that are successful are that way for a reason... they deliver a quality product (free or paid). It's not like most developers have 100s of different apps they need to maintain. Most have 1... maybe 2 or 3. If you can't commit to keeping that single app up to date and continually enhanced you don't deserve great success.
 
oplix said:
App developers had access to beta versions of iOS 8 which has nothing to do with iphone 6 hardware. I'm really failing to see any point here.
Click to expand...

The iPhone simulator could emulate the screen size just fine, so there really is no need to have access to the hardware. The developers may have forgotten that the apps could be submitted for approval before iOS8 was released, and are now stuck waiting though.
 
Rigby said:
Why would the scaler be the issue? Its job is precisely to present a virtual display with the old resolution to older apps to prevent such problems, and it seems to be working fine. There are some other issues in iOS 8 that break compatibility, but I"m not aware of a case where the scaler is causing compatibility issues.

I think Apple has handled changing resolutions (first when the iPhone 5 was introduced, now with the 6 and 6+) rather well.
Click to expand...

Wow I guess you missed the part where 80+% of all existing apps are not functioning properly because of the scaler. This is what the actual thread is about...
 
fierp said:
The iPhone simulator could emulate the screen size just fine, so there really is no need to have access to the hardware. The developers may have forgotten that the apps could be submitted for approval before iOS8 was released, and are now stuck waiting though.
Click to expand...


The problem is not that the devs didn't have access to the iPhone 6 over the summer during the beta period. The problem is that Apple didn't tell anyone what the resolution of the new devices was going to be (nor did they even acknowledge that there were going to be new resolutions). The devs found out at the same time as everyone else on 9/12. Of course there was a lot of speculation that there were going to be larger phones with higher resolution displays, so hopefully they spent some time considering what work would be involved to update their apps, but actually doing any work to update their apps isn't easy when you don't know exactly what resolutions you will need to support. I'm guessing that most devs didn't start doing any significant updates until about two weeks ago when everything was confirmed.
 
With the "old way" of writing iOS (pre iOS 6) software, you'd be correct. However, when you use the auto-layout feature of Xcode, it makes your app work on any screen size with minimal tweaking.

Android has something like this, too, and it's really not a reason why software for Android is so much more fragmented than iOS.
 
fierp said:
The iPhone simulator could emulate the screen size just fine, so there really is no need to have access to the hardware. The developers may have forgotten that the apps could be submitted for approval before iOS8 was released, and are now stuck waiting though.
Click to expand...

Are you crazy?

----------
thejadedmonkey said:
With the "old way" of writing iOS (pre iOS 6) software, you'd be correct. However, when you use the auto-layout feature of Xcode, it makes your app work on any screen size with minimal tweaking.

Android has something like this, too, and it's really not a reason why software for Android is so much more fragmented than iOS.
Click to expand...

Really? What is the reason then.
 
oplix said:
Wow I guess you missed the part where 80+% of all existing apps are not functioning properly because of the scaler.
Click to expand...
Can you substantiate this claim? Not my experience. And none of the apps that I wrote has any compatibility issues caused by the display scaling.
 
Rigby said:
Can you substantiate this claim? Not my experience. And none of the apps that I wrote has any compatibility issues caused by the display scaling.
Click to expand...

Even Facebook app has this problem dude. Where are you basing YOUR claim from?
 
oplix said:
Wow I guess you missed the part where 80+% of all existing apps are not functioning properly because of the scaler. This is what the actual thread is about...
Click to expand...

I have about 85 apps and all of them are functioning properly. Where are you getting the 80% from? Source?
 
Steve121178 said:
I have about 85 apps and all of them are functioning properly. Where are you getting the 80% from? Source?
Click to expand...

Facebook, 1Password, etc etc etc. Dude it's not hard to grasp the fact that **** is broken. Why are you giving push back on this issue as if it doesn't exist?
 
oplix said:
Facebook, 1Password, etc etc etc. Dude it's not hard to grasp the fact that **** is broken. Why are you giving push back on this issue as if it doesn't exist?
Click to expand...

I don't use 1Password so I can't comment. What is broken in Facebook? I've been using it daily since iOS 8 was made available and it works as it should. Admittedly it's a crap app and always has been, but it does work. Tell me what is busted and I will try and see where you are coming from.
 
Steve121178 said:
I don't use 1Password so I can't comment. What is broken in Facebook? I've been using it daily since iOS 8 was made available and it works as it should. Admittedly it's a crap app and always has been, but it does work. Tell me what is busted and I will try and see where you are coming from.
Click to expand...

Ok so you really don't know then.

Open Facebook App, go to your profile, Status update, attach photo. Third column is halfway cut off.
 
oplix said:
Ok so you really don't know then.

Open Facebook App, go to your profile, Status update, attach photo. Third column is halfway cut off.
Click to expand...

Yes the 3rd column is slightly cut off on my screen. I wouldn't call it broken. Give it time, eventually the apps will update and things will be fine. This happens pretty frequently for early adopters of any new device. It took a long time for all of my apps to update to the new iPhone 5 screen size when it first came out. Even after iOS 7 came out in September 2013, there were apps updated in January 2014 that were still using the old iOS 6 keyboard. While some apps may have some things not scaled properly or cut off (facebook photo upload is the first one i've noticed), nothing I have seen from the app store is completely unusable.
 
oplix said:
Wow I guess you missed the part where 80+% of all existing apps are not functioning properly because of the scaler. This is what the actual thread is about...
Click to expand...

Which 80% of apps are not functioning because of the scaler?
Do you have any clear evidence that so many apps aren't working and do you have any clear evidence that this is due to the scaler rather than one of the many, many other bugs in iOS 8?
 
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