Is it just me or have apps gone UP not DOWN?

[el-John-o]

Hey all,

Sorry if this is the wrong forum, but I'm new here and didn't see a more appropriate one. If I had to pick among the iDevice subcategories, I find the iPad folks to be most subjective and factual than the others (in my 2 days on this forum, hah.)

Anyway, when Steve Jobs released the iPhone 4 he talked briefly about the App store, he said "Before the App Store there was no place for free apps". In my head I blurted out "The Internet."

As a long time Windows Mobile User, I'm having a hard time getting used to all of these apps being paid. Games and stuff yeah, but utilities of all types were traditionally free on the Windows Mobile (and Palm OS which I've used) platform. Even now though, WM apps are starting to charge. For one, it's super easy. Before, some developer made a utility they thought people could use, probably because THEY needed it, and shared it. Now, you basically have a no-brainer option of "Would you like to make money?" With the way the App Store works, so I think a LOT more apps cost (even if just a buck) that would probably have otherwise been free.

I'm not totally against it, I mean these folks do something we couldn't do, otherwise we'd do it. They deserve the money, but I wanted to just discuss what this means for the future of apps. Do you think Apple will step up and start adding functionality that these utilities bring? Or do you think the open source community could jump in?

Thoughts?

John

 

[Ciclismo]

To be honest, I look at it the same way as the free-ware vs. share-ware (vs. the big guys). There's a lot of great software that is cheap or free, and there's a lot of crap that is nicely packaged and sold for too much (in the case of some very cheap software, they are so crap that even free would be too expensive). Apps just seems to be the new way to package add-ons and small software utensils that would have previously been calle free- or share-ware. And often the really good stuff eventually becomes part of the OS.

 

[el-John-o]

To be honest, I look at it the same way as the free-ware vs. share-ware (vs. the big guys). There's a lot of great software that is cheap or free, and there's a lot of crap that is nicely packaged and sold for too much (in the case of some very cheap software, they are so crap that even free would be too expensive). Apps just seems to be the new way to package add-ons and small software utensils that would have previously been calle free- or share-ware. And often the really good stuff eventually becomes part of the OS.

Well, I'll tell you what made me think of it (then looking through the App store re-affirmed it) is the jailbreak app MiWi. I have a free app on my WM phone, (and there are several available) that turn it into a hotspot, works great, fast, never had a problem. That's one of those problem -> solution -> share the solution situations, the app I have was something some guy made because he couldn't find a good one so he made one himself. No app store approval or anything else (or easy temptation to easily charge) just post it on download.com or (whatever the source was) and share it with the world.

I have never paid for a WinMo app yet I can do alot with it, with a lot of great, useful, free apps. However, I'll take the good with the bad with the milestones of improvement that iOS has over Windows Mobile.

 

[Sherifftruman]

Then again, tons of WinMo games and apps are super expensive. Like .99 for iPhone and 9.99 for WinMo version.