So… yesterday, when I found the link to get early access to the iPhone 2.0 software, of course I tried it and loaded it up right away. (Yes, I am that guy.)
I then proceeded to download a bunch of apps to my phone.
Now there are just some apps that I don’t get why they are apps. For example, there is Facebook and the New York Times. Their iPhone apps are almost exactly the same as their iPhone Web site.
As the implementations of mobile Web browsers improve across mobile phones, increasing the use of new Web technologies (better CSS and JavaScript), there is a chance you’ll be able to use the iPhone Web site again.
I can’t imagine that Apple will ever license the iPhone OS so you’ll never be able to see your iPhone app used on anything but an iPhone.
Now I can understand Sega’s Super Monkeyball. That is a REALLY fun game for the iPhone. I can’t imagine you’ll be able to do that with a browser for a long long long time so I understand if you wanna make that an iPhone app.
But… why does Twitteriffic need to be an iPhone app? Didn’t we get EXACTLY the same thing with Hahlo? Actually, I think Hahlo has more and better functionality.
With iPhone 3G, a lot of the speed, responsiveness, and interactivity issues with iPhone Web sites should be resolved.
Yeah… so when you start to think about time and resources around whether your company should build an iPhone app, ask yourself whether or not you’re doing it because it’s cool or you’ll get a lot of people to use it.
Am I crazy? What do you think?
7 responses so far ↓
Shaun // July 11, 2008 at 9:06 am
You have to love the WMATA iPhone app. http://livinginthedistrict.com/2008/07/11/wmata-iphone-app/ I wonder if it works in the Metro? hahahaa
Nicholas Pike // July 11, 2008 at 9:44 am
Can you upload pictures to TwitPic from Hahlo? Can you have your tweets encoded with location information from Hahlo? Does Hahlo stricly conform to the iPhone UI style?
Zvi Band // July 13, 2008 at 9:13 pm
I’ve been wondering the same thing myself - which is part of the reason I have shrugged off the iPhone SDK. There has been a whole lot of buzz about building able to build applications for the iPhone, while at the same time general desktop applications are being replaced with web-based counterparts.
Unless you are building an application that needs to be a non-browser based app (for example, requiring access to the system’s GPS), why not just build a web app?
Jesse Thomas // July 14, 2008 at 5:13 am
monkey balls is a bit hard to play.. and could you imagine playing that in the glare of the sun light? I havent gotten far enough in the game to get to this perhaps. but my favorite part of monkey balls on the Wii is that you get to play so many different games. I havent seen any levels so far other than the wheel roll game.
it would make alot more sense if the apps could be used on more devices.
Amyloo // July 17, 2008 at 10:03 pm
I’ve had the same thought, but maybe the pivotal thing is the distribution channel, the iTunes App Store. It’s really slick, and fun to get free stuff that way, makes you *think* you’re getting something more valuable than just a web site?
Congrats to Digg for NOT Making an iPhone App! « Oatmeal Stout - Justin Thorp’s Web 2.0 blog // August 1, 2008 at 9:23 am
[...] August 1, 2008 · No Comments Seems like a lot of companies are jumping on the “We have to create an iPhone App bandwagon”, whether it makes sense or not. [...]
42DOH // August 14, 2008 at 2:31 am
anyone know a good place to start to research developing apps? I’m not looking to create the next killer app. Just has some fun ideas that I’d love to see to fruition.
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