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Why We Are No Longer Developing for the iPad

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Re: Why We Are No Longer Developing for the iPad

#241

Post by walterbell »

Steko wrote: post #232
walterbell wrote: post #188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's more about what they don't do to help developers make money. A web search will find research papers on software ecosystems, which discuss best practices for mutually-reinforcing, virtuous circle, feedback loops between platforms and developers. Stardock's 2014 report touches on related topics, http://www.stardock.com/press/CustomerReports/Stardock2014.p...

For not helping developers make money, developers sure do make a lot of money on iOS compared to other mobile platforms.

How about comparing instead to money made by Apple, enabled by iOS developers?

Re: Why We Are No Longer Developing for the iPad

#242

Post by pistle »

Encosia wrote: post #139
javajosh wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've not heard of people running IntelliJ on a Surface. I'd be curious to know how well that works.

I run Visual Studio and Web/PhpStorm (essentially built on IntelliJ, I think?) on a Surface Pro 3 often. Mine's an i7 with 8gb RAM. More powerful than the 13" Ultrabook I replaced with it, and much more powerful than the MacBook I was using before the Ultrabook.

I have felt no pain on my i5 Surface Pro 3. It outperforms the decent rig my office provides. I run multiple instances of VS, leave stuff open all the time, massive Chrome tab abuse... The fans only come on while streaming video AND compiling, etc. It doesn't hiccup or grunt.

I wasn't 100% sold on the price/value ratio when I bought it, but now am totally happy I did. Great machine.

Re: Why We Are No Longer Developing for the iPad

#243

Post by tjl »

pedalpete wrote: post #160
csomar wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For general consumers, Microsoft is catching up. But Apple never really gained marketshare there because of its high prices. For Professionals, (especially software developers), I don't think so. OS X is still very superior to Windows. And the apps on OS X makes it worthwhile.

I work for a medium sized technology organisation (about 400 people) and lately you hear more and more developers talking about moving away from Mac. Most are going to linux some are picking up windows. I'd say it's about a 80-20 split. The thing I really notice is how everybody with a mac has a machine that is newer than two years. Those who are hitting the two year mark are experiencing hardware issues, particularl…

I have a laptop from mid-2009 that's still good (it's a white MacBook). The only problem I've had has been the battery bulging and Apple replaced them under Applecare with no problems. The last I had replaced out of warranty for no charge. It's slow, but everything still works. I used it for my main machine until late 2012 (when I bought an i7 Mac Mini) and was my portable machine until late 2013. My Mac Mini has been pretty heavily used since 2012.

Everyone in my department at the university who switched to a Mac has had good longevity, most lasting about 4-5 years until they decide they want a new machine (but the Mac still works). I had two Mac Minis in the lab, one a G4 Mac Mini from 2002 and the other a first-gen Intel Mac Mini (it came with 10.4, I don't recall the year). I used the Intel Mac Mini until I graduated in 2013 and had no problems at all.

So, anecdotes are just that. My department consistently has been moving to OS X. Probably about half the professors have switched when there was just 1 professor who used it in 2007. Even my supervisor didn't switch until about 2010. He's still using the same iMac he bought then. The labs mostly use Windows because of the data acquisition software only runs on it as they tend to have specialized equipment that only wrote Windows drivers.

Re: Why We Are No Longer Developing for the iPad

#244

Post by eridius »

walterbell wrote: post #240
eridius wrote: post #234

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because the people that care about design don't really care about the App Store (they care about products instead), and the people that run the App Store don't really have an incentive to try and make dramatic changes in something that, from their perspective, is wildly successful. Change might break things, especially when operating on the scale that Apple is (just think of what the load must be on the App Store).

Apple executive leadership is responsible for successful change in all departments, they could make this a priority if they wanted.

That's true. And if you care about this issue, you could try appealing to Apple executive leadership (emailing tim cook, or running a PR campaign designed to get Apple executive leadership to see your arguments).

Re: Why We Are No Longer Developing for the iPad

#245

Post by r00fus »

lukeschlather wrote: post #207
zmmmmm wrote: post #198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are lots of alternative solutions to share file systems between a VM and host ... is that all you're trying to solve? VirtualBox has it built in.

No, I'm also trying to share between my laptop and a remote server. (actually, I very rarely use VMs hosted locally)

I think you confused everyone with your terminology in your parent comment - "guest OS" is VM speak.

Re: Why We Are No Longer Developing for the iPad

#246

Post by tjl »

seanalltogether wrote: post #195
Steko wrote: post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can have the demo experience you're describing by unlocking the substantial content as a single IAP. It's not Hollywoods fault we got Transformers 3, it's the 50 million people who bought tickets to Transformers 2.

And now to complete the conversational loop and point out the problems of categorizing demos via IAP, I point you right back to my original comment.

You do realize that a full unlock via IAP is basically the shareware approach?

Just because something has IAP doesn't make it bad. One has to look at how the app uses IAP instead.

Re: Why We Are No Longer Developing for the iPad

#247

Post by tjl »

ThomPete wrote: post #172
briandear wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Trials? How much does a paid game cost; a few bucks? People really want a trial before they make a $1.99 investment? When you go to a restaurant, do you ask for a piece of steak before you actually order it? Do you get a trial of a movie before you buy a ticket? A trailer doesn't count because apps can have trailers too. Why is this trial obsession such a big deal for such cheap products? I personally would love to s…

Thats part of the problem though. Because there are no trials it's forcing down the prices the developers can charge for the games which again make them unsustainable and thus back to creating a very skewed distribution of income from the market 1-9-90 distribution and that's probably being nice to how the distribution goes given the 5000 apps being submitted each and every day.

One can use the shareware approach. Give away some levels and sell additional ones.

Re: Why We Are No Longer Developing for the iPad

#248

Post by marincounty »

mark_l_watson wrote: post #104

I think that becoming the most profitable company in the world has negatively impacted Apple, at least how I view them. I wrote the chess program given away free with the early Apple IIs, made some good money on a Mac app in 1984, and until recently favored Mac laptops: a fan boy. That is changing. I bought an incredibly cheap and underpowered Windows 8.1 laptop in January (HP Stream 11) for $199 and like it quite a…

My gripe with Apple is all these Operating system upgrades in iOS and OS X. I understand the need to change, and security is of utmost importance, but don't alienate your customer base with OS's that need hours of tweaking, and then you still have programs that don't work, and missing files. I can't imagine Steve Jobs would be running the ship this way. Are their products still the best-- yes, but the margin is closing in my little world.

Re: Why We Are No Longer Developing for the iPad

#250

Post by megablast »

pedalpete wrote: post #162
ryanSrich wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Until an OS comes along that rivals OSX, I'll stick with Apple. I'm one of the few people I know that really doesn't put a whole lot of thought into hardware. Yes I need my machine to run properly but as long as there's a baseline achievement of performance I'm good. Obviously I'd never be able to give up OSX for work purposes. Pretty much every piece of software I use is tied to OSX only.

What software are you using that is only on Mac? I'm surprised by this, as it seems most development software is available for all platforms these days.

Visual Studio and Microsoft Project mainly. But then Windows users don't get XCode.
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